Gordon Ramsay’s chilli beef lettuce wraps are crispy seasoned mince with ginger, garlic, and fish sauce, spooned into cold baby gem leaves and finished with a sweet chilli dressing. Ready in 20 minutes from his Ultimate Cookery Course.
In the book he writes “be bold and take it further than you’ve ever dared before” when talking about browning the mince. On the show he explains why: mince is made from cheap cuts like brisket, belly, and short rib, so frying it hard is the only way to build real flavour.
The move that holds this dish together is draining the browned mince through a sieve before it goes back in the pan. That keeps everything crispy so nothing goes soggy when the fish sauce and lime juice hit.
Gordon Ramsay Chilli Beef Lettuce Wraps
Course: Starter, DinnerCuisine: AsianDifficulty: Easy4
servings10
minutes10
minutes380
kcal20
minutesCrispy pork and beef mince with chilli, ginger, and fish sauce from Ramsay’s Ultimate Cookery Course, served in baby gem leaves with a sweet soy and lime dressing. Serves 4.
Ingredients
- For the mince:
200g (7 oz) lean minced beef
200g (7 oz) minced pork
Olive oil, for frying
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
5cm (2 in) fresh root ginger, finely chopped
1-2 red chillies, deseeded and chopped
1 tbsp light brown sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce
Zest of 1 lime, plus the juice
3 spring onions, trimmed and chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 little gem lettuces, separated into leaves
- For the dressing:
1 tbsp soy sauce
Juice of ½ lime
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp olive oil
½ red chilli, thinly sliced
Small bunch of coriander leaves, chopped
1-2 tsp fish sauce, to taste
1 tsp light brown sugar
Directions
- Season and fry the mince: Mix the beef and pork mince together in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper and mix well so the seasoning is evenly distributed. Heat a large frying pan with a little olive oil until smoking hot. Fry the mince for 5–7 minutes, breaking it up with a spoon, until crisp, deeply browned, and broken down to a fine consistency. Drain through a sieve and set aside.
- Cook the aromatics: Wipe the pan clean. Add a tablespoon of toasted sesame oil over medium heat. Add the garlic, ginger, and chilli with a pinch of salt and the brown sugar. Fry for 2 minutes until fragrant and starting to caramelise.
- Combine and finish: Add the drained mince back to the pan and stir to mix. Add the fish sauce and heat through. Stir in the lime zest and juice, then add the spring onions, stirring for 30 seconds. Take off the heat.
- Make the dressing: Mix the soy sauce, lime juice, sesame oil, olive oil, sliced chilli, chopped coriander, fish sauce, and brown sugar together in a small bowl. Adjust to taste.
- Serve: Spoon the hot mince into the baby gem lettuce leaves, drizzle with a little dressing, and let everyone help themselves.
FAQs
Why mix beef and pork mince together?
Ramsay uses 200g of each because the pork adds fat the lean beef needs. In the video he says “the pork needs to sit in there otherwise the beef’s going to dry out.”
That fat renders out during the hard fry, which is why you drain it afterwards. You get the flavour without the greasiness.
Just beef still works, but it will be noticeably drier. His spicy beef salad uses the same lime and fish sauce base but with sliced steak instead of mince.
Why drain the mince through a sieve?
After 5-7 minutes of hard frying, there is a lot of rendered fat in the pan. Leaving it in makes everything greasy and soft.
Tipping it into a sieve pulls out the fat while keeping the crispy bits. Ramsay then wipes the pan, adds fresh sesame oil, and builds the aromatics separately.
When the mince goes back in it stays crunchy even after the fish sauce and lime hit it.
Why add brown sugar to the aromatics?
Not for sweetness. The sugar hits the hot sesame oil with the chilli, garlic, and ginger and caramelises them in about two minutes.
That creates a sticky glaze that coats the mince when it goes back in. Without it the aromatics just sit loose. With it you get those charred, sweet-savoury edges that make it taste like street food.
Why baby gem and not iceberg?
Ramsay picks baby gem because the leaves are small enough to hold in one hand and strong enough not to collapse. He says on the show they are “really nice and durable, quite strong.”
Iceberg is wide, floppy, and full of water. Baby gem gives you a natural cup shape that holds the filling without falling apart.
Little gem or baby cos both work if your shop does not stock baby gem. A green papaya salad or soba noodle salad pair well alongside.
Does this store well?
The mince keeps in the fridge for two days and reheats in a hot pan with a splash of water. The fish sauce and sugar tighten up when cold so it needs loosening.
The assembled wraps do not store at all. Hot mince on cold lettuce starts wilting immediately. Make the mince ahead if you want, but always build them at the table.
That is how Ramsay serves it on the show: mince in one bowl, dressing in another, leaves around the outside. If you want something heartier from the same kitchen, his chilli con carne is the slower version with kidney beans and cinnamon.
