Chicken & Vegetables in Foil Packets

shiny vegetables and garlicky raw chicken! yay!

This is one of my favorite recipes to make, mainly because it's easy and healthy, but also because anyone I have ever made it for has absolutely loved it. The chicken is incredibly tender and moist, the vegetables are tasty and well-steamed, and the whole thing takes less than an hour. It's a perfect weeknight dinner.

I made it just a few days ago when I was still in Baltimore, so the recipe below is designed to serve four people (one packet per person). The great thing about cooking chicken and vegetables in foil packets, however, is that it is easily customizable to the number of people you want to feed.  I've made this with all sorts of different vegetable combinations (you don't have to limit yourself to the vegetables I've used) and it would also be delicious made on the grill in the summer. I served this with quinoa on the side, but you could easily use rice or couscous, too. The food tends to be really juicy when it comes out of the packet, so having something on the side to catch all the flavor enhances the dinner as a whole, I think.

I really approximated the amounts I used in this recipe, so if you're the kind of person who wants exact measurements, this may not be the one for you. I find that this recipe lends itself to a bit of experimentation, so try different amounts of seasoning, oil, or flavor and see what works.  When I've made chicken in foil packets in the past, I've marinated the chicken in about 3/4 of a cup of Italian salad dressing, which also works well.

Chicken & Vegetables in Foil Packets
total time: 1 hourish but can be more, depending on how long you want to marinate the chicken
total hands on time: 10ish minutes

4 chicken breasts
4 large (about 2 feet long) pieces of aluminum foil
1 container of grape or cherry tomatoes
3 shallots or 1 onion, sliced
2-3 small red potatoes, diced
2 cups of snap peas
1 leek, sliced
1 lemon, quartered
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
seasoning mix
salt and pepper to taste

For marinade:
olive oil
seasoning mix
lemon juice
garlic

1. Marinate chicken for at least one hour in your chosen marinade. For this recipe, I rubbed the four chicken breasts in salt, pepper and garlic, then marinated them in olive oil mixed with rosemary seasoning and a splash of lemon juice. The marinade shouldn't completely cover the chicken, but you can flip the pieces from time to time so everything gets flavored.

2. Preheat oven to 450.

3. Prepare vegetables by slicing, dicing, and chopping. Combine in one bowl, add a few glugs of olive oil, and a few tsps of balsamic vinegar. Mix to coat. Add in salt, pepper, and the seasoning mix of your choice; mix and make sure all of the vegetables are well-coated and well-seasoned.

4. Place one chicken breast in each length of foil. Cover chicken with 1/4 of vegetable mixture, letting the vegetable mixture spill out onto the foil. Squeeze one quarter of lemon on top of chicken and vegetables, then place on top to bake inside the packet.

5. Fold the packet over itself (as seen). You should have a large square with the food in the middle, but with plenty of room on all sides. Fold the edges of each packet carefully to create a tight seal on each edge.

6. Place packets in oven and bake for 30-35 minutes. Be careful when taking out of the oven. To open to packet, simply cut a slit with a knife or take apart one of the sealed edges.

7. Pour contents of packet onto a plate (take out the lemon, of course) and eat!

One-Pot: Rotisserie Chicken, Asparagus and Couscous

I like rotisserie chickens for several reasons, not the least of which is because they smell amazing at all points of contact: in the store, in the car on the way home, and in the kitchen. I've been known to impulse buy them at the supermarket, just because I walked past and accidentally got a whiff of honey-barbecue. They're also quite useful for those of us who are too lazy to regularly roast chickens on our own, and it's easy to make the meat of one chicken last for several days' worth of meals. The particular chicken used in this recipe also provided us with taco meat, and I'm planning on using it for chicken chilaquiles tonight, as well.

Anyway, I made this recipe for dinner the other night, adapted from here. My main adaptations were eliminating parsley, adding spinach and using couscous-from-a-box. I will definitely make this again, as it's fast, easy and surprisingly tasty (for how simple it is). It's especially good for summer, I think; filling, but light enough to eat at the end of a long hot day. Also, light enough to eat at the beginning of a long hot night when your swamp cooler is partially broken....

One Pot: Rotisserie Chicken, Asparagus and Couscous

Ingredients:
total time: approx 20 min
total hands on time: 20 min

1 box of couscous mix (I used Near East Parmesan mix)
3-5 green onions
1/2 a bunch of asparagus, chopped into 1 in pieces
1 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsps butter (I always use SmartBalance)
1 1/4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
few handfuls of fresh baby spinach
few handfuls of shredded rotisserie chicken

1. Make the couscous according the directions on the box.
2. While the couscous is cooking, chop the green onions and the asparagus.


3. Melt the butter in a saucepan on medium-low and add the white and light green parts of the onions. Cook until wilted.
4. Add the broth and a little bit of salt and pepper. Turn the heat up and bring to a boil.
5. Add asparagus and a few handfuls of baby spinach. Bring to a boil.
6. Add the couscous and chicken, then turn the heat off and let sit, covered, for 3-4 minutes.
7. Stir in the lemon juice, green parts of the onions, and serve!




Please forgive the picture quality, as these were taken on my phone. This may be the first in a series of posts on "one pot" meals: would you guys like to see more recipes like this? Let us know!

Quick & Easy Meal

If you're looking for a quick & easy Saturday night meal, I made this for dinner a few nights ago. With only 4 ingredients (not counting salt & pepper), chances are you have everything you need for this sitting in your kitchen right now!* FYI, the chicken was perfectly cooked, and tasted terrific over a box of Goya Mexican Rice.

All credit goes to Kristin of Cheap Healthy Good. Check out her interesting feed-my-fiancee-for-a-week on-$25 experiment, going on right now.

*Note to New Mexicans: If you can, use the El Pinto Medium Salsa that comes in the really big jar--perfect seasoning.