Lemon Chicken Packet

Okay, this started off as just regular lemon chicken. But I went grocery shopping today, and -- well, things got out of hand.

First, rediscover your chicken, now thawed through the marvellous magic of putting it in the fridge for 24 hours. Yay! I also discovered that my plan of using the rest of last night's roast vegetables might have a flaw; namely, I've been nibbling on them all day. So there's not much leftovers left. Whoops. Hence the sudden addition of the onion, yellow pepper, zucchini (or "courgette" if you're feeling fancy) and tin foil.

Something in your head is now saying "Wait a second, those flavours don't really go together with sweet potato...." You're right. If you're making this from scratch, then make a cup of rice to replace the roast vegetables. If you're me, damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead.

Alors, to the oven! 375 degrees again, please.



Put this together on a cookie sheet, preferably one with a raised edge (I think some people call them "jelly roll tins"). Lay out a piece of tin foil; you're going to be wrapping this around a chicken breast and lot of veg, so make it big. Take your thankfully-thawed chicken breast and slice a pocket in it. Mix half a teaspoon of salt with half a teaspoon of ground pepper, and rub this all over the outside of the chicken breast AND the inside of the pocket. Take an angled slice of lemon and put it in the pocket, and you're done with chicken-wrangling.

Now get busy with the veg. I cut the zucchini and the yellow pepper in strips, but left the onion a little chunkier. Place another slice of lemon right on top of the chicken, and then pile the rest of the vegetables on top. If you're a salt nut, you might want to sprinkle more on at this point, and this could also be pretty good with rosemary or some other herb. But generally, everything in this is pretty clean and bright, so just having lemon and salt and pepper will keep it that way.

The wrapping is a bit tricky, and one of the big reasons I like doing this in foil rather than in parchment. The easiest way is to bring the longest opposing sides up vertically, so it's almost forming a sling, then roll and crimp down towards the chicken. Then crimp the sides up to make it watertight. However you do it, it should sort of look like this.

Why include that photo of the unused bits? Mostly for thinking. Right now, I'm thinking that the yellow pepper half and the onion half would be really good in an omelette. The zucchini's probably the easiest of the bunch, because zucchini grilled or sauteed with garlic or onion or squash is incredibly delicious as a side. The lemon... I don't know. I'm leaning towards using it to make iced tea. Yeah, it's winter, and yeah I could probably use the lemon for drinks OTHER than tea... Hm. Well, I'll think about the lemon. The omelette's totally happening, though. (Chicken, obviously, can be almost anything, but also needs to be used ASAP, given it's from frozen.)

Hey, 30 minutes is up! Time to de-mummify the chicken....

Tongs are useful things. For one, they will stop you from getting burned horribly by the steam coming off of this packet (wafting, at left). They will also allow you to pick up all the veggie bits out of the lemony chicken juice left at the bottom of the tinfoil. Sadly, the juice is not delicious.

If you forgot to cook the rice, then STOP UNWRAPPING THE CHICKEN! It'll stay hot for a while if still wrapped (see: steam). Go make rice.

Transfer the chicken and bits to a plate. Leave the watery tin foil.

And now you're either ready to eat, or you garnish with the rice of your choice. The chicken is lovely and moist, everything is lemony (though don't bite into the lemon or you'll be sorry), the vegetables are perfectly steamed, and the only thing I'd really think of adding is maybe some sort of garlic. Possibly in the form of garlic salt, because I really can't see how garlic would do well being steamed in a packet. That just seems a recipe for evil.

Anyhow, it's a good base for further experimentation. For obvious reasons, when choosing vegetables to add in, stay away from anything that you can't readily eat raw, like potatoes (though carrots in this could be very nice.... hm). There's a possibility that you could use only the pocket lemon, then do thin strips of carrot and leek with rosemary and some balsamic vinegar.... Hm. Point is, it's relatively easy, pretty inexpensive, pretty damn quick.

And can even look nice, unless you do what I did, which is offensive to the eye (but delicious nonetheless).

Ah, roasted vegetables. You are a blessing and a curse. Check back for a chicken recipe that WILL go with root vegetables later.