The recipe for the chicken packets comes from a book entitled Simply Quick and Easy by Richard Ash. I think the book was published originally in the UK because some of the recipes call for strange ingredients like black bean sauce and such. That and I looked up the publisher--decidedly British. Luckily, the recipes in the book have been Americanized. Not that I couldn't decipher them if they were still in their British form; I recently bought a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook at Half-Price Books, and in the back of the book is a metric conversion table. No more puzzling over how to convert grams of flour to cups! Anyway, here it is:
Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
6 skinless chicken breast fillets (I did five because they were huge)
One fresh mozzarella ball, sliced into half-moon pieces (about two per chicken breast)
Four zucchini/summer squash, sliced into rounds (I used three green zucchini and one yellow zucchini for some color)
Six tomatoes, sliced (I used romas, but you could probably use any kind of tomato you like)
Black pepper (I used a grinder full of black peppercorns from ALDI)
Basil, sliced into thin strips (about two leaves per chicken fillet)
Rice or pasta to serve (I obviously made the rolls instead, but we thought it would be cool to try the pasta because then you could spoon the cooked veggies over the pasta when the packets are done cooking)
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut one piece of foil for each chicken breast (roughly 10 inches square, according to the book, but I just sort of eyeballed it, and it turned out okay for me). Brush the shiny side of each piece with oil.
2. Make slashes in each chicken breast (no real guidelines for depth here--I'd say mine were anywhere from one inch to 1.5 inches deep, depending on the size of the fillet). Place one mozzarella slice and a pinch of basil in each slash.
3. Divide the squash and tomatoes equally between each piece of foil (shiny side up). Sprinkle with salt and black pepper.
4. Place a chicken breast on each bed of vegetables, then wrap up each packet (not too tight and not too loose).
5. Put the packets on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes (ours cooked for close to 45 minutes, though, so it depends on your oven--check after 30, though, just to be sure).
Note: The reason you put the ingredients on the shiny side of the foil is so that the dull side is exposed during cooking. This ensures that the heat from the oven is absorbed by the foil and not reflected away. Physics at work! Furthermore, it would be a good idea to try to get chicken breasts that are all about the same size to ensure that they are all done at the same time. The bigger fillets were perfect, but I had a smaller one that was just creeping into dry territory. Another thing to watch out for is the packets themselves. There will be a lot of juice in them, so be careful not to spill, or you might end up with liquid all over the table and your lap. This did not happen to us, but I'm just giving you fair warning. In addition, you should open the packets when they are done and let them cool for a bit (I'd say five minutes or so) before you dig in. All that juice (which is mostly water) will be very hot, so there's not much worry of the dish getting cold in those five minutes. It will just be less scalding and safer to eat.
This is another great recipe for young people because it is fairly hands-off and flexible. Once all of the ingredients are prepped, it takes less than 30 seconds to assemble each packet. And while this version was decidedly Italian, you could really make it any way you like. I thought that next time, it might be fun to try a Greek variation with feta cheese and oregano instead of mozzarella and basil. You could cook some eggplant and kalamata olives in the packet along with the zucchini and tomatoes and serve it with orzo or maybe just pitas and hummus. Another idea--presented to me by my mom--was Southwestern/Tex-Mex chicken packets, with cojita or queso fresco and some jalapeño peppers along with black beans and the tomatoes. You could top the finished chicken with salsa, guacamole, sour cream, and freshly chopped lettuce alongside some Spanish rice or tortilla chips.
The Florentine roll recipe comes from Better Homes and Gardens magazine, specifically the May 2005 issue, which featured the winners of a contest in which new recipes using spinach were to be submitted. This recipe was created by Ms. Nancy Thompson from Seattle, WA. Mom made this recipe a couple of times before, but we hadn't eaten them in a long time, and I was craving them. Here's the link to the recipe if you would like to view it for yourself: http://www.bhg.com/recipe/breads/easy-florentine-rolls/.
Ingredients:
4 finely chopped green onions
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil (roughly)
About two cups of baby spinach
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped (I did thin slices again)
Salt
Ground black pepper (again with the pepper grinder from ALDI)
One can of Pillsbury pizza dough
1/4 cup crumbled Feta cheese
2 tbsp pine nuts (I basically eyeballed this one, too)
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit (we cooked ours at 400 degrees because the rolls went in while the chicken was cooking; even so, the rolls took about 17 minutes in our oven). Grease the cups in a 12-cup muffin tin (I used Pam spray). Cook the green onions and garlic in a pan on medium-high until tender, then add the basil and spinach, sauteing until the spinach is wilted. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and stir.
2. Unroll the pizza dough to roughly 8 x 12 inches, working on a well-floured surface (read: use an apron to avoid looking like you got into a fight with the Pillsbury dough boy). Spread the spinach mixture to within one inch of the sides of the dough (again, estimate...which is something I always hated doing as a left-brained person, but I'm getting used to it). Sprinkle with the feta cheese and pine nuts. Roll the dough into a spiral from the long side (think "hot dog," not "hamburger," for those of us who remember folding paper from elementary school).
3. Slice the roll into 12 pieces. I really liked using a serrated bread knife. I got great cutting action without crushing the pieces and spilling the contents onto the cutting board. Obviously, having the roll be 12 inches long makes it pretty easy to divide evenly into 12 pieces--just estimate about an inch per piece. Place each piece cut side up in its own muffin cup (obviously, this is more important for the end pieces, which only have one cut side--the others have two, so don't worry over which one is the cut side). Brush each roll with olive oil and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
4. Bake approximately 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown. Side note: I love directions that say "until golden brown" because anything that turns out golden brown when it's done is most likely fantastically delicious. Let stand for about two minutes before serving (longest two minutes of my life).
Note: These are so bomb, and I could eat them till I was sick. Also, there will be some rolls that have less filling than others--that's okay. Uniformity is highly overrated, anyway. Remember high school? Yeah, that applies here, too. Variety is the spice of life! On a more boring note, the directions from BHG say to brush the dough with oil before spreading the spinach mixture, but I skipped that part, and they still turned out okay. You can also toast the pine nuts in a pan before you sprinkle them on the dough, but I skipped this too, and I don't think the flavor really suffered at all. The recipe also calls for brushing the rolls with butter before sprinkling with Parmesan cheese, but I try to use butter as sparingly as possible because it's pretty unhealthful (I know, I know. It's shocking, but I'm just telling you that for your own good. This is a place of learning, and I am your sarcastic-but-well-meaning teacher). End of boring notes.
Overall, I got really positive reviews from the family. I especially enjoyed the Florentine rolls because they had just the right balance of salty, tangy (from the feta cheese), buttery (from the oil), cheesy, and yeasty (from the pizza dough). The rolls turned out the perfect size. I unabashedly ate three of them (make this recipe and try one before you judge!). This dinner in particular is another that I will relish making in the summer, when we have fresh vegetables and herbs from our biweekly CSA box. I am just so pleased with these recipes because I felt so relaxed and in my element making them. I think that calm and comfort really came out in the finished product. I am a firm believer that you can taste how the cook is feeling in the food he or she makes--like that book Like Water for Chocolate. My mom's food always tastes like love and comfort because I know she takes pride and joy in cooking for her family. I think I could taste some stress last week in the chicken, but this week, it was all satisfaction and happiness. Call me crazy, but maybe it's just those Italian genes talking.
Until next time, ciao!
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| This was one of the smaller pieces. I like how you can see the red, yellow, and green of the veggies poking out from beneath the chicken. Pretty and tasty! Photo enhanced with Instagram filtering. |
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| Heaven in roll form. I'm fairly certain that I could eat these every night and never get tired of them. Photo enhanced with Instagram filtering. |
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