320/365 a what's for dinner work in progress...

Mediterranean Chicken Parcels

I bought a new chicken recipe book today from Indigo

that was on sale...

that might have been a warning sign

but I flip through and find a few different ones that look good

and very easy

this may have been another warning sign

I started with the Chicken Parcels as I thought Kaeden would get a kick out of having an individual meal in a foil packet. What's that saying about good intentions...

anyways I will share the ingredients and the how as the finished product was very good and will also share at the end how I am going to try to make this next time...

ingredients:

Olive Oil *6 skinless/boneless chicken breasts* 2 cups sliced mozzarella cheese*3 1/2 cups sliced zucchini*4 large tomatoes sliced*salt*pepper* I also used a titch of greek seasoning from Epicure*small bunch of torn fresh basil leaves*

the how:

PREHEAT oven to 400 degrees

CUT 6 pieces of tin foil (approx. 12 inches square), spray with olive oil PAM (or lightly brush with olive oil) SET aside.

DIVIDE the tomatoes and zucchini between the pieces of foil, season with salt, pepper, greek seasoning

SCATTER basil over the vegetables (in each package)

MEANWHILE make slash marks in intervals on each chicken breast (use a sharp knife but be careful you don't cut all the way through)

PLACE the sliced Mozzarella between the cuts in the chicken (I made about 3-4 slashes per chicken breast).

PLACE a piece of chicken (with the cheese) on top of each vegetable package

WRAP in the foil to enclose the chicken and vegetables

PLACE on a cookie sheet and BAKE for 45 minutes (recipe said 30 minutes and I chose to go longer as my tin foil packages seemed quite big).

**** this is where it goes sideways, when we opened the packages, the chicken was very white (like it was poached) and not quite cooked and there was lots of liquid.

we left the packages open and cooked them for another 15 minutes trying to brown & cook the chicken and decrease some of the liquid.

It was very flavourful and if you like basil and chicken, then this will probably be a keeper.

Next time I am going to dump the tin foil packages & lay the vegetables, basil on my stoneware bar pan (I am sure a cookie sheet or a roasting pan would work the same) drizzle with olive oil & place the chicken on top and bake for 30 minutes.

I will let you know how it goes!

** recipe adapted from Easy Chicken, by Love Food books, pg 121