Poulet en Papillote and Roasted Carrots & Radishes

This is such an incredibly easy, healthy and absurdly delicious way to cook chicken.  En Papillote "In Parchment" is a french technique where food is cooked in a parcel.  It is so wonderful because it keeps in the moisture and you can really taste the difference in the chicken.  I found this recipe on the Sophistimom blog and I knew I had to try it!  Start with parchment paper and then you can put just about anything in there; I know a lot of people are using this technique to cook their Thanksgiving turkeys since it is generally such a dry meat.  Anyways I encourage everyone to try it!  I served the chicken with roasted carrots and radishes.  I have really been into radishes lately; it is such an overlooked vegetable but they really offer such a peppery and unique flavor.

Poulet en Papillote
Serves 4

Ingredients

1lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 shallot, thinly sliced (a sweet onion would be fine to)
a couple sprigs of thyme
fresh tarragon if you have it, I didn't and used a pinch of dried
olive oil
salt & pepper
parchment paper

Method

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Place cleaned chicken a large sheet of parchment paper on a roasting pan.  Drizzle with olive oil and use a brush to make sure it's totally covered.  Cover with shallot, thyme, tarragon and salt & pepper.  Roll parchment paper into a pouch and try to make sure it's air tight (you want to make sure to keep in all the moisture).  Cook for 25-35 minutes depending on the size of your chicken.  Remove and serve hot.


Roasted Carrots & Radishes
Serves 4

Ingredients

6-8 carrots, sliced into large medallions (my carrots were too thin for medallions so I just cut into pieces)
1 bunch of radishes, halved or quartered depending on size
olive oil
sea salt

Method

Since I already have the oven at 350 for the chicken I just left it at that but if you're just roasting vegetables I'd turn it up to 400 degrees.  Toss sliced carrots and radishes in a bowl with olive oil until completely covered; sprinkle generously with salt.  Lay flat on a baking pan.   Bake for 15 minutes and flip or give pan a good shake.  Roast for another 10-15 minutes or until browned but now burned.