15 Minute Chicken Breasts with Rosemary and Spinach in the Foil

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Today we have one of the basic French recipes – chicken breasts, steamed in the foil. It’s considered basic because we’re cooking using a minimum of ingredients. And in this case, we are focusing more on the method of cooking rather than preparation of some unique, tricky dish.

Anyway, the ‘basicness’ of this recipe absolutely won’t affect the final result in a bad way. You’ll get gentle, flavored chicken breasts in only 15 minutes. Moreover, it’s also healthy because it’s cooking without added fat and in a very delicate way.

In French, this method is called ‘en papillote’. Frankly speaking, the original recipe requires parchment, not foil, but there are a few advantages:

• The foil is more popular so you’re more likely to have it.
• It’s thicker (okay, not every, I agree)
• It easily maintains an initial form: wrapping up the edges of ‘envelope’ you can be sure, they won’t open in the cooking process.

In this recipe, I will be cooking on the stove. It’s faster and even more economically than to warm the oven. But, if you wish, you can cook in the oven, the instruction I’ll leave below too.

⏱ Cooking time — 15 minutes overall. Includes 10 minutes of preparation and cooking + 5 minutes unattended.

🔪 Ingredients

For 2 servings:

• 2 chicken breasts (500 g / 1,1 lb) (don’t have? check for chicken breast substitutes)
• 100 g (3,5 oz) spinach
• A few twigs of rosemary
• Lemon
• Olive oil
• Salt, pepper

Equipment:

Nothing, that you wouldn’t have

🥣 Directions

STEP 1. PREPARE THE FOIL ‘ENVELOPE’

The first thing you need to do is to take a 70-80 cm (28-31 inches)piece of foil. Fold in half and cut into 2 pieces. You’re supposed to get 2 even squares. One of them put aside, you won’t need it now, and the other one place on the work surface.

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STEP 2. PUT THE INGREDIENTS

Pour a bit of olive oil (1 tbsp) in the middle of the foil, and put the spinach leaves (100 g (3,5 oz)) on top.

Then put the chicken breasts (500 g (1,1 lb)  on top (1 breast for 1 serving).

Add a fine pinch of salt and pepper.

On every breast put a twig of rosemary. Grate some lemon zest, add on top, then squeeze the juice from half a lemon.

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STEP 3. PUT TOGETHER THE ‘ENVELOPE’

Cover the breasts with a remaining piece of foil.

Wrap up one side in order to make a frame 2 cm (0,8 inches) wide. Next, moving clockwise or counterclockwise wrap up the rest of the edges.

Then, wrap up every side again.

As a result, you should get a tightly wrapped ‘envelope’, but at the same time, the foil shouldn’t tightly touch the chicken the same way as a potato in a foil. Leave a little space on the sides and on the top.

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STEP 4. COOK THE CHICKEN

Take a suitable-sized frying pan and warm it up on the high-heat. In a minute add for about 1 tbsp of olive oil and carefully put there an ‘envelope’.

In a few minutes, it’ll swell up. As soon as it happens, notch time and cook for 5 minutes.
If the ‘envelope’ will be letting a bit of steam – it’s OK.

In 5 minutes take the frying pan off the fire, and using a spatula (or 2) put the ‘envelope’ on a plate.

Let it cool down for about 3 minutes, then cut it on the top with a knife. Using spatulas take out the breasts with spinach and put on the serving plates. You can decorate with rosemary on top.

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HOW TO COOK IT IN THE OVEN?

If for some reason you don’t want to cook in the frying pan, you can do the same in the oven. For that warm oven up to 200 degrees, place the ‘envelope’ with chicken on the baking sheet. When the oven is heated up, put it there for 20 minutes.

🙋‍♂️ FAQ