In the Kitchen: Italian Chicken Parcels

My little sister and her (Canadian!) boyfriend came to town last weekend to spend some time with the boy and me, as well as go to a hockey game and explore the city.

When we weren’t out eating obscene amounts of pizza, accidentally shooting red wine onto the kitchen ceiling (I still don’t know how this happened) or shopping at one of our biggest outlet malls, we spent some downtime at our house cooking, laughing and playing games. (Namely Apples to Apples. Which is one of the best games of all time.)

Last Sunday, the boy and I were planning to make a simple chicken dish for our dinner after spending most of the weekend at restaurants. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that my sis and her boyfriend were staying one more night in town with us. And were planning to have dinner with us, since we’d already put the recipe down in our planner.

(Side note: We’ve been meal planning recently, and it is AMAZING. Seriously. I’ve tried to do this before, but it’s a lot harder for me to stick to it because, uh, I really like to eat whatever I’m craving. And I generally don’t crave whatever I have planned to eat. BUT my boy keeps a good schedule. And keeps me in line. Sometimes. So we’ve stuck to this meal planning stuff.)

So. Yeah.

We made this tasty chicken recipe, courtesy of a random baking book on super sale.

Italian Chicken Parcels
From Barnes and Noble: Greatest Ever Baking

1 T olive oil
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
9 oz. mozzarella cheese (we eyeballed this)
3 1/2 C sliced zucchini
4 large tomatoes
1 small bunch of fresh basil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut out four squares of foil, and brush the squares lightly with oil.

Slice zucchini and tomatoes. Divide zucchini and tomatoes between the four foil squares. Tear the basil and sprinkle it over the vegetables inside the parcel.

Cut into each chicken breast three times, careful not to cut through the meat completely and stuff the mozzarella between the slashes. Place the chicken on top of the vegetables.

It should look like this:

Top the chicken and veggies with a little bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. Close up the parcels, stick them on a baking sheet and pop in the oven for about 30 minutes.

The unwrap the parcel (carefully!) and voila:

And you’ve got a delicious and simple dinner. (Served with cheesy broccoli.)

Do you have a favorite Sunday night dinner?