While you can still get your hands on some fresh snow peas and carrots, you must try this recipe. It is one of the most delectable dinners I’ve had in a while. The ingredients are super simple: chicken, peas, carrots, hoisin sauce, garlic, ginger. But the combination is out of this world. I loved the simplicity of this meal and how quickly and easily it came together. The chicken, after steaming in the oven, is tender as can be and the subtle taste of garlic and ginger is all this dish needs to be flavorfully perfect.
My kids thought it was ultra-cool that they each got their own foil packet for dinner and they ate everything right up. Apparently, peas taste better baked in foil. I will definitely be making this meal again while fresh produce is in season! My husband called this a “Gourmet Tin Foil Dinner.” Good thing he didn’t know how easy it was to throw together. He just may get this for his next campout!
Foil Packet Chicken with Snow Peas and Carrots
Printable Version
Printable Version with Picture
*Makes 4-6 foil packets, depending on how small you make each one*
INGREDIENTS:
18-24 baby carrots
2 cups sugar snap peas
1 (1-inch) piece of fresh gingerroot, peeled and grated (I grated mine on my microplane)
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped or pressed through a garlic press
Salt and pepper
4 small chicken breasts ( about 1 ½ pounds), trimmed (with large, thick chicken breasts, I cut them in half by butterflying them and cutting all the way through to make two thinner cuts of chicken – this helps the chicken cook quicker and helps your chicken to go further)
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Cut 4 pieces of aluminum foil (heavy duty) about 12 inches square (if you don’t have heavy-duty aluminum foil, use two pieces of regular aluminum foil for each packet). In a small bowl, combine garlic and ginger (I used my fingers to gently mash them together).
Arrange the carrots and peas on the aluminum foil. Sprinkle with the ginger/garlic mixture (this doesn’t sprinkle like salt and pepper so don’t worry if you get a clump here and there – the flavors will absorb while baking), and salt and pepper to taste. Brush the chicken on both sides with the hoisin sauce. Top each portion of vegetables with a piece of chicken. Salt lightly.
Bring opposite sides of the foil up to meet over the chicken. Fold the edges together in a ¼-inch fold, and then fold over 3 more times. Fold the open edges at either end of the packet together in a ¼-inch fold, and then fold over twice again to seal.
Put the foil packets on a baking sheet and bake for 30-35 minutes. Transfer the contents of each packet to a dinner plate and serve.
Adapted from Cooks Illustrated
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
ohhh peas taste better in foil???Who knew?
I should try it on my kids!
Great idea! I love foil packets. They are such easy clean up.
This would be perfect for those days I work in the morning and am tired. I remember seeing foil packets from the reynolds commericals but forgot about them, thanks for reminding me!
I love doing foil packet meals!
This makes an easy and delicious meal with little clean up…great idea!
any idea why they’re called snow peas? i don’t have a clue, but i don’t care–they’re delicious, and foil never had such a perfect use.
What kind of Hoison sauce do you use? The only kind I find in local stores around here doesn’t taste anything like what I get in restaurants , so it’s hard to know what kind to use with recipes like this one to get the desired flavor.
any substitute reccomendations for the hoison sauce, i dont have any and i was going to whip this up tonight??? love love love your blog
never mind i just found a recipe and ran it through my magic bullet….yummy
Anne – I use the Dynasty brand of hoisin sauce. It’s the only brand I’ve ever found in stores and we like the flavor. I’m not sure if it tastes the same as in restaurants since we don’t eat out much but we really like it.
Anonymous – would you mind commenting and sharing your substitution for hoisin sauce?
Sometimes the fewer the ingredients, the more flavorful the dish. Wonderful combination of ingredients.
Thanks for this awesome recipe! My store didn’t have hoisin sauce (they were out!) so I bought plum sauce instead & it turned out great! I also thought that snap peas were too expensive, so I substituted snow peas instead & that worked great, too!
Teri – great idea to use plum sauce and snow peas in a pinch. Glad it turned out!
This looks simple and healthy. I love those two combinations!
Melanie,
I made these the other night when we had a family ‘campout’ in our backyard. They were so good and a huge hit with my boys. Thanks for the great idea!
I added a 1/4 cup of brown sugar to the hoisin sauce Yum. Thanks. I love all of your great recipes and ideas
http://tasteeveryseason.blogspot.com/
Jessica – what a fun family activity! Thanks for letting me know you liked these. I bet the addition of brown sugar was awesome. Thanks for your comment!
my favorite thing about this dish is that i can make JUST ONE and cook it only for me. Since I’m a college student with a roomate who isn’t always home, it’s nice to not have to cook for a whole family when it’s just me here.
It smelled wonderful when it went in the oven, and the sauce that goes on the chicken is so yummy, even by itself. What a great recipe, once again.
Thanks so much!!
Krista
Krista – that is a great tip about this meal I didn’t think of – that you can make just one! Glad you like it!
Krista – I love that: “i’m hungry but don’t want to do the dishes” – that’s my motto every night! Unfortunately, I’m usually the one doing the dishes. Glad you liked this!
made some changes to the recipe… i grated half the carrots into the foil with the garlic. Then i chopped the rest of the carrots. it made the sauce in the bottom of the foil a little sweeter.
i omitted the ginger all together. it made it a little spicy for me.
i stirred the hoison sauce and some sauteed onions into the rice.
this is my “i’m hungry but i don’t want to do dishes” meal.
good stuff!
Thanks for this great recipe. We made it last night for dinner after realizing that I had all of the ingredients on hand. (Snow peas laying around? go figure!) The only ingredient I did not have was the hoisin sauce. Instead I made teriyaki sauce and thickened it a little more that my recipe called for. (1/3 c. soy sauce, 1/3 c. sugar, 2 T vinegar, 2 T ?cornstarch heated until thickened)The packets were terrific! Thanks so much!–Melanie S.
Melanie – I’m seriously impressed you would have snow peas laying around. Amazing. I’m glad you liked this and the changes with the teriyaki sauce sound awesome.
First time I cooked using the foil…and it was a breeze! =) Thank you for a very easy to prepare dinner. My kids and husband were impressed with the packaging and the kids ate all their veggies! =) My husband even commented on how healthy this dish is and that we should have it more often. ( He wants to cut back on the red meat) Thanks Melanie for another hit dish! =) I’ll be browsing your recipe index and will get back to you when I get to them =)
{ 1 trackback }