French Fridays with Dorie - Curried Chicken, Peppers, and Peas en Papillote

Today´s recipe for the French Fridays with Dorie group is „Curried Chicken, Peppers, and Peas en Papillote“. Cooking chicken and vegetables in a bag or envelope, preferably made from baking parchment paper, adds "theater" and a "heady aroma" to the dinner table

It is a nice way  to save washing up and impress your guests by cooking your meal in parchment parcels – en papillote – it will steam beautifully, releasing a fragrant waft of vapor as you open it up. It is fantastically simple, you just wrap up all the ingredients – preferably one package per person , so everyone gets their own little present – roast them in a hot oven and bring the packages, still filled with steam, to the table, where each diner cuts into them and releases the fragrant vapors.

For Dorie´s recipe I used only baking parchment. This definitely creates the best presentation at the table, but the whole procedure can be a bit fiddly. If you are less bold and want to get the hang of it, I would suggest laying a layer of foil underneath the parchment and wrapping it in both. If you do this you will need to add a few minutes to the cooking time.

Dorie´s recipe for Curried Chicken, Peppers, and Peas en Papillote is easy to follow. You preheat the oven , place cubed chicken breats, thinly sliced red onions, diced red bell peppers and peas, and for seasoning some salt, freshly ground black pepper and, curry powder, into a bowl and mix until well combined. Since we are not into red bell peppers, I substituted lovely fresh yellow and green string beans and corn instead. I even found some late season fresh peas. Then you divide the mixture among squares of baking parchment paper. Fold the paper over and scrunch up the edges to seal, making an envelope around each portion. Make sure that the paper is sealed well and that there is still room for steam to circulate in the package. Place the parcels onto the hot baking sheet and bake in the oven for about twenty minutes. Remove the parcels from the oven and serve.

We enjoyed the Curried Chicken with some couscous with grated carrots and herbs (fresh chives and Italian parsley). The couscous was very nice served alongside the chicken and actually we quite liked our dinner.

The curry powder I used was a rather mild one, it is a mixture of turmeric, chili powder, ground coriander, ground cumin, ground ginger and pepper, and can be bought in mild, medium or hot strengths.

To see how much the other members of the French Fridays with Dorie group enjoyed this recipe, please go here.

For copyright reasons, we do not publish the recipes from the book. But you can find the recipe for this „Curried Chicken, Peppers, and Peas en Papillote“ on page 221 in Dorie Greenspan´s "Around my French Table".