Poulet en Papillot

Yeah, I made that one up, and I'm not entirely certain I spelled it right. But isn't it much more entertaining than titling this "More Chicken"?

After income tax day, a day spent by my dearly beloved roaring that "Al" had to be all wet about how much more we owed and why didn't I (the wife) know more about AMT, and my researching for the entire day, and ultimately concluding that Al was indeed all wet (but we should overpay anyway), I decided to cater to the man who dreams of a world with no pans. You've heard this rant of his repeated before: "We can send a man to the moon, but we still have to scrub the damn pots???" This chicken was really easy, and easily personalized for those of us who are sensible, and those who like fungus (Hubby and Ryan). Served over rice with a lovely green salad, it did go a long way to soothe the soul of the savage beast, who is, once again, as calm and cheerful as a redhead ever gets to be (said his red headed wife).

POULET EN PAPILLOT

2 pounds chicken, cut into 1/2" x 1/2" strips
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
zest from 1 lemon
2 tsp dill
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground black pepper
2 large carrots, quartered lengthwise & cut into slivers
6 ribs celery, prepared same as carrots
Sliced mushrooms
1 onion, minced finely
lemon slices (from the zested lemon)

Cut the chicken into strips. Stir together the lemon juice, zest, olive oil, dill, salt & pepper, and pour over the chicken. Let it all sit for about 15 minutes.

Prepare the carrots and celery. Arrange them on an appropriate number of sheets of parchment paper or foil (which I don't use, because I'm obsessive about scrubbing it clean before discarding it), approx. 15" to 18" long, depending upon the portion size. Arrange the chicken strips atop the veggies, and top with the onion and, if desired, mushrooms. Spoon the marinade over the chicken, top with lemon slices, and fold the parchment or foil over, crimping tightly to seal. Arrange on a baking sheet and bake at 500F, or (if using foil) cook on the grill for about 20 minutes, until the rice is done. Give everyone his or her own personal packet, and they'll have no excuse for griping about some ingredient that they don't like. Unless, of course, we're talking about my youngest, who can gripe about everything. Yes, my chicken was "blubby". Ah, well, we strive for perfection and fail, don't we?