Four packets, forty-five minutes, and one grill. Everything for one dinner is inside its own sheet of heavy-duty foil, and the packet is how it is served.
There is a step most foil-packet recipes do not have. After eighteen to twenty-two minutes sealed, each packet is opened and the chicken goes briefly back onto the bare grates, because steam cannot make char.
Why This Recipe Works
- Parboiling the potatoes for five to six minutes lets them finish in the same time as the chicken.
- Sealing the packet with room for steam lets the vegetables cook without drying out.
- Turning the packets once halfway through evens out contact with the grate.
- Opening them and returning the chicken to the grates is the only way to get char on something that has been steaming.
- Brushing more BBQ sauce on at that point glazes the surface as it chars.
Ingredient Notes
- Baby potatoes
- A pound, quartered and parboiled five to six minutes first. Without that head start they would still be hard when the chicken is done.
- BBQ sauce
- Three quarters of a cup. Brushed on before sealing and again on the grates, so it both flavours the steam and glazes the char.
- Fresh dill
- Two tablespoons, chopped, over the opened packets. An unexpected herb for a BBQ dish and a visible part of the finished plate.
- Heavy-duty foil
- Four large sheets. Heavy-duty specifically — a thin sheet tears on a grate and the packet stops holding steam.
How to Make It
Grill on, potatoes started
Heat grill to medium-high. Microwave or parboil the potatoes 5 to 6 minutes so they can finish with the chicken.
Build four packets
Lay out four large sheets of heavy-duty foil. Divide potatoes, green beans, and red pepper among them; drizzle with olive oil and season.
Chicken on top, sauce, seal
Place a chicken breast on each pile, brush generously with BBQ sauce, and seal the foil packets with room for steam.
Grill sealed, turning once
Grill packets 18 to 22 minutes, turning once.
Open, and char on the grates
Open carefully and return the chicken briefly to the grill grates, brushing with more BBQ sauce, to create visible char.
165F, then dill
Cook chicken to 165 degrees Fahrenheit, then finish the opened packets with fresh dill.
One Packet, Built
The yield is four packets rather than four servings, and that is not a wording choice - the packet is part of what makes the dish. This is what goes into one of them.
What goes into one packet
The sheet
One large sheet of HEAVY-DUTY foil. Heavy-duty because it sits directly on a grate and gets turned; a thin sheet tears and the packet stops holding steam.
The potatoes - already part-cooked
A quarter of 1 lb of baby potatoes, quartered and parboiled or microwaved 5 to 6 minutes. The only ingredient that gets a head start, because raw potato does not cook in the same 18 to 22 minutes a chicken breast does.
The green beans and red pepper
A quarter of 8 oz of trimmed green beans and of 1 sliced red bell pepper, with a share of 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. These go in raw - both cook happily in steam.
The chicken, on top
One 5-to-6 oz breast laid on the pile rather than buried in it, brushed generously from the 3/4 cup of BBQ sauce. On top so it can be lifted out later without disturbing everything underneath.
The air
Sealed with room for steam. This is a real component: the packet cooks by steam, and a parcel wrapped tight against the food has nowhere to make any.
After 18 to 22 minutes, turned once, each packet is opened AWAY FROM THE FACE - the escaping steam is hot - and its chicken goes briefly back onto the bare grates with more BBQ sauce, to 165F. That minute is the only part of the cook that produces char, and char is what tells a grilled packet from an oven-baked one. Served in the opened packet, finished with 2 tbsp of fresh dill.
Success Tips
- Leave room inside each packet; a tightly wrapped parcel has nowhere for steam to go.
- Open them away from your face — the steam that comes out is very hot.
- Give the chicken its minute on the bare grates. That is where the char comes from.
Serving Ideas
Four opened foil packets on plates, each with its charred BBQ-glazed chicken breast over the red pepper strips, green beans and potato, with fresh dill scattered over the top.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why open the packets at all?
A sealed packet steams, and steam cannot char. The chicken goes back onto the bare grates with more sauce to get the marks the finished dish shows.
Can I skip parboiling the potatoes?
They would not be done. Five to six minutes in the microwave or a pot is what lets them finish in the same window as the chicken.
Could I do these in the oven?
The packets would cook, but the char would not happen. Visible char is part of what this dish is, and it needs grill grates.
