Dinner in a pouch

Did I tell you that I have taken to Tivo the daily episode of Good Eats? Hence the updated status of Alton Brown to god?

I watched The Pouch Principle episode the other day and was quite taken by the Ramen Shrimp Pouch. Simple. Easy. Fast. Nothing to lose!

So I thought I'd make that with chicken tenders (cut in half so the pieces are not too big) instead since Brandon can't have seafood. Oh, and I also omit the mushrooms because Brandon doesn't eat that either. And finally, because of a grocery oversight, I didn't add onion. Instead I threw in shredded carrots and sugar snap peas.

The noodles were fantastic and clean up was a breeze. For my version, I didn't even need to use the cutting board. Being a lazy bum, I just cut the chicken right in the foam tray and used scissors to "slice" the green onion. Everything else was fresh out of the bag with no prep needed. I mixed the liquid in a measuring jug thing and poured easily into the pouches. Thicker pieces of chicken was a little undercooked but it was easily fixed after one minute in the microwave. (After you transfered the content out of the foil into a bowl, of course.)

My trouble with this recipe was the pouches themselves.

My pouches sure weren't as water tight as Alton's. And you won't know if the pouches would leak until you put the liquid in them. Here we were with the pouches slowly AND quickly leaking onto the cookie sheet. While adjusting one leak, another sprung. Those dried ramen noodles can do some damage, I tell you. I knew I felt like I was in I Love Lucy chocolate factory episode!

I resorted to putting 2 pouches in 2 Pyrex glass bowls, using the leaky foil--now purposely cut for ventilation--to cover them. That worked out fine. The other 2 I managed to contain. They still leaked into the baking sheet a bit, but the clean up wasn't painful.

Next time, I'm probably going to just do it in the bowl. Or buy heavy duty aluminum foil.