How to Make Decorative Frills for Turkey, Chicken or Crown Roast

Baked Rosemary Chicken

Elevate your roast from simple to an elegant garnish presentation. Chicken papillotes (decorative paper frills) are a classic technique, and with time, I found a very easy way to make them flexible and easy to put on. These paper frills are not just for presentation—they cover exposed bones, making dishes like roast chicken, turkey, or lamb look clean, professional, and restaurant-quality. Papillotes also make serving easier by acting as a handle, keeping hands clean, and protecting from heat. In this guide, I’ll show you how to make easy, beautiful frills using simple, food-safe materials—perfect for chicken drumsticks, cutlets, crown roasts, lamb chops, and more (see photos at the bottom of the page). All kinds of frills we can make with this technique, from small to large, from napkins or from paper. I came up with the idea just a few years ago. I wish I had known it many years ago when I was working at the restaurant!

Papilliots add a special touch that makes your presentation memorable for family gatherings, dinner guests, and even social media photos. It will definitely not just be another roasted chicken for dinner; it will be a fancy meal!

*We can buy online, premade frills to dress up our table for Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and other holidays. Search for “regency chop frills decorative holders for chops and chicken legs” or “white paper chop holders”. However, homemade alternatives are so much better because we can adjust to custom sizes easily and make them from any desired color or design.

We need:

Paper napkin
Cooking foil
Scissors

*Soft-textured napkins without embossed or punched designs work best, and they are usually the most affordable option.

Note: I use food-safe foil to hold the frills in place. Do not use staples or tape—they are not food-safe.

We can make decorative frills in advance and use them as need it. I use foil to make flexible fritters or what some people call turkey booties. As an example, I show how to make frills from napkins 13’x13′.

*If we use very soft napkins to make frills, the napkin sticks to the bone itself. Just press the napkin to the bone and meat juice or fat works as glue and the frill sticks to the bone easily (some people use a drop of water). I don’t suggest this method, because a piece of a napkin can easily get to the food and doesn’t always work as we want. The solution is to add foil!

Direction:

Cut napkin in the half.

2. Fold the napkin in half, but one side is 1″ longer.

№1 – Use the fold to create a light mark; this is our guide for making the cuts.

№2 – Don’t press to make a crease here.

3. Make cuts and turn the side out, so our decor will be fluffy.

4. I use 2.5′ X 8′ foil stripe. Fold in like you can see in the photo. The foil will not appear from the right side of the fritter.

5. Foil ears left on sides fold inside. Foil does not appear outside the frill if we roll around a chicken or turkey bone. However, foil holds the frill in place.

A great technique to make frills for a food gathering for any Holiday! We can make any size and any design for our theme, if needed.

Colorful Decorative Frills

My favorite color is white for frills because it goes perfectly with any set of Holiday tables. However, we can try to use other colors as well. We can make decorative frills in different colors of napkins or paper. For example, my orange decorative frills on the ceramic bean pot in the photo below are great for a fall table setting. Easy to make festive decorations not only for food as a bone cover, but we can also place them on the dishes! And I repeat again, it is not only for decorative purposes, but we also protect guests’ hands from the hot dishes we serve in a fancy way.

*The ceramic pot can also be called a cocotte casserole baking dish with a lid.

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Photo How to make decorative frills for dishes

Russian mushroom in the sour cream hot appetizer

Decorative Frills On Other Dishes

I am originally from Russia and is a very common technique to decorate the end of bird bones, meat served on a bone, dishes with a handle like on the photo to serve hot appetizers, again not only for decorative purposes. In the photo, a dish called cocotnisa (кокотница). Cocotnisa is a very common dish served at Russian restaurants as a hot appetizer. For example, mushrooms in a sour cream sauce with cheese on top. The paper frills protect fingers from the heat on the dish.

*We (my kids and I) brought these dishes in the photo from Russia in my luggage when we moved to the USA over 20 years ago. My American husband was surprised to see what I was carrying in my luggage. I don’t use them often, but I never regret that we have carried them from one side of our planet to another.