Oranges and honey turn this chicken salad into a main course taste sensation. Adjust the other ingredients to your family’s taste. This recipe was part of our Spring 2020 Meal Plan, where you will find the complete shopping list for a week of meals. Make sure you subscribe to receive your monthly Four Fast Weeknights recipes and another seasonal meal plan every quarter.
Shopping tips:
- Visit a fruit and vegetable market for a 1 kilo bag of oranges on sale, cost-effective and leftover oranges are great for lunches and snacks.
- In some recipes you can substitute fresh orange juice for lime, so juice any surplus oranges and freeze in ice cube trays or ziplock bags.
Make ahead notes:
- Whisk together the honey, lemon juice and zest, and orange juice.
- Cut the capsicum and place into a clip seal bag, label and store in the fridge.
- Store the corn kernels and chickpeas in containers with some water to stop them drying out and place in fridge (or leave in tins until ready).
- Measure out the seeds and pine kernels into separate small Ziplock bags and store in the fridge, labelled, ready-to-go.
- Prepare the oranges by cutting all peel and pith away then angling a knife on each side of the segment to remove from its membrane. Store in a well-sealed container in the fridge.
- Measure out the rocket and spinach and place in a larger Ziplock bag.
- Make the dressing ahead and store in a glass jar in the fridge, shake well before using.
Freeze ahead notes (optional, can be made fresh):
- This is a useful step if, say, you buy the chicken on Wednesday but don’t plan to make the salad until Sunday.
- In a large Ziplock bag add the raw chicken and the honey marinade.
- Shake the bag to combine well. Seal, label and freeze.
Kids in the kitchen tips
- Squeeze oranges, measure the 1/4 cups of seeds, whisk marinade and dressing.
- Choose your salad combos to suit your family. Talk about salads combining textures and colours as well as flavour – something crunchy (celery, seeds), something soft (oranges, avocado), something bright (rocket, spring onions) etc.
- Save the bees! Honey is a crucial ingredient in this dish, but without bees we lose more than honey. There are some fascinating resources to help children understand bees, like this Amazing Bees site from an Australian beekeeper.
Honey Spring Chicken with Orange and Rocket Salad
Oranges and honey turn this chicken salad into a main course taste sensation. Adjust the other ingredients to your family’s taste. This recipe was part of our Spring 2020 Meal Plan, where you will find the complete shopping list for a week of meals.
Ingredients
- Honey chicken
- 1 lemon juice and zest
- 3 tablespoons raw honey
- ¼ cup orange juice
- 500 g of uncooked chicken breast pieces cut across the grain into short slices 1-2cm wide
- Salad
- 5 med-large oranges rind removed and chopped into segments
- 2 cups of fresh rocket leaves
- 1 cup baby spinach leaves
- 1 yellow capsicum de-seeded and sliced into thin strips
- 2 stalks celery chopped
- 400 g tin of corn kernels drained
- 400 g tin of chickpeas rinsed and drained
- ¼ cup pine kernels
- ¼ cup pepita seeds
- ¼ cup sunflower seeds
Dressing:
- ¼ cup orange juice
- ½ tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon raw honey
Instructions
- If frozen, defrost marinated chicken overnight in the fridge. Leave in bag.
- If fresh, whisk marinade ingredients together in a bowl large enough to hold chicken pieces. Add chicken and mix well, store in fridge while you prepare the rest of the salad.
- In a large bowl mix the rocket, spinach, pine nuts, sunflower seeds, orange pieces, corn kernels, chickpeas, capsicum and celery.
- Whisk the dressing together and use tongs to turn the salad as you add a little at a time - don’t drown the salad, it should be nice and light. Let sit while you cook chicken.
- Chicken is best cooked in a grill style frying pan, but a normal fry pan will be fine.
- Grill the chicken pieces on all sides, make sure they have cooked all the way through and mix well around the pan to coat in the caramelising marinade. If the liquid isn't turning golden brown, turn up the heat a little more. Set pan aside when done.
- Assemble the salad on a serving platter or individual plates and top with some of the grilled honey chicken and pan juices.
- Serve on a big platter or salad bowl with some crusty bread.
Notes
- Add or subtract the salad ingredients to your family's taste. We added avocado and red onions!
- This honey chicken marinade combo is also great with rice, cooked according to packet directions or using a rice cooker,
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
