lemon chicken and herb salad recipe

Simple yet delicious, this is a wonderfully fresh-tasting salad. Once tried, you can’t help but make it again and again, swapping the herbs, nuts and dried fruit each time. Shred the chicken rather than cutting it into chunks.

serves 6

for the salad

• 4 skinless chicken breasts (about 650g)
• 4 fresh or dried bay leaves
• extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
• 1 tablespoon raisins
• 2 tablespoons capers
• 3 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
• 8 anchovy fillets (in oil), roughly chopped
• Zest of 2 lemons
• 30 mixed, good-quality stoned olives
• 30g fresh flat-leaved parsley, leaves only
• 5 sprigs of fresh mint, leaves only

for the dressing

• Juice of 1 lemon
• 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon runny honey
• Salt and black pepper

Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan oven) / gas mark 4. Put the chicken breasts onto a baking tray with a bay leaf tucked underneath each one. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Tightly cover the baking tray with foil and cook in the oven for 20 minutes.

Remove the chicken from the oven and leave to rest, covered with the foil, for 15 minutes. Discard the foil and leave the chicken until cool enough to handle – then pull into shreds (it’s easier to pull into shreds when slightly warm).

Make the dressing by putting all of the ingredients into a bowl and whisk together. Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Place the chicken in a bowl with the rest of the salad ingredients: if the mint leaves are large, tear them in half. Pour over the lemon dressing and toss well to combine.

This recipe first featured in Sarah Raven's 2015 Grow Cook Eat Diary and in Good Good Food.