Grilled Chicken with Orange & Feta Salad

This is such a wonderful meal that will refresh you on a warm evening or equally revitalize you and lift your spirits on a cold January night. The orange and feta salad works so well with the grilled chicken as it has the perfect balance of sweet, sour, salty and a little spice. Serve with a simple green salad and if you want some crispy garlic and thyme potatoes. This is a recipe that you will want to make over and over again!

4 chicken breasts, skinless & boneless

1 lemon

2 tbsp garlic oil* (or normal olive oil)

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tsp rosemary, roughly chopped

2 tsp runny honey

1 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

Salt & Pepper

Orange & Feta Salad

6 oranges

½ small red onion, thinly sliced

1 lime

100g Feta cheese, crumbled

1 red chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped

2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

Drizzle of extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper

Start by preparing the chicken so that you can leave it to marinade. Cut each chicken breast in half lengthwise so that you have 2 pieces of equal size. Place the chicken breasts in a large shallow dish. In a small bowl, mix together the juice and zest of the lemon with the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, rosemary, honey, parsley and a little salt and pepper. Pour the marinade over the chicken and using your hands rub it over the chicken on both sides to make sure they are nicely covered. Leave to marinade for at least 30 minutes.

While the chicken is marinating prepare the salad. Peel the oranges, then thinly slice 4 of them and put into a bowl. Cut the remaining 2 oranges into segments, carefully cutting in between the membranes. Squeeze the leftover membrane to get as much juice out of the oranges as possible. On a shallow plate scatter the onion slices then cover with the lime juice. Set aside for as long as you can as this will prevent the onion from having an acrid taste that you sometimes get from using raw onion.

When you are ready to assemble the salad casually lay the orange slices on a large serving platter, keeping any juice that has collected in the bowl. Top with the onion slices reserving the now pink lime juice for the dressing, then crumble over the feta. Scatter over the chopped chilli and the parsley leaves. Mix the lime juice with the orange juice then season with salt and pepper. Spoon over as much of the juice as you like then finish with a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

To cook the chicken you can either grill, griddle or if possible BBQ it. Either way ‘grill’ the chicken for a few minutes on either side until it is perfectly cooked through (the length of time required will depend on how thick the chicken breasts are, but generally after they have been halved they are fairly thin so only need a few minutes on each side). Half way through cooking on each side, spoon a little of the marinade over each chicken breast. (If you are barbequing it watch for flames!) When the chicken is cooked leave to rest for a couple of minutes then serve with the orange and feta salad.