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Steamed chicken salad with fennel, orange and olives

By: Pollyanna Coupland
Food producer, delicious.

Published: 1 May 25
Updated: 6 May 25

Steamed chicken salad with fennel, orange and olives

The secret to this vibrant chicken salad is steam. Here’s why we think this sunny, filling salad will become a regular in your summer meals repertoire…

Gorgeous flavours: Toss the juicy steamed chicken and tender fennel with Sicilian-inspired flavours of mint, pine nuts, raisins, orange and lemon.
30-minute meal: Butterflying the chicken helps it to steam quickly and evenly, meaning this filling chicken salad is ready to eat in 30 minutes.
Clever cooking method: Steaming is an excellent method of cooking chicken breast, with all that extra moisture ensuring it doesn’t dry out. It’s especially good for meal prep as the chicken stays juicier for longer (see Make Ahead).

Click this way for more healthy chicken recipes.

Easy
May 2025

Test kitchen approved

Serves 2-4
Prep time 10 min. Cook time 20 min

The secret to this vibrant chicken salad is steam. Here’s why we think this sunny, filling salad will become a regular in your summer meals repertoire…

Gorgeous flavours: Toss the juicy steamed chicken and tender fennel with Sicilian-inspired flavours of mint, pine nuts, raisins, orange and lemon.
30-minute meal: Butterflying the chicken helps it to steam quickly and evenly, meaning this filling chicken salad is ready to eat in 30 minutes.
Clever cooking method: Steaming is an excellent method of cooking chicken breast, with all that extra moisture ensuring it doesn’t dry out. It’s especially good for meal prep as the chicken stays juicier for longer (see Make Ahead).

Click this way for more healthy chicken recipes.

Nutrition: per serving

Calories: 196kcals
Fat: 9.4g (1.3g saturated)
Protein: 17g
Carbohydrates: 8.6g (8.2g sugars)
Fibre: 2.6g
Salt: 0.6g

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Ingredients

2 skinless chicken breasts, butterflied (see Be A Better Cook)
1 fennel bulb, sliced into 1cm wedges (reserve the fronds)
1 orange
60g pitted green queen or gordal olives, torn
10g mint leaves
10g parsley leaves
10g dill fronds
20g pine nuts, toasted for 1-2 minutes in a hot dry pan until fragrant

For the dressing

Juice ½ lemon
½ red chilli, very finely diced
Pinch caster sugar
20g sultanas
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

Specialist kit

Large two-tier steamer

Method

Line one of the steamer trays with baking paper and season the butterflied chicken well with salt and pepper. Lay in the tray and steam for 20 minutes. Add the sliced fennel to the second tray, then add it to the steamer underneath the chicken for the last 10 minutes of cooking. Leave both to cool.
Finely grate the zest of the orange into a bowl, then segment it and squeeze the remaining pith/pulp into the bowl to collect any juice. Reserve the segments separately, then add the dressing ingredients to the bowl and mix together with a pinch of salt and a grind of pepper.
Tear the cooled chicken into a large mixing bowl, then add the fennel, orange segments, olives, mint, parsley, dill, reserved fennel fronds and pine nuts. Pour over the dressing and toss to combine, then serve.

Recipe from May 2025 Issue

Nutrition

Nutrition: per serving

Calories: 196kcals
Fat: 9.4g (1.3g saturated)
Protein: 17g
Carbohydrates: 8.6g (8.2g sugars)
Fibre: 2.6g
Salt: 0.6g

delicious. tips

You could steam the chicken and fennel up to 24 hours ahead, then cool, cover and keep chilled. Take them out of the fridge a little while before eating so they lose the fridge chill. Mix up everything but the herbs in advance if you want extra marinating time. Even mixed with the herbs, leftovers are tasty the next day too.
Butterflying the chicken – cutting it in half, horizontally, almost all the way through so it can open like a book – makes it the same thickness so it cooks quickly at the same speed. It doesn’t have to be very neat as you’ll tear the chicken into pieces later.