This tasty recipe is adapted from Jamie Oliver's chicken broccoli and bulgur wheat salad in Jamie's 15 Minute Meals. It's a healthy tasty salad for midweek or the weekend.
Jamie Oliver and his 15 Minute Meals
Sometimes you just want a quick dinner, and sometimes you have long enough to make a Jamie Oliver 15-minute meal. Including the washing up! As I've said before, I love Jamie Oliver and I love his 15 Minute Meals and his 30 Minute Meals. Somehow though, I always end up with far more washing up than I would do normally. Clearly he has a dishwasher, and clearly I need to get one soon.
My reasons for first making this salad
When I first made this chicken, broccoli and bulgur wheat salad it was part of Dom at Belleau Kitchen's Random Recipe Challenge. The challenge was to pick our 30th book and to then make the recipe on page 30. I couldn't have been happier with the recipe I ended up with, named in Jamie's 15-Minute Meals as Incredibly Delicious Chicken Salad. It was exactly the type of thing I love to make. I probably wouldn't have put broccoli in a salad and I definitely wouldn't have thought to put it on the griddle after boiling it. Thankfully it did work and despite the washing up, it was fairly quick.
How did I adapt this chicken, broccoli and bulgur wheat salad?
I did make a few changes. Firstly I didn't have preserved lemons and couldn't face searching for them in the supermarket with an irritable toddler. And, I didn't have cress and so missed it out. I don't think you'd miss it. After all, have you ever heard anyone say, what this salad really needs to liven it up is a bit of cress sprinkled on the top?
I also didn't have any harissa and so used piri piri sauce. I accept that this would have changed the flavour of the salad a bit, but it was good and went well. After all, that's the main thing. Oh, and I'd run out of red wine vinegar and so used white wine vinegar, but doesn't everyone do that?
2018 Update
I've made this salad few times since first publishing this post and although I didn't use the preserved lemons that first time, it really is worth getting some. I also love it with either harissa or piri piri sauce. I'm sure cress would be lovely but I still haven't tried it! And why did I ever think broccoli in a salad was unusual? It just shows how much I've changed over the last 5 years!
What can you do with the leftovers?
This salad keeps well in the fridge for up to three days although I normally try to eat the leftovers up the next day! You can easily put any leftovers into a lunch box or pack them up as part of a picnic.
What other substitutions can you make?
I've mentioned already a few of the changes I made to this chicken broccoli and bulgur wheat salad. It's an easy salad to adapt in lots of ways. Just switch a few ingredients in or out depending on what you have in the cupboard or fridge. For example, if you don't have bulgur wheat, try a different grain such as spelt, barley or even rice.
If you don't have fresh herbs then use dried ones. If you don't have sunflower seeds, use another nut or seed to get that nutty flavour.
You can cook the chicken without coating it in the ground coriander. Or you can use a different spice. I love it with paprika!
Recipe
Jamie Oliver's Chicken Broccoli and Bulgur Wheat Salad
Ingredients
- 1 broccoli
- 4 Chicken breasts skinless
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 300 g bulgur wheat
- 2 preserved lemons
- 16 radishes
- 4 spring onions
- 15 g fresh mint (about half a small bunch)
- 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 3 tablespoon vinegar I use white wine vinegar. Jamie uses red wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoon sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds
- 2 tablespoon natural yogurt
- 2 tsp harissa or piri piri or another hot sauce
Instructions
- Put a pan of water on to boil and add the brocoli when it is boiling. Using a slotted spoon, take the broccoli out of the water after 5 minutes and add the bulgur wheat.
- Put the Broccoli on the griddle and let it char slightly on each side.
- Put the sunflower seeds in a dry frying pan and toast them gently. Be careful they don’t burn.
- Rub the coriander, salt and black pepper into the chicken and place it between two pieces of baking parchment. Pound the chicken to flatten it slightly. Then put it in the frying pan with a little olive oil. Turn halfway through cooking.
- Prepare the dressing by mixing in a bowl the vinegar, oil, mint leaves and chopped spring onion.
- Drain the bulgur wheat and rinse it in cold water. Put the broccoli and radishes on top. Drizzle the dressing over the top.
- Slice the chicken and place on top of the salad. Scatter the sunflower seeds on top too. Add a few dollops of yoghurt and a drizzle of the hot sauce.
Nutrition
Pin for later!
More of my tried and tested Jamie Oliver recipes
If you like this then why not try some more of my favourite Jamie Oliver meals below:
Grated Rainbow Vegetable Salad with Sesame Feta Fritters
Jamie Oliver's Favourite Chicken Curry
Jamie Oliver's Piri Piri Chicken
More easy dinner ideas
This salad is a great recipe for preparing in advance. If you're looking for more easy dinner ideas that are great for more than one meal then do check out my Cook Once Eat Twice recipe collection. If you love salads then I've also got a recipe collection for main meal salads! And, if you like spicy recipes then do check out my collection of easy spicy midweek meal recipes.
Places I'm sharing this chicken broccoli and bulgur wheat salad
Cook Blog Share hosted by Eb at Easy Peasy Foodie
Kimberly
10 minutes of prep?!? Now you’re talking my language!! Can’t wait to try this!!
Corina Blum
I hope you like it! It's such a tasty salad.
Tadej
I never tried bulgur yet but I saw it in the store. I will try to make this dish and see how it is.
Corina Blum
I hope you like it Tadej! Do let me know as I love to hear how my recipes go when people try them.
Jacqui Bellefontaine
My boys are fans of Jamie's books but we always laugh at the timings. Mr B and the boys claim that is the time it takes to get all the ingredients together not make a dish. As for washing up, i think he has minions to do that for him. That said they are tasty dishes (and this chicken salad looks no exception) that really appeal to the younger generation and anything that gets people cooking from scratch has got to be good
Corina Blum
Exactly! When I first made this we lived in a small flat with a tiny kitchen and no dishwasher so it really was an issue but these days I have a bit more space and luckily a dishwasher too!
Eb Gargano | Easy Peasy Foodie
Oh I do love Jamie's books so much, but your comment about the dishwasher made me laugh...I find this the case with most celebrity chef sadly...they clearly have someone else to do the washing up so it's not a consideration for them! I also find Jamie's 30 minute meals never do take 30 minutes...there's one I do that I love, but it takes me an hour...and I consider myself a pretty competent cook!! His 15 minute meals may not be quite 5 minutes but they generally can be done in under 30 and that's good enough for me on a busy weeknight - this looks fab! Thanks for linking it up to #CookBlogShare. Eb x
Corina Blum
I find exactly the same. The 15 minute meals are fast but usually do take a little more than 15 minutes but the 30 minute meals are impossible, even though I there are quite a few that I love! x
Jo Allison / Jo's Kitchen Larder
This is my sort of salad, rather substantial and delicious! Would eat it happily for either lunch or dinner any day and your photos look great too! x
Corina Blum
Thanks so much Jo! This post has always been really popular and I'd been planning to update the photos for ages so I'm glad I finally got around to it x
Mandy
I know just what you mean - I would never have dreamt of broccoli in a salad five years ago yet now it seems like a great idea!
Corina Blum
Exactly! I'm updating some of my old posts and I realise how much I've changed sometimes when I read things I completely disagree with now!
Donna
Looks gorgeous, I only discovered bulger wheat recently, so nice to have something new to try with it! #CookBlogShare
Corina Blum
I love bulgur wheat. I like to use it instead of couscous as it's got a bit more texture!
Michelle Frank | Flipped-Out Food
What a beautiful, vibrant meal! I am lucky that I have a dedicated dishwasher: my hubster! 15 minutes is such an incredibly short amount of time to dish out a fabulous, healthy meal like this. It's downright inspiring!
Corina Blum
I hate washing up but luckily we do have a dishwasher now and most things go in it. I used to hate it when there was a big pile of washing up left to do after dinner when all you feel like doing is relaxing on the sofa!
Jessica Cantoni
I've been looking for some more healthier recipes! I love broccoli! I might have to make this next week 🙂 x
Corina Blum
If you do, I'm sure you'll love it! x
Kathleen Dixon Donnelly
Agree that I too love Jamie. But he needs someone to tell him when to stop. He starts simple and then just keeps ADDING things. Why not just have this as chicken with some really interesting spices and grilled broccoli, which is a great concept. That seems like more of a meal to me than chopping it up into a salad. 'It takes two people to create a work of art. One to do it, and one to hit him over the head when he's done...'
makeycakey
Looks really tasty and hearty - I love a good bulghur wheat salad - and this looks like an excellent one!
Dominic Franks (@belleaukitchen)
god, I SO know what you mean and thank the lord for our Jamie and his quick dinners... this looks exceptionally good for such a fast turnaround... I'm happy you chose such a winning random recipe... thanks so much for the entry x
Denise@magnolia verandah
Sounds lovely, I know what you mean about the washing up though. You have just prompted me to get my Challenge in also.
LFFL
Looks delicious to try.