Best Chicken Recipes for Mother’s Day

If you truly want to spoil your mother or the mother of your children on Mother’s Day, why not make her a delicious meal made with fresh ingredients, including pasture raised chicken? 

Many moms say that the best gift they can receive for Mother’s Day is something heartfelt and handmade. Not crafty? No worries! A thoughtful homemade meal counts too, and we’re sure moms across the board would appreciate someone cooking for them for a change.

In this post, we’ll share some of our favorite pasture raised chicken recipes for Mother’s Day, including some that little hands can help with and some that are a little more gourmet, to really spoil the special mom in your life. 

Classic Paleo Chicken Salad

Though it seems a bit simple for a celebratory meal, a well-made chicken salad can be abundant with flavor, and you can snazz it up by serving it on a bed of fancy greens like arugula or local spring greens. 

This paleo chicken salad from One Lovely Life is a perfect recipe to make with kids. A grown up can prepare the chicken ahead of time, and children will have fun chopping herbs and grapes, and crushing nuts to include in the salad. Depending on the age of your child, they can use a kid-safe plastic knife, or a regular knife under close supervision.

For this recipe, you’ll need the following ingredients:

• 1 lb. cooked pasture raised chicken breast, cubed or shredded (about 3–3 1/2 cups)
• 1 cup grapes, halved or quartered
• 2 stalks celery, sliced
• 1/2 cup toasted almonds or other nut of choice
• 1 green onion, sliced
• 1/3–1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 2–3 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice (from 1 lemon)
• 1/4–1/2 tsp. Pepper
• 1/4–1/2 tsp. Salt
• 1–2 Tbsp. fresh herbs (optional), such as chives, parsley, dill, or tarragon

Once the chicken has been prepared, chop the remaining ingredients, and combine everything according to the directions in the original recipe. The end result will be a fresh, healthy, and delicious paleo chicken salad that is perfect served on a bed of arugula or mixed greens. Have the kids set a table outdoors for a Mother’s Day picnic, and if you live somewhere that makes it possible, a fresh bouquet of hand picked wildflowers will make this Mother’s Day meal even more special.

Paleo Orange Chicken

Our next recipe is fun and different, a healthy paleo and gluten free spin on orange chicken! This recipe incorporates the zesty flavors of ginger, sesame oil, orange juice and zest and coconut aminos, tempered with a bit of honey, for a fresh-tasting and flavorful meal. It’s perfect served with a side of cauliflower fried rice and sesame broccoli for a healthier-than-you-think dinner that mom will love.

When we switched to a paleo diet, which steers clear of grains and processed food, among other things, there were certain foods that were harder to give up than others, and breaded chicken was one of them! This recipe brings the delicious flavor of breaded and “fried” chicken, using healthy and paleo-friendly ingredients like arrowroot flour instead of wheat flour, and coconut aminos in place of soy sauce. 

The kids can’t help quite as much with this recipe, but if yours are anything like mine they’ll be content to stir the sauce a few times and be able to tell mom that they helped. 

• ¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon, avocado oil
• 1.5 pounds boneless, skinless pasture raised chicken thighs or breast – cubed
• Kosher salt
• ¼ cup arrowroot starch
• 1 medium yellow onion – diced
• 2 cloves garlic – finely chopped
• 1 thumbnail-sized piece fresh ginger – peeled and thinly sliced into matchsticks
• 1/3 cup coconut aminos
• 1 medium orange – zested and juiced, around 1/3 cup
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon sesame seeds – for garnish

 

We love incorporating citrus zest into recipes - it adds such a complex and fresh flavor, and the orange zest in this recipe is no exception. This paleo orange chicken recipe includes so many flavorful ingredients, from the orange zest to the sesame oil (another favorite of ours!) that we just know mom will love it. 

 

Whole Roasted Chicken with Lemon and Herb Butter

If this recipe seems familiar, it’s because it’s a favorite of ours, and was previously featured in our What to Cook for Dinner Tonight blog post. We’re highlighting it again here because it’s such a simple and delicious recipe, but as easy as it is, a meal centered around a whole pasture raised roasted chicken really adds a gourmet feel to Mother’s Day dinner. While easily made in under 2 hours (including cooking time), it will seem like you spent the whole day in the kitchen making a fancy meal for mom. 

Make sure you save the bones to make a delicious bone broth that is packed with nutrients and flavor, and perfect when used in soups or to saute vegetables. 

To cook a whole roasted chicken, first let your pasture raised whole chicken come to room temperature, while you preheat an oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit.You can prepare the lemon herb butter while the chicken and oven are coming to their respective temperatures. We use about a stick of butter for a 4-5 pound chicken, or you can use an equivalent amount of ghee if your paleo diet steers clear of regular butter. (If you do consume butter as part of your paleo diet, we recommend grass fed, of course!) Once the butter is melted, add 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil, the juice of half a lemon, some minced garlic, and a couple of teaspoons of fresh or dried herbs. If you opt for dried herbs, remember to use about half the quantity you would use for fresh. 

Mix all of the garlic herb butter ingredients together, and then use a silicone brush or a spoon to coat the chicken with the herb butter. It can be a bit tricky, but getting some of the herb butter underneath the skin of the breasts and legs will make your roast chicken incredibly tender and juicy. Once the chicken is coated with the herb butter, cook it for about an hour and twenty minutes, or until the internal temperature has reached at least 165 degrees. Trust us when we say that a meat thermometer is a chef’s best friend - it takes the guesswork out of cooking and will help you achieve a juicy, tender, perfectly cooked chicken every time. 

This whole pasture raised chicken with lemon herb butter is delicious served with roasted vegetables and sweet potatoes, or a simple salad. 

No matter what you decide to make mom for Mother’s Day, we guarantee that she’ll be touched by the effort and the heartfelt meal made with love.