The Best Chicken Recipes for Spring

We love spring chicken recipes! Well, let’s be honest, we love chicken recipes for any season - especially when you cook with seasonal ingredients, recipes can really create a whole seasonal mood. Think about how savory spices like nutmeg and sage always make you think of autumn, or cloves and cinnamon bring back memories of holidays seasons or comforting winter recipes. 

The same is true for spring - we love using spring herbs like mint, dill, and chives, and spring vegetables such as asparagus, radishes, spring onions, and leafy greens. There are so many delicious spring recipes you can make with pasture raised chicken, and in this post we’ll feature a few of what we think are the best chicken recipes for Spring.

Roasted Chicken Thighs and Radishes with Lemon Crème Fraîche

While we stick to a mostly paleo diet, every once in a while we’ll make an exception - and we definitely will make an exception for this recipe! The lemon crème fraîche is the perfect complement to this light springtime meal, and the dairy isn’t overpowering enough to weigh you down - it just adds a light flavor and texture to the meal. If you have a source for local, farm fresh grassfed dairy, even better! This recipe is from Eatingwell.com: 

 

Ingredients

4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs or drumsticks (about 1 3/4 pounds), trimmed

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided

½ teaspoon garlic powder

½ teaspoon onion powder

½ teaspoon salt, divided

½ teaspoon ground pepper, divided

5 cups radishes, chopped if large, plus 6 cups radish greens (about 3 bunches), divided

1 small red onion, cut into 1/4-inch wedges

½ cup crème fraîche

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh chives

Directions

Preheat your oven to 450°F, and brush both sides of chicken with 1 tablespoon oil. Sprinkle with garlic powder, onion powder and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. In a medium bowl, toss the radishes and onion with the remaining 1 tablespoon oil and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper, and arrange the chicken and vegetables in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet.

Roast for 20 minutes. Add radish greens and continue roasting until your chicken shows an internal temperature of 165°F using a meat thermometer. This should take about 10 minutes more.

While the chicken is cooking, whisk the crème fraîche, mustard, lemon zest, lemon juice and chives in a small bowl. Serve the chicken and vegetables with the sauce.

Chicken Berry Salad

This recipe is super simple and is a perfect way to use leftovers from any type of chicken meal. We think that leftovers from a rotisserie chicken would be perfect in this recipe, but you can use any cut. While the recipe calls for using a prepackaged honey mustard dressing mix, we always think making something homemade is better than prepacked, especially when it comes to salad dressing because they are so easy! Here’s a quick and easy paleo honey mustard dressing recipe from Tessa the Domestic Diva. We’ve tweaked the recipe below a bit to account for the use of a different dressing. The dressing itself is actually the most time consuming part! Once that is prepared, it’s just a matter of throwing all of your ingredients into a large salad bowl and tossing with the dressing.

Ingredients

Approximately 1 cup paleo honey mustard dressing (use as much or as little as you like depending on your own preference - you can always add more!)

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (or leftovers from chicken thighs or rotisserie dinner)

8 cups mixed salad greens

1 cup sliced fresh strawberries

½ cup fresh blueberries

½ cup fresh raspberries

8 ounces sugar snap peas

½ cup toasted pecans

Directions

Cook and slice your chicken if you’re using chicken breasts; otherwise, chop your leftover chicken and toss it in a large bowl with the salad greens, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, peas, and pecans. Pour in the prepared dressing, and toss to coat.

That’s IT!

Paleo Greek Lemon Chicken Soup

If you’ve ever had Greek lemon chicken soup (or avgolemono), you know how savory, refreshing, and delicious it is! This recipe, from Unbound Wellness, takes a paleo spin on avgolemono, and it’s one of our favorite springtime soup recipes. Soup might seem like a strange choice for spring, because we often associate it with the cooler, darker months of fall and winter. But this soup is both light and refreshing and nourishing, and we think it strikes the perfect balance for a springtime soup.

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil

1 yellow onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup carrot, diced

2 cups cauliflower, riced

6 cups chicken broth

12–14 oz shredded chicken, precooked

1 tsp dried dill

2 tbsp fresh parsley (reserve some for topping)

1 tsp salt (salt further to taste)

1/2 tsp black pepper (omit for AIP)

3 egg yolks (omit for AIP)

1/2 cup lemon juice

1 cup kale, chopped

Lemon wedges and lemon zest to serve

Instructions

Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium-low heat. When the oil is warm, saute the onions for 3-4 minutes or until lightly translucent. Add the carrots and cauliflower rice and saute for an additional 5 minutes or until slightly softened.

Pour in the broth and herbs and stir to combine. Simmer on medium heat for 10 minutes, and then spoon out about 1 cup of hot broth and set aside. In a small bowl whisk together the egg yolks until fully scrambled and then slooooowly pour the cup of hot broth into the egg mixture while continuing to whisk. This will gently cook the egg yolks. Pour the yolk mixture into the rest of the soup and stir.

Add the chicken and lemon juice to the soup, stir to combine, and simmer for about 10 more minutes. Add in the kale and stir until wilted but still bright green (it will continue to cook a bit in the hot soup.) 

Season to taste and serve with fresh lemon wedges and parsley. 

What are some of your favorite springtime chicken recipes? Let us know in the comments, and if you tried any of these ones, we’d love your feedback!