Joe Wicks' healthy butter chicken with sage and lemony spring greens recipe

Joe Wicks’ healthy butter chicken is served with peas and asparagus but you can swap depending on what’s in season and what you like. 

Once you’ve mastered Joe Wicks chicken pie, you need to give this sage-infused healthy butter chicken a try. It takes 15 minutes to cook and leftovers are delicious shredded and mixed into some fried rice. The recipe is easy to scale up if you’re cooking for friends and family or if you want leftovers for lunch the next day. 

Ingredients

• 1 x 200g skinless chicken breast fillet
• Drizzle of olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• 50g butter
• Small handful of sage
• 1 clove garlic
• 100g asparagus tips
• 100g frozen peas
• Pinch of dried chilli flakes
• Juice of ½ lemon
• Green salad, to serve

Method

1. Place the chicken between two pieces of cling film or baking parchment on a chopping board. Using a rolling pin, meat mallet or any other blunt instrument, bash the chicken until it is about 1cm thick all over. Drizzle the chicken breast with a little olive oil, rubbing it into the flesh, and season with salt and pepper.
2. Melt 15g of the butter in a non-stick frying pan over a medium to high heat. When bubbling, carefully lay the chicken in the pan and fry for about 4 minutes.
3. Meanwhile pick the sage leaves and finely chop the garlic clove. When the chicken has had 4 minutes, flip it and fry for a further 4 minutes while you cook the greens.
4. Put the asparagus in a microwaveable bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and zap on high for 2 minutes. Chuck in the peas and cook for a further 2 minutes until tender.
5. Come back to the chicken. Melt the remaining butter into the frying pan, add the sage leaves, chopped garlic and chilli flakes. Cook for 1 minute more, stirring, until the sage leaves are crisp. Take the pan off the heat; by now the chicken will be cooked through. Check by slicing into a thicker part to make sure the meat is white all the way through, with no raw pink bits left. Using a slotted spoon, remove the chicken and sage leaves onto a serving plate.
6. Put the frying pan back on a high heat. Chuck in the asparagus and peas. Cook for 30 seconds more until the veg is warmed through, then squeeze over the lemon juice. Pile the veg onto the plate alongside the chicken and spoon over all those unreal buttery juices. Serve with a green salad.

Top tips for making Joe Wicks' healthy butter chicken

This is a reduced carb recipe and is very satisfying thanks to the combination of the protein-rich chicken. However, if you’d like some carbs with the recipe, consider serving with some fluffy rice or mashed potatoes. 

Once cooled, store any leftover chicken in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days. Make sure you reheat thoroughly and serve piping hot when using up the leftovers.

30 Day Kick Start Plan: 100 Delicious Recipes with Energy Boosting Workouts by Joe Wicks (Bluebird, £18.99) - View at Amazon

This 30 day plan is designed to help you get moving and eat better, more satisfying and nutritious meals. Other meals on the plan include broccoli and anchovy penne, Tandoori chicken burger with cucumber raita and smoky chorizo mixed bean stew. 

Scroll through these Joe Wicks recipes if you want more dinner ideas. We think you’ll love Joe Wicks satay chicken with Asian slaw or his chicken and orzo bake. 

Recipe from 30 Day Kick Start Plan by Joe Wicks, available to buy now (Bluebird, £18.99) Photography by Andrew Burton.