Honey Brined Chicken Tikka Masala

Do not be fooled - that knife is monster big. This was a honkin' portion of chicken.

Oh, yeah, back at Clementine tonight!  Actually I went there every day last week. Why? 'Cause Romey is leaving (*sob*) and Jill is new and I was having a crappy week - so I got myself an endorphin bath every night by treating myself.  (Better for ya than any number of mood altering substances, eh?) Blew my budget and don't even want to step on the scale. What can I say?  I'm a Clemgirlfan.

And yes, you will get to hear about other places, too. But with the upcoming change in kitchen staff, there will be a lot of Clementine for a while. Besides, this blog is for me!!

I want to catch Jeremy while he's close. Papa J and Chris were manning the kitchen with him tonight and I went home full and warm and happy.  They're using Zahradka's chicken, which I've come to love.  Yep, chickens that have been running around are more muscle bound but, man, are they tasty.  I'll trade exercising my jaw muscles just a scoch for flavor from decently raised birds any day. This one was brined with Pristine Valley Farms honey.  Gents, the bird tonight was just a hair drier than usual. Do not take that as a complaint, just an observation - it's just that usually I'm astounded by the juiciness of your free range birds. You know you can count on me to be straight on this stuff so the abject compliments you rack up mean something!

Instead of floating in sauce, as you see so often, the airline breast was napped with the Tikka Masala.  At first I wondered if there was enough sauce to make me happy (I know, Romey, I should have never questioned your wisdom).   Yes, indeed there was.  Beautiful balance between the roasted veggies (also from Zahradka), basmati rice, the poultry and the sauce.  Look at the browning (read flavor) on that bird! And the sauce. Oh, so score!  I told Carrie Ann I run out of words to compliment this kitchen. Wonderfully savory, velvety on the tongue, with clean bright veggies, in a nice mouth-full dice, and that lovely rice for contrast.

Oh, and I should mention the meal started out with Chicken Liver Pate with Rum and Cranberries and a rockin' St. Andre... and, of course, Lucille's pickles (Winston's grandma's recipe).

I'll catch you up on last week's meals tomorrow.  Some yummy, yummy stuff! Oh, and Tuesday I made my 'ol standby, 3 Pepper Skillet, which isn't so much a recipe as a weekday dump'n'stir to make use of an over abundance of sweet peppers - I'll get that up, too.