Back in the day a group of friends and I would skip out of the office early on a Friday and high tail it from Salt Lake City north to either Swan Valley or Irwin (Idaho) on the South Fork of the Snake.
Rarely did we make the 4ish hour run in time to get a short Friday float in my drifter, though we’d set up camp in one of our favorite spots and hit the river early the next morning. It’s possible to set up a very nice long float there with a reasonable shuttle – we’d float Saturday and Sunday and be back in bed at home by midnight most trips.
Cooking the ‘real’ dinner of the trip on that travel Friday night more or less became a tradition. We’d get camp set up, inflate a raft if we had one with us and get a little nearby, late evening fishing in.
Someone would eventually be designated camp cook, though Big Bob and I typically ended up running the camp kitchen.
Big Bob was a hulking guy, 6’5” or 6’6” if he was an inch and tipping the scales (guessing) somewhere in the vicinity of 260. He’d played a couple of years of college football at Utah State before blowing up an ankle and returning to California where he met his lovely wife Joan.
He somehow ended up in slaving away in the management end of a national trucking company and transferred back out to Utah where we met them and spent a fair amount of time with he and his family.
(Bob eventually found the trucking industry tiresome and flexed his culinary muscles and bought a pizza franchise in Denver.)
Bob brought this chicken on the trip one weekend to grill that Friday night. Fly fishing folk know well that almost anything tastes better by the river – the Lime Curry Grilled Chicken was outrageous that evening and has been every time since.
Simple, powerfully flavorful with a spice array that tickles all the taste sensations (yep, even umami).
We just grilled some of this up a couple of days ago; the aroma of that chicken still makes me think of the South Fork.
And big rainbows.
2 tbs fresh ground black pepper
1/3 cup + 1 tbs curry powder, toasted
2 tsp salt (use the good stuff)
3/4 cup olive oil
3/4 cup honey
6 limes, juiced
6 large whole chicken breasts, split (or your pick of the chick)
Toast the curry. Measure the curry powder into a heated dry skillet (over moderate heat) and stir / shake until fragrant. Set aside to cool.
Mix the marinade. Combine the olive oil, honey, lime juice, fresh ground pepper, salt and curry powder; mix well.
Marinate. Trim and wash the chicken breast; cover with the marinade in your container of choice and refrigerate for 12 hours.
Grill. Shake marinade from the chicken and grill over medium high heat for 6 or 7 minutes per side or until done.
Mouth watering right off the grill and makes for killer chicken salad, tacos and quesadillas.
Enjoy.
Tags: Friday Feast
