Chicken Paillards with Clementine Salsa

 I will be sharing some holiday recipes for the rest of the year..some family favorites and some new favorites...I will certainly need to start an exercise routine.....

  

         This is such a wonderful recipe. Colorful, sunshiny and festive.....perfect for this time of year!

This is the time of year to buy clementine's.....by the box...they are so fun to eat, no seeds and so easy to peel..Clementines are a cross between a mandarin orange and a sour orange, they have a concentrated honey orange flavor .

Chicken Paillards with Clementine Salsa

2 large skinless, boneless chicken breast

4 clementines, peeled and diced (about 1 cup)

1 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered

1/2 cup finely diced red onion

1/2 cup finely diced celery

1/4 cup roughly cut fresh basil

1/2 cup roughly cut fresh cilantro

2 tbls olive oil

2 tbls fresh lime juice

2 tbls olive oil

1/2 cup fresh squeezed clementines

                                       first make the salsa by chopping up the happy little oranges

Then add the chopped cherry tomatoes.......

Add the chopped red onion, the chopped celery, chopped basil

add the chopped cilantro, and then if you love it as much as me add another handful..

              add the fresh lime juice and olive oil and throw in some fresh jalapenos if you would like...I added about a half teaspoon of crushed red chili peppers

 

then set aside, best if made a few hours ahead of time so the flavors meld...

I honestly could just eat this by the spoonful.

take out 2 good sized boneless skinless chicken breasts and we want to sliced them diagonally...like this

I know they are a little uneven but it will work out..what we want are thin little cutlets....

next place a piece of plastic over the top....and...if you have one of those cool flat mallets you can wham away...flattening out all the to thick pieces and making them all about 1/2 inch thick....

but if like me you don't, you could do what I did and  use the flat side of a huge meat cleave...it worked fine

these are just fine, what we want here is for them to be uniform in thickness or thinness in this case..

salt and pepper your pieces, I used pink sea salt...see

I just wanted to stop right here and let you know that at World Market you can get this pink sea salt for 2.99 for this nice size jar....it's a bargain....ok back to chicken

heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a heavy pan on medium

cook about 2 minutes on each side, make sure it browns some

after all the chicken is fried...add the clementine juice to the pan and reduce by half...makes a nice little rich sauce...takes only about a minute to reduce...

lay a couple pieces of the chicken on the plate and spoon some of the sauce in the pan over the top and then top the whole thing off with the clementine salsa.....it is full of flavor burst! you will love it, guaranteed!

Cheers to Happy  !!