A Different Take on Fried Chicken + ‘Visitors’

We are always looking for good fried chicken and especially chicken wings.  Then Laurie noticed that the building that formerly housed our favorite Chinese restaurant, had now become a restaurant featuring Korean style fried chicken… We had to check it out!

The outside of the building occupied by CM Korean Style Chicken is attractive.  On the other hand, the dining area is fairly bare bones…plain and simple.  The posters on the front windows showing this restaurant’s offerings are very visually descriptive of what CM Chicken is serving.  FYI, the restaurant also offers take-out service.

We took photos of the 3 primary pages of the restaurant’s menu but somehow we missed a key page.  Our waitress did a good job of explaining the menu to us…especially the ‘spice’ or ‘heat’ levels.  For our first visit, we stuck to the Specialties and Sides page as well as the “Original” offerings.

I didn’t capture the information about ’Tikkudak’ style chicken that CM Chicken offers.  This style involves extra steps.  First the chicken is fried and then it is baked in a charcoal-grill Tikku oven, which makes the chicken extra crispy and crunchy.  I’ll probably try this style when we return for another meal.

We started out with the Fried Calamari from the Specialties and Sides portion of the menu. ($8.99) We chose the ‘original’ over the soy-garlic or the red-hot versions.  As happens when we…or I…are hungry and forget our photographic intentions, we ate more than half of the calamari before remembering to take a picture.  The calamari was nice and tender…good quality…but the batter was too bland for us.  The next time we’ll order one of the other options, probably the soy-garlic version.

Interestingly enough, CM Chicken offers fried chicken gizzards, an item rarely seen on menus in the USA.  We do know folks that love gizzards, but it’s not our thing…

Laurie ordered the Curry Chicken Wings…crispy chicken tossed in their signature golden curry sauce. ($14.99) She liked them a lot despite the fact that we prefer chicken wings that aren’t breaded.  There was just a little touch of spice or heat in her wing seasoning.

I also ordered chicken wings.  My selection should be no surprise for anyone who knows me.  I went for the Red Hot Pepper Chicken Wings. ($14.99) These wings were tossed in CM Chicken’s “addictive” Gochujang sauce.  I can assure you that these wings put out some heat.  However, after the first blast of heat settled down, I really enjoyed both the spice and the flavor of the ingredients. 

Despite the breading, we really liked the wings.  After the calamari appetizer and about half of our wings, we were full so we took the rest home with us, reheating them in the microwave for dinner…still good!

CM Chicken is located in the Kroger shopping plaza at 115 Brooklawn Street in just off Kingston Highway/US Hwy 11 in Farragut Tennessee.  Phone: 865-392-1060.  The company’s website can be found at http://cmchickenus.com/.  Apparently there are about 50 CM Chicken restaurants in the eastern and central portion of the USA.

Now for a couple of wild visitors in our yard.  We don’t see Flickers at our feeder very often but this one has learned that he can access the suet by standing/perching on top of the other feeder, the one full of seeds and fruit.   The second photo is clearer as Laurie had time and the right camera to take the shot.  They are one of our most beautiful birds...

This photo is pretty fuzzy…not great…but it was with a phone through a window and in the rain.  This red fox was just lying there chilling and grooming between its hunting efforts.  The fox family has a den about 2 houses away from ours.

I borrowed this photo from The National Wildlife Foundation... The red fox is the largest of the true foxes.  They can be found across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe and Asia, plus parts of North Africa.  Introduced by the British into Australia for the ‘sport’ of fox hunting, the red fox is considered a destructive invasive species on that continent.  It is estimated that there are 7,200,000 red foxes in Australia.  The only place where they did not established themselves was on the island of Tasmania…where they were out-competed by the Tasmanian Devils.  As of about 2000, they were accidentally re-introduced on the island and the government initiated an eradication program.  Red Foxes have significantly contributed to the extinction or decline of several native species across Australia.

We love seeing them here however…as they keep down the population of mice, moles and other destructive critters.  Also, they are fun to watch!

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave