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Recipe from: sunflower-recipes Image Credit: sunflowerfoodgalore |
Tea
Smoked Chicken (茶熏雞)
“This smoked
chicken I am doing here is how Chinese would normally do it. To ensure the
chicken is full of flavor I marinated (brined) it for almost 36 hours. The
chicken is steamed then followed by smoking. No oven roasting is necessary.” sunflowerfoodgalore
Ingredients:
Whole chicken,
around 1.75kg.
Marinade
(brine):
150 ml shaoshing wine
50 ml light
soy sauce
300 ml water
1.5 teaspoons
salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon
Sichuan peppercorn
2 star anise
4 - 5
peppercorns (lightly crushed)
1 thumb size
ginger (no need to peel just thinly sliced)
2 stalks of
spring onion (sliced)
Preparation:
Put the
chicken in a zip lock bag, add marinade.
Seal the bag.
I used double
bags just in case there is any leakage.
Keep chicken
in the fridge.
Turning twice
a day.
Before
cooking take it out 30 - 40 minutes earlier to bring it to room temp.
Take the chicken
out and remove every bit of spices.
Ready for
steaming.
For the left
over marinade, I boiled and strained it.
Use it for
noodle soups or add to any stir fries.
Steaming:
I used a dish
to collect any cooking juice then rest then chicken on a rack so the juice will
not
touch the chicken.
The steamed
meat juice has a lovely flavor, can be used as sauce or stock.
Steaming time
depends on the weight of the chicken, the chicken is not ready to eat after
steaming, it will continue to cook while smoking.
If you just like to steam and serve the
chicken without smoking add another 10 - 12 minutes
steaming time.
When water is
boiling turn the heat to medium to steam the chicken.
Very high
heat steaming the meat outside will cook rapidly and turn tough before the
inside is
cooked.
For just
cooked meat with a slight hint of pink keeping the chicken very moist, how the
Chinese
would like, 10 minutes/500 g weight
If you like
your chicken thoroughly cooked without any pink at all, 15 minutes/500 g weight
When the
chicken is done take it out and straight onto the smoker soon as you can.
For whole
chicken make sure to drain the juice from the carcass inside, ready for smoking
immediately.
Smoking:
Use a
wok/large old pan/steel stove top steamer, all with a lid.
I used the
same steel steamer that steamed the chicken for the smoking.
Double or
triple lined the dried 'smoker' with large pieces of foil.
Then
make up a smoking material:
2 heap
tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoons
plain flour
2 tablespoons
rice
1 handful of
Chinese tea, about 5 tablespoons (I used Ti Kuan Yin tea 鐵觀音)
Make the
mixture then spread on the foil.
Put a rack on
top of the smoking material, or in my case I used a steel steamer I put the
rack on
the steamer.
Put Chicken
on the rack and put the lid on.
Turn the heat
up to medium and soon you will see white smoke, and then turn the heat down to
low.
I could
really smell the flavor coming out of the tea. Smoke the chicken till golden
brown.
Do make sure you take care of the smoke alarm
while smoking and turn the cooker hood fan
on.
There
shouldn't be too much heavy smoke lingering your kitchen that you may need the
fire
extinguisher anytime.
Do not leave
the kitchen unattended while smoking.
Smoking
time:
About 15
minutes (medium smoked)
About 20 - 25
minutes (deep rich color and flavor)
Heat off and
let the smoke settles for few minutes before taking the chicken out.
The chicken
has turned very deep golden brown.
Leave the
chicken to cool and rest before chopping the Chinese style or carving.
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