Posts Tagged ‘smoked chicken recipes’

Most of us have grown accustomed to smoking with our favorite wood, but for something truly different, I highly recommend the Asian technique of smoking with loose tea.  The tea provides a relatively mellow, herbaceous taste, and has the advantage of working with any style of outdoor cooker from a covered hibachi or bullet-style grille to a large smoker.  It works best if you set your grille for direct heat.  Temperature and times will be the same as you would use when smoking with wood.  You have two options here, either sprinkling loose tea directly onto your coals or heat source, or you may concoct your own tea-spice blend to wrap in a perforated foil packet.  Virtually any full-flavored black or green tea will work here.  If your palate is reasonably good, you WILL be able to taste the difference.   Use a good quality tea, one that you would want to drink on its own, much like cooking with wine.   It’s fun to experiment with different varieties of tea  for subtle differences in results. Because it is a surprisingly delicate flavor that the tea imparts in the smoking, I find that this technique works best for smoking poultry , fish or pork, rather than red meats.  Working with direct heat, with a quicker cooking time, you have the option of choosing leaner, as well as more marbled meats.   Also, because of the relative delicacy, this technique can work well in a small smoke chamber.   One of my favorite recipes utilizing  this technique is for tea-smoked chicken thighs, which I then dip in a ginger-sesame-soy sauce.   Have your grille preheated and ready to go.  The preparation goes as follows:

Read the rest of this entry »