Chinese Smoked Chicken Recipes

CHINESE SMOKED CHICKEN

Steps:

• Combine first 7 ingredients in cooking bag. Add chicken and seal tightly. Rotate bag to coat chicken with marinade. Refrigerate at least 3 hours or overnight, turning bag occasionally.
• Preheat oven to 350°F. Set bag with chicken on baking sheet. Cut 5 small vents in top of bag. Bake until chicken is tender and brown, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cool slightly. Open bag and pour juices into bowl. Cut chicken into pieces. Arrange on platter. Pour some of juices over chicken. Garnish with green onions. Serve with rice, passing remaining juices separately.

TEA-SMOKED CHICKEN

Steps:

• In a dry, small, heavy skillet toast peppercorns over moderate heat, shaking skillet, 5 minutes. Cool peppercorns and with a mortar and pestle or in an electric coffee/spice grinder coarsely grind. In a small bowl stir together peppercorns and salt.
• Pat chicken dry and rub inside and out with peppercorn mixture. Transfer chicken, breast side up, to a steamer and steam over boiling water, covered, 25 minutes, or until chicken is just cooked through.
• While chicken is steaming, line bottom and lid of a wok with heavy-duty foil. In wok stir together loose tea and brown sugar until combined well.
• Arrange a metal rack about 2 inches above tea mixture and transfer chicken, breast side up, to rack in wok. Heat wok, covered, over moderately high heat until wisps of smoke begin to appear, 2 to 3 minutes, and smoke chicken, covered, 6 minutes. Turn chicken over and smoke, covered, 6 minutes more. Remove wok from heat and let chicken stand, covered, 15 minutes.
• Transfer chicken to a cutting board and brush lightly with oil.

COLD-SMOKED CHICKEN LEGS IN A CHINESE CURE

Steps:

• Boil 2 cups water, star anise, ginger, and zest in a 1-quart saucepan, covered, 5 minutes, then cool infusion, uncovered, to room temperature, about 30 minutes.
• Stir together kosher salt, Insta Cure, and remaining 4 cups water in storage tub until solids are dissolved, about 3 minutes, then add brown sugar, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and cooled infusion (with solids). Add ice and stir until cure is cold (ice may not melt completely; keeping liquid cold slows salt absorption).
• Add chicken to cure and weight down with a large plate (to keep submerged). Chill, tub covered with a lid or plastic wrap, 4 to 6 hours.
• Rinse chicken and pat dry, then discard brine.
• Open vents on bottom of grill and on lid. Remove lid and top rack from grill, then center disposable roasting pan on lower rack and add 1 1/2 cups sawdust to pan.
• Light 6 charcoal briquettes in chimney starter. When briquettes are fully lit (covered completely with gray ash and glowing), transfer with tongs to sawdust, spacing evenly.
• When sawdust begins to smolder, replace top rack and arrange chicken legs on rack about 1 inch apart. Cover grill with lid, then insert thermometer into a vent hole in lid to monitor air temperature, which should be 80 to 120°F. (If temperature rises above 120°F, remove 1 or more briquettes or uncover grill slightly until temperature falls. If temperature falls below 80°F or sawdust stops burning, light 1 more briquette and add to sawdust.)
• Smoke chicken, adding 1 1/2 cups sawdust to roasting pan and stirring with tongs every 1 1/2 hours to ignite unburned sawdust, 6 hours. (Chicken will not be cooked.)
• Put oven rack in middle of oven and preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly oil an 11- by 17-inch roasting pan. Transfer smoked chicken, skin sides up, to pan and bake until the thickest part of a thigh registers 170°F on thermometer, about 25 minutes. Cool completely, uncovered, then chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until ready to serve.

CHICKEN SMOKED CHINESE CHICKEN

Steps:

• Toast the peppercorns in a pan, then crush them coarsely and mix with the salt. Rub the chicken with the peppercorn mixture, inside and out. Leave to stand for a few hours.
• 2. Place a large sheet of foil in a roasting tin so the foil hangs well over the sides of the tin. Sprinkle the sugar and tea leaves over the foil, put a rack in the tin and place the chicken on it. Bring the foil up over the chicken and fold together to seal. Cook in a preheated moderately hot oven (190°C/375°F, Gas Mark 5) for 30 minutes.
• 3. Unwrap the chicken and brush with the sesame seed oil. Return to the oven and roast, uncovered, for a further 5 to 10 minutes or until golden brown. Cut the chicken into serving pieces. Serve hot, garnished with Chinese parsley.
• Note: If you prefer, the chicken can be boiled or steamed for 30 minutes or until tender then roasted for 15 minutes. Chicken breasts or legs can be used instead of a whole chicken.