Sweet Tea Brined Chicken With Maple Glaze Recipes

SWEET TEA-BRINED CHICKEN WITH MAPLE GLAZE

Steps:

• PREPARE chicken.
• STEEP tea bag in water in a large bowl for 5 minutes, covered. Remove tea bag and discard.
• WHISK in sugar and salt until dissolved. Add ice, lime juice, lime halves, and mint; stir. Place the chicken in brine and refrigerate, covered, at least 2 hours.
• BLEND all the dry spices for the rub together. Remove chicken from brine and massage both sides with the rub before grilling.
• Place the chicken skin side down on the grill and set 2, which have been wrapped in heavy duty foil, on top of chicken. Cover and cook (over medium heat) until browned, 5 to 10 minutes. Flip the chicken over, replace the brick and grill 20 to 25 minutes more, or until the internal temperature reaches 155 degrees.
• Glazing: Remove the bricks and glaze every 2 - 3 minutes until 16o degrees. Then take the bird off the grill and let it rest.

SWEET TEA BRINED CHICKEN WITH PEACHES, MINT AND ARUGULA

Steps:

• Combine 4 cups water with the sugar, ginger, and 1/4 cup salt in a large pot. Halve the lemon, squeeze the juice from half and add the juiced half. Reserve the remaining lemon half. Bring the water to a simmer over medium-high heat and stir until the salt and sugar are dissolved. Remove from the heat, add the tea bags and let steep for 5 minutes. Remove the tea bags and add 3 cups of ice to cool the mixture to room temperature, 5 to 8 minutes. Add the chicken pieces and make sure they are submerged. Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours and up to 16 hours.
• Remove the chicken from the fridge and remove from the brine. Pat dry.
• Prepare a grill for medium indirect heat: For gas grills (with 3 or more burners), turn all the burners to medium-high heat; after about 15 minutes turn off one of the middle burners (2 if you have a grill with 4 or more burners) and turn the remaining burners down to medium. For charcoal grills, bank one chimney starter-full of lit and ashed-over charcoal briquettes to one side of the grill. Set up a drip pan on the other side to avoid flare-ups. The grill should be around 350 degrees F so adjust the burners or air-flow vents as necessary to maintain that temperature. (Be sure to consult the grill manufacturer's guide for the best results.)
• Lightly oil the grates of the grill and lay the chicken pieces, bone-side down, on the indirect heat side of the grill. Cover and cook until the skin is golden and the chicken is cooked about three-quarters of the way (130 to 135 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer), 20 to 25 minutes. Flip the chicken pieces so they are skin-side down and continue indirect grilling until the chicken is cooked through and reads 165 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, about 15 minutes more.
• Meanwhile, lightly oil the flesh of the peaches and the remaining lemon half and place flesh-side down on the direct side of the grill. Grill until marked but not too soft, about 2 minutes. Turn the peaches (leave the lemon flesh-side down) and grill just until marked on the other side, about 1 minute more. Remove the peaches and lemon from the grill. Slice the peaches into wedges. Squeeze the lemon into a small bowl and whisk in the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Toss the arugula with the mint, peaches and the grilled-lemon vinaigrette. Serve with the chicken.

SWEET-TEA FRIED CHICKEN

Steps:

• Combine tea, lemon, sugar and kosher salt, and simmer for 5 minutes or salt and sugar are complete dissolved. Pour in ice water and cool brine completely. Submerge thighs and drumsticks in brine for 48 hours.
• Remove to a wire rack and allow chicken to drain. Combine 2 cups of the flour and the corn flour, crab boil, chili powder, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Place remaining 1 cup flour in a medium bowl, and in a third bowl beat eggs with buttermilk. Line up bowls of flour, egg-buttermilk mixture and then the flour-corn flour mixture, in that order. Coat the chicken in the flour, then the egg-buttermilk mixture, and then the flour-corn flour mixture, applying pressure to ensure even adherence. Let the chicken sit in the refrigerator for 1/2 hour before frying.
• Pour oil in a heavy pot at a depth of at least 3 inches. Heat oil to 300 degrees F. Fry chicken, submerged in oil, for 15 minutes, or until an instant-read thermometer registers 170 degrees F for dark meat, 160 degrees F for white meat. Drain on a rack. Cool to room temperature, and then place in refrigerator for at least 4 and no more than 24 hours. Serve cool from a picnic basket or cold, straight from the refrigerator.

SPICED PORK WITH SWEET MAPLE GLAZE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425.
• Bring pork chops to room temperature, pat dry.
• Add 1 tbsp of butter to large fry pan and set heat to medium-high.
• Combine mustard powder, salt, pepper, paprika, cinnamon and cumin. Rub onto pork.
• Place pork into hot pan and sear on both sides for two minutes.
• Transfer pork to a baking dish sprayed with non-stick olive oil spray and pour half of the juices left in the frying pan on top of the chops.
• Cook pork chops for 15-20 minutes depending on the thickness, baste (with half of the sauce you will make in the next step) and flip once or twice during cooking.
• After pork chops are in the oven turn stove top to medium low and pour white wine into the frying pan to deglaze. Use more or less depending on how thick and sweet you want your sauce.
• Add butter, maple syrup, and tarragon.
• Allow to thicken to your desired consistency. Use half to baste chops once or twice during cooking.
• Remove chops from oven when just under done - because they are thicker they will continue to cook once you remove them. Pour remaining sauce on top and serve.

SWEET TEA-BRINED CHICKEN

Steps:

• Bring 4 cups water to a boil in a 3-qt. heavy saucepan; add tea bags. Remove from heat; cover and steep 10 minutes.
• Discard tea bags. Stir in sugar and next 6 ingredients, stirring until sugar dissolves. Cool completely (about 45 minutes); stir in ice. (Mixture should be cold before adding chicken.).
• Place tea mixture and chicken in a large zip-top plastic freezer bag; seal. Place bag in a shallow baking dish and chill 24 hours. Remove chicken from marinade, discarding marinade; pat chicken dry with paper towels.
• Light one side of grill, heating to 300° to 350° (medium) heat; leave other side unlit. Place chicken, skin side down, over unlit side, and grill, covered with grill lid, 20 minutes. Turn chicken, and grill, covered with grill lid, 40 to 50 minutes or until done. Transfer chicken, skin side down, to lit side of grill, and grill 2 to 3 minutes or until skin is crispy. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.