Tea-Smoked Roast Chicken, Food & Wine September 2010
Sautéed Greens with Ginger and Sesame, Food & Wine September 2010
Roast chicken isn't normally a good week-night meal, and we didn't end up eating dinner until about 10 tonight. We had planned to make this earlier but had a hard time finding some of the spices-- star anise and Sichuan peppercorns I ended up getting, dried red chiles I ended up omitting and using red pepper flakes instead-- so we kept being unable to make it until now.
This recipe is a bit involved. It brines for 24 hours (although as a reviewer pointed out, can it be considered a brine without salt?), then is smoked for ~10 minutes over a bed of tea leaves, dry rice, and spices (our second chicken of the week flavored with sugary tea!), then it is finally roasted for a couple hours. Brining went fine, but I don't think I really smoked it. After the allotted time, there was no smoke when I opened it, although the sugar had melted into a gooey, sticky mess.
Smoke came later, while roasting-- the high temperature specified browned the skin quite a bit, and since the pan wasn't completely flat, the drippings were thin in one corner and burned, setting off our room's fire alarm (luckily, the room fire alarm is independent of the dorm fire alarm, so as long as you fan the detector and open the windows it turns off promptly).
G said it was good, but said that a Costco rotisserie chicken is just as good and much easier (>_<) This wasn't particularly *hard*, but starting a roast chicken at 7 pm is just never a good idea-- G was already hungry right when we got home and he didn't like waiting. Plus we couldn't find any chickens smaller than 7 lbs (the recipe was for two 3-pounders), so we had to cook for longer. It did have a distinct flavor that is common at Chinese restaurants (but we couldn't quite put our fingers on it), and the skin was really flavorful. I think the flavor mostly came from the brining though, not the smoking. If I make this again I will try to smoke for longer. I think it just isn't that successful on an electric stove.
The greens smelled really good while cooking, but were just fine-- nothing too special. I used a combination of watercress and spinach. It was a little bitter.
No comments:
Post a Comment