Have you ever tried smoking your own chicken or fish?
It’s very easy. You can use a dedicated smoker or a smoking box with wood-chips in your BBQ. Or you can use the black-tea method which is the easiest, cheapest and I think, most fun.
To smoke the chicken breasts we used the black-tea method following the recipe below:
You will need:
- A BBQ with lid (like a Weber) or a stainless steel bowl or foil that you can fashion into a lid.
- A cake rack or any rack on small legs that is high enough to fit a tray underneath and wide enough to fit all your meat.
- 1/2 cup loose leaf black tea (use whatever has been sitting in the tea cupboard for too long).
- 1/2 cup brown/white/coconut sugar.
- 1/2 cup jasmin rice (stale rice is fine).
- aluminium foil to make a tray.
What to do:
- Start by getting your BBQ going and crank up the heat to 200 degrees or above.
- Create a tray from your aluminium foil that is the same size/shape as your rack. The edges should be folded/rolled up to be about an inch high all around. Place the tray on the BBQ.
- Mix together the sugar, tea and rice in a bowl and pour the mixture into your aluminium tray and spread evenly. Close the BBQ lid or cover with stainless steel bowl, aluminium dome etc.
- Now wait at least 10 minutes for your tea mixture to start smoking. The smoke will smell like caramelised tea – delicious!
- Spread out your meat on the rack in a single layer and place the rack over the smoking tea. Replace the cover/lid on the BBQ. After 10 minutes open the lid once quickly to turn the meat. Replace the lid and wait another 10 minutes. Check for doneness. Serve!
