Tea Smoked Chicken
The marinated, steamed chicken is smoked with tea leaves, brown sugar, and rice crust from the pot, yielding a golden color with fresh, aromatic meat.
Ingredients
Whole cleaned chicken
1
Tea leaves
20 g
Soy sauce
to taste
Fine salt
to taste
Cooking wine
to taste
Sichuan peppercorns
to taste
Brown sugar
to taste
Scallions
to taste
Rice crust
to taste
Sesame oil
to taste
Instructions
1
Marinating and Steaming
Remove the chicken's internal organs, trachea, and crop, then wash and drain thoroughly. Cut scallions into segments. Chop the remaining scallions, Sichuan peppercorns, and salt into a fine paste. Rub this scallion-peppercorn-salt mixture all over the inside and outside of the chicken, then marinate for 30 minutes. Split the chicken open, place it skin-side down in a bowl, top with scallion segments and ginger slices, add soy sauce and cooking wine, then steam in a steamer until 80% cooked. Remove from the steamer and discard the scallions and ginger.
2
Smoking and Plating
Crumble the rice crust and place it in a wok. Sprinkle with tea leaves and brown sugar, then place a metal rack on top. Set the chicken on the rack, cover the wok tightly, and smoke over medium heat until you can just smell the tea aroma. Switch to high heat and continue smoking until thick smoke rises from the wok, then remove the wok from the heat. Wait for the smoke to clear, then take out the chicken, brush with sesame oil. First cut off the chicken head and wing tips, then cut the meat into 3cm cubes, and arrange on a plate in the shape of a whole chicken to serve.
