Tea Smoked Chicken with Orange & Ginger Compote

This recipes calls for the chicken to be pre-cooked first, and then transferred to a smoking oven for the final cooking stage.  This makes lots of smoke so it’s best done outside or in an outdoor kitchen.  To make the smoking oven, you need a tray with holes to hold the chicken, which will sit above another tray of the same size which will have the smoking ingredients burning underneath.  You’ll also need a lid to cover the chicken to keep the smoke in the oven. BBQ kettles are ideal but you can always make something at home. The brown sugar will give the colour and sweetness, the rice acts as a fuel source to keep the ingredients smoking, and Chinese tea will give the aroma.  The alternative is to use chicken breast but be careful not to overcook it.


Tea-Smoked Chicken
 1 ea      Whole Chicken, preferably fresh
½ cup   Chinese jasmine, oolong or green tea leaves
½ cup   Uncooked white rice
½ cup   Brown sugar
1 T        Chinese five-spice powder
6           Whole star anise
1 tsp    Cumin Seeds (Jeera)
1 ea      Cinnamon quill or bark
1 ea      Orange, peel only with as little of the white pith salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

METHOD:
Season the whole chicken with salt and pepper, outside and inside the cavity.  Don’t be shy to put your hand inside the chicken as you need to rub the seasoning deep into the carcass to flavour the meat
Allow to rest in the refrigerator for 2 hours minimum, or overnight.
Steam or boil the chicken until 75% cooked, around 15-20 minutes.  There still should be a little blood around the drumsticks.  Remove and pat skin dry.
Put all the dry ingredients into foil and fold into a parcel – double wrapped.  Pierce a few holes in the parcel for the smoke to escape
Place the parcel in the centre of the bottom tray, or if you have a BBQ kettle, directly over the hot charcoal
Put the chicken in the slotted tray over the smoking parcel
Cover and smoke the chicken for at least 15 minutes, or until the chicken turns golden brown
Serve with fresh vegetables or a salad, with the orange ginger sauce

Orange Ginger Compote
2T        Ginger, finely grated
1-2       Chilli, chopped fine
1T        Coriander root, chopped fine
1T        Orange peel zest, finely grated
4T        Chinese Sesame Oil
1T        Brown sugar
Heat the sesame oil and fry all the ingredients for 2 minutes until the sugar dissolves