Smoked Chicken - General Principles
Smoking products is a process known since ancient times. Ancient people subjected the meat to a mixture of wood smoke and air for a long time to provide it with an antioxidant effect, which made it possible to suppress the reproduction of harmful bacteria in it for a sufficiently long time. In modern society, smoking is used more to give the product a specific taste and aroma.
Has gained great popularity among people smoked chicken, which is widely used as food in a separate form, or as a complement to a variety of dishes, because its delicate aroma and piquant taste are combined with a huge amount of ingredients. The best part is that this delicacy can be purchased not only in stores, but also cook it at home yourself.
As you know, there are two relatively safe types of chicken smoking: hot and cold. What is their difference? During cold smoked chicken or its components are suspended from the smoke of a smoldering fire. The process takes place at a temperature of about 30 degrees for a long period of time - usually several days. And hot smoking is characterized by treating products with the heat of smoke from coals at high temperatures (from 90 to 150 degrees). The process usually takes only a few hours. The texture of the meat becomes less dense and softer.
Smoked Chicken - Inventory Preparation
First you need to get a smoking machine, which you can buy in a specialty store or make at home. However, if you decide to build such a machine yourself, we advise you to contact experienced welders, since the seams of the smokehouse should be hermetically sealed.
In principle, you can use a large bucket, pan, metal barrel, or the case of an old refrigerator as a smoking apparatus, the main thing is that the appliance is tightly closed. Earlier in Russia, a large Russian stove was used for these purposes.
Inventory: In order to prepare the chicken for smoking, prepare a clean ax or hammer, a deep enameled bowl (a bowl can be), a large cutting board, an ax for cutting carcasses and a sharp knife.
Smoked Chicken - Preparation
The chicken carcass must be cleaned of the insides, washed, cut in half and thoroughly beat between the two cutting boards with the ax of an ax, a home hammer or any other blunt heavy object. This is done so that the large bones and joints of the chicken become softer. Then heat the water and prepare the brine with a glass of salt (per liter of water), bay leaf, garlic, cinnamon, black pepper, sugar, vinegar, etc. In general, there are no specific criteria, and it all depends on the specific recipe, type of smoking, individual preferences and tastes. Next, spread the chicken in a deep bowl and completely fill with the prepared brine for a couple of days.
At the end of the period, we take out the carcasses, make deep cuts in them and fill them with lard and garlic. We hang the chicken to suspend it, then we can begin the process of smoking. In addition to the whole carcass, in the smokehouse you can process its components: thighs, wings, breast and lower legs.
Smoked Chicken - Best Recipes
Recipe 1: Hot Smoked Chicken
Do you want to cook aromatic and juicy meat without spending a lot of money and a lot of time? Then this recipe is for you. Below we describe the simplest existing method of smoking chicken. Before sending the meat to the smoking apparatus for only 40 minutes, we will carry out a number of simple actions: rub the chicken with spices, pepper, salt, and then dry it and send it to the smokehouse.
Ingredients: whole chicken, salt and black pepper to taste, any spices of your choice.
Cooking method:
After the chicken is seasoned, we put it in a plastic bag for a couple of hours, in order to give it a good soak. After this time, we take out the chicken and hang it in the fresh air to dry. Next, we put the chicken in a smoking device, install a pan in which excess fat will drain, and we smoke the chicken under the influence of intense fire for forty minutes. We must remove the skin from the cooked bird, since during this smoking process it absorbed all the bitterness and burnt wood.
Recipe 2: Hot Smoked Chicken (Option 2)
Ingredients: a glass of salt, three liters of water, a bay leaf, three to four cloves of garlic, black pepper (peas), two tables. spoons of any spices, for example, for barbecue.
Cooking method:
1. Prepare the brine: for this, dip salt, pepper, lavrushka, garlic and spices into warm water and bring to a boil, keep it on the fire for only 3-5 blinks from the moment of boiling, then remove the brine and cool to 20-25 degrees.
2. We thoroughly wash the chicken outside and also from the inside, cut off excess fat from it (especially in the area of the tail) and lower it into the brine. Put in the refrigerator for 18-20 hours.
3. Then we take out the bird, wash it under running water, hang it for 1-2 hours, in order to get excess moisture from the glass, then cut it into two halves, tie them with twine.
4. Pour 3 handfuls of sawdust (preferably alder) in the smoking device, put the tray, hang the carcasses and close the lid tightly.
5. We put the smoking apparatus on the maximum fire, and after 10-12 minutes we reduce to moderate and smoke for one and a half hours.
After a while, carefully open the lid and get out our treat. The chicken prepared according to this recipe tastes just fine. Enjoy your meal!
Recipe 3: Cold Smoked Chicken
For this recipe, it is necessary to take the meat of a young bird, preferably a large breed. Great broilers are not older than six months of age.
Ingredients: 1 kg of chicken, 200 gr. bran, a tablespoon of salt, a tablespoon of lemon juice, half a teaspoon of pepper.
Cooking method:
Gently gut and wash the chicken, chop it into 2 halves, which we put under pressure in a cool place (2-3 degrees) for two days, rubbing the halves first with lemon juice. Immediately before smoking, the chicken must be heavily rolled in from a mixture of bran and pepper on all sides. Smoke the bird should be at a temperature of not more than 30 degrees for 7-10 days in a cold way. When smoking, it is recommended to use briquettes "Maple", "Oak", "Cherry". The finished dish can be served with pickled mushrooms or vegetables.
Smoked Chicken - Useful Tips from Experienced Cookers
Many have probably heard of the so-called liquid smoke, which is used for quick-smoking smoking, but this approach to processing foods is very harmful to the body, since liquid smoke is equated with the strongest carcinogens. It contains toxic chemical substances (phenol, formaldehyde, etc.), which tend to accumulate in the cells of the human body and cause their mutation - healthy cells can transform into cancer cells under their influence.
In order for our smoked chicken to have a more refined taste, buy it fresh and chilled (not frozen). Give preference to large breeds of birds of a fairly young age.
To speed up the salting process before smoking, experts advise injecting the brine into the chicken. This should be done in small portions for every 3-5 cm of the surface of the carcass. And the last thing to remember: cold-smoked should only be a healthy bird, since some microorganisms, including parasite eggs, are resistant to smoking. If you are not sure about the quality of the meat, it is advisable to choose a hot method of smoking.
Comments
But if you don’t take a steam bath. My recipe. Brine, like you, pan, chopped chicken into brine, boil for a couple of minutes. Laid out in a pan. Then we have beef meat called palita. In portions, as long as it goes in, I cook a couple of minutes and into the pan.
Then I fill it with brine and in a couple of days, I will cook in the tandoor, about 5 hours, at a low temperature with smoke and sawdust, which I put after heating the stove.
Good luck.
