Earl Grey Tea Smoked Chicken Breast

OK so I'm a little late for Chinese New Year but I wanted to get my Valentines post out last weekend so anyone that wanted to had time to make the cookies for their sweety - maybe you can make this for them for dinner and then give the cookies as dessert?

Anyway, this is a very simple recipe - don't let the whole smoking thing scare you. You need to have a window open and an extractor on if possible, and if you are making this for your hot date I would suggest smoking it earlier in the day and re-heating it wrapped in foil in the oven just before serving - then you can get changed and perfume yourself up again so you don't smell like a smokehouse.


Remember to double layer your foil and try to seal it as well as poissible so the least amount of smoke possible escapes. You could use any kind of black tea you like, I am a big Earl Grey fan so used that but I have had salmon smoked with lapsang souchong too which was very lovely. I'd like to try langoustines cooked in this method soon too.

As you can see I've served the chicken with a little salad but it's very nice over rice too with a sprinkling of sesame seeds and finely chopped nori seaweed sheet. I get these little sachets of rice seasoning from my local chinese which had sesame seeds, shreds of nori and some chicken/seafood/vegetable flavoured salt that you just mix in.


Earl Grey Tea Smoked Chicken Breast
Serves 2

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp mirin / rice wine
1 tsp five spice
2 tbsp earl grey tea leaves
3 tbsp rice (any kind)
1 tbsp sugar

You will also need a good amount of tin foil, a wok and a steamer basket that will fit inside it.

Method
Place your chicken breasts into a dish or plastic bag and pour in the soy sauce, rice vinegar, mirin and five spice. Make sure all the chicken is covered and then put in the fridge to marinate for at least one hour.

When ready to cook remove the chicken from the fridge and set to one side. Now line the bottom of your wok with a double layer of tin foil big enough to overlap the rim by a good 2 inches. Sprinkle in the tea leaves, rice and sugar and then put in the steamer basket. Now turn the hob on to high heat.

Pat the chicken breasts dry with some kitchen roll and then cut each one lengthways into two pieces. When the tea and rice starts to smoke, arrange the chicken evenly on the steamer and then cover the wok with another double layer of tin foil, rolling it in with the overlap from the bottom layer to seal in the smoke.

Cook for 12 minutes and them remove from the heat, open up and cut into one of the chicken pieces to see if it is cooked. If not, just seal the pan up again and smoke for a little longer until it is.

Slice the cooked chicken into thin pieces and serve any way you wish.

Earl Grey Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream Frosting

Although I cannot say I am a big tea drinker I do quote often partake in some of it's more fragrant and floral relatives like herbals and fruit infusions, green teas and I have recently grown a liking for earl grey with a slice of lemon. Such a lovely combination, as the earl grey itself has bergamot notes which the lemon enhances wonderfully so you can imagine sitting by a swan filled pond at a stately home under a white parasol. I hope I'm not the only one who gets this excited about teas!

Concidering the images these flavours brought up for me I think they will be the perfect flavouring for some of the cupcakes I am taking to one of my best friends' wedding next Saturday. These are the test batch and I think they turned out almost perfectly. I may use less frosting next time as the delicate floral taste of the cake needs to shine through a little more! I may even make myself a batch to eat plain - did I really just say that? I'm so addicted I'm pretty sure I bleed buttercream...

I'll be taking three batches to the wedding - these earl grey babies, chocolate and salted caramel as Jon the groom loves them and a batch of my victoria sponge cupcakes - vanilla cake stuffed with jam and topped with a good swirl of creamy vanilla buttercream. I think I'm going to make some cute toppers for the salted caramel cupcakes too, Jon is an awesome artist and drew a cartoon of himself and Sarah for the invitations so I think I'll use that and maybe draw up some monograms. I'll get some photos as long as I remember this time, I've been forgetting to photograph stuff a lot recently, boo.

Earl Grey Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream Frosting
Makes 12 standard American size cupcakes

Cupcake Ingredients
120ml semi-skimmed milk
1 earl grey teabag (or a homemade one using loose tea leaves like I made, see notes below)
120g plain flour
140g caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp earl grey tea leaves, ground as fine as you can get them in a pestle and mortar with the salt
40g butter, softened
1 egg

Frosting Ingredients
125g butter, softened
1 tsp lemon zest
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
500g icing sugar
a few drops of yellow food colouring (optional)

Cupcakes Method
Preheat the oven to 170 C / 325 F and line a muffin tray with 12 standard American size cupcake liners. Set aside.

Slowly heat the milk in a small saucepan until just to the boil, then remove from the heat and add the earl grey teabag. Leave to infuse for 5 minutes then remove, squeezing what you can from the teabag, and leave to cool completely.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, lemon zest, ground tea leaves and salt, add the butter and beat for 2-3 minutes until it reaches a sandy consistency.

Whisk the egg into the cooled tea infused milk and then slowly add to the dry ingredients mixing until well combined, scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula and then mix again for a further 2-3 minutes until it has thickened slightly.

Divide the mixture between the cupcake cases and bake for 20-25 minutes, turning halfway through, until the cake tops have gone slightly golden and spring back when pressed lightly. Leave to cool in the tray for ten minutes, then remove and leave to completely cool before frosting.

Frosting Method
Beat the softened butter with the lemon zest and juice until combined and then add the icing sugar in 3-4 batches, making sure each is mixed in well before adding the next. After all the sugar is combined add your few drops of colouring and mix until blended.

Frost the cooled cupcakes with either a piping bag and nozzle or a spatula or knife and then decorate as you wish.

Notes
As I was using loose tea leaves I made my own taebag for infusing the milk. Just cut the top from a standard tea bag, empty all the leaves into the bin and then fill with 1 tsp of earl grey leaves. Fold over the top and sew closed with white cotton - you could just staple it down as long as you knew your staples were very clean!

I used what is called a French icing tip for these cupcakes, they make tight stripes in the icing which look sharp to me like the lemon flavour.

If you can't find icing roses you could always use sugared jelly lemon slices which you can find in most supermarkets' baking section.