Tea Smoked Chicken?

[blaimue]

I've been wanting to make tea-smoked chicken for the longest time. The basic idea is that you put some tea and spices in the bottom of a pot, put the chicken on a rack above it, turn on the heat until the tea and spices begin to smoke, and let the aroma permeate the meat. However, these recipes always call for a dutch oven and warn that aluminum pans will melt if you try it. Any suggestions for how I can get around the dutch oven requirement, since I don't have one?


And a smiley, just because I love this little guy:


-------------------------
Death to the status quo!

[phatch]

I've always seen it done in a wok. You usually line the wok with aluminum foil so it doesn't ruin the wok.

I only did it once 12 years ago or so. I scorched the back splash in the rotten kitchen I had then. I should try it again now that I know more and have a better set up.

The wok is an elegant tool for this since you can get the meat "high" above the smoking spices and still have plenty of space with the domed lid for a whole chicken or duck. Or pieces if you'd rather.

[cheflayne]

Are you planning on doing whole chicken or pieces? I use an aluminum pan to tea smoke boneless duck breast, with no problem. Also how long do the recipes you are reading say to leave the pan on high heat?

[Jock]

Originally Posted by blaimue

However, these recipes always call for a dutch oven and warn that aluminum pans will melt if you try it.


And a smiley, just because I love this little guy:


-------------------------
Death to the status quo!

I think that would be hard to do.

Aluminum melts at a little over 1200 degrees and natural gas burns at around 3000 degrees. On the face of it you would think that the pan would melt in no time but it doesn't for a number of reasons.

First off not all that heat from the gas is being transferred to the pan; some of it is escaping to the atmosphere and being conducted by the stove top, etc. Some of the heat that is transferred to the pan radiates out to the atmosphere also.

The other thing to think about is the quantity of heat from the gas. Most hot smoking is done at mediun to medium low heat so while the temperature is high, there isn't a lot of it.

Look at it this way, if you have ever seen or experienced grinding metal on a grinding wheel you see sparks fly off. These are little bits of metal and grinding wheel that are extremely hot to the point of melting the metal. Yet the person operating the grinder hardly notices when these white hot pieces hit his hand. (I'm talking from personal experience here.) Now, you are stirring your cup of tea with a tea spoon and you touch your skin with the hot spoon and it is mildly painful. Yet the spoon is barely 200 degrees. You can feel the hot spoon because it holds a lot of heat all be it at a low temperature. You can hardly feel the whitle hot metal pieces off the grinder because as hot as it is, there is less of it.

So it is with the gas and your aluminum pan. Heat losses mean that the temperature of the flame is lower to start with and at medium heat the quantity of heat is lower also. If you have a reasonably good pan and not one that is paper thin I can't see it melting.

Jock