Many people like smoked chicken breast. However, it’s no secret that store-bought smoked meats are very unhealthy. During their preparation, a large amount of oil and preservatives are used. Salads, pies, snacks are prepared from this product and served with a side dish. In this article you will learn how to cook smoked chicken breast at home.
How to choose a good brisket for smoking
An important role in the process of smoking meat is played by its quality and freshness. It is best to buy it in special meat stores. When purchasing from hand or at the market, you cannot be sure of its freshness.
For smoking, it is necessary to take fresh meat, since frozen meat loses its taste. Be sure to pay attention to the color of the fillet and its smell. The color of the meat should not be yellow, too bright or light. The normal color of chicken breast is beige without any blemishes. There is practically no smell.
Potato casserole
Smoked chicken dishes quite often come in casserole format. This is explained by the fact that this product goes well with any ingredients and sauces.
In this case, the recipe suggests baking chicken with pink potatoes and barbecue sauce.
What ingredients will you need?
- 7 tbsp. diced red (pink) potatoes;
- 3 tbsp. l. olive oil;
- 0.75 tsp. salt;
- 0.5 tsp. coarsely ground pepper;
- 450 g smoked chicken;
- 0.75 tbsp. barbecue sauce;
- 8 slices bacon, fried until crispy, crumbled;
- 2 tbsp. grated sharp Cheddar cheese;
- 1.5 tbsp. sour cream;
- 0.5 tbsp. chopped green onions;
- hot red pepper sauce, optional.
Step-by-step cooking process
- The oven should be preheated to 200°C and a glass baking dish (3 liter capacity) should be generously sprayed with cooking spray.
- In a large container, mix the potatoes, butter, salt and coarsely ground pepper, transfer to a baking dish, and bake uncovered for 40 minutes. (or until potatoes are tender on the inside and crispy on the outside), stirring halfway through baking time.
- In a separate bowl, combine chicken and barbecue sauce, layer on baked potatoes, sprinkle with bacon and cheese, and bake for 12 minutes, or until chicken is hot and cheese is melted.
- The finished casserole should be placed on plates, each serving should be topped with sour cream and sprinkled with green onions, and served with hot pepper sauce.
How to marinate breast before smoking - recipes, tips
On the Internet you can find a large number of recipes for marinade for breast before smoking. The taste of the dish depends on it. It produces a dry type of marinade and using brine. The first method is faster - it takes only 12-22 hours. The second is more extensive in time - about 2 days.
Several marinade recipes
1) Dry method.
We wash and clean the fillet from fat accumulations. Lubricate it with spices, pepper and salt. Wrap in cling film/foil and place in the refrigerator for 12-22 hours.
2) Brine marinade.
Take 2.5-3 liters of clean water and boil it. The fillet must be washed and cleaned. Put 70-80 grams of salt, 50 grams of apple cider vinegar into the water; several bay leaves; 6-7 peppercorns; seasonings and spices. Immerse the meat in brine for 2 days.
What ingredients will you need?
In order to be able to smoke the breast at home, it must first be properly marinated.
To do this, you should prepare your favorite spices and salt. Next, you choose the marinating method, which can be dry or using marinade.
Dry method
This method is considered to be the simplest. The fillet must be thoroughly rinsed under running water and wiped with a towel. For salting, it is advisable to use coarse rock salt. You can first add ground black pepper, chopped bay leaf or any other spices to it to taste. The resulting mixture is thoroughly rubbed on all sides of each piece of fillet. Next, the meat is placed in a container that will not oxidize, pressed down on top and left to marinate in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
After this time, you need to remove the prepared breast, remove excess salt with a towel and hang the meat in a draft for several days. Only after this can you begin the smoking process.
Wet method
In order to prepare a marinade for pickling chicken breast, you need to take two tablespoons of salt per 2 liters of water. Add a small amount of vinegar, garlic, a couple of bay leaves, ground black pepper and a little sugar. All components are thoroughly mixed together and heated over low heat. Boil the marinade for no more than 10 minutes and then cool it to room temperature.
The resulting marinade is poured over the fillet pieces so that it completely covers the meat. Semi-finished products must be marinated for at least one and a half days. Only after this can you start smoking the breast at home.
Choosing wood chips
For smoking breasts, it is better to give preference to hardwood or fruit wood chips. They can be mixed with each other in order to obtain a more original taste of the finished smoked meats. You can also add a few juniper branches along with berries, cherry or currant leaves, and grapes just before the end of cooking. This will make the chicken breast even tastier and more aromatic.
Smoking
There are two types of smoking - hot and cold. They differ significantly from each other - from the process to the shelf life of the product. A less time-consuming method is hot smoking. Chicken fillet prepared in this way will not be stored for long (only about 7 days). Cold smoking helps preserve all the beneficial properties of chicken. However, a significant disadvantage is the longer and more complex smoking process. Which one to choose is up to you. Let's look at the recipes.
Hot smoked chicken breast
For hot smoking, you need small firewood from fruit trees (apple trees, cherries, apricots) in the form of chips.
1) Place firewood at the bottom of the smokehouse and mix it with a teaspoon of sugar.
2) Place a tray over the firewood (so that fat does not fall on the wood chips).
3) Next, a grate is placed on which pieces of meat are laid out. There must be a distance between them. So that the smoke is evenly distributed.
We recommend: How to smoke squid
4) The lid closes. The temperature with this method varies from 45 to 120. Important! Too much heat can dry out the meat. Therefore, it is better to use 60-70 degrees. Chicken fillet is smoked for about 1-2 hours.
Interesting recipe for home cooking:
1) Cut the chicken fillet into 2 parts.
2) Marinade recipe: mix soy sauce with ginger, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
3) The chicken breast is placed in the marinade solution for several hours, occasionally turning the meat. For the most pronounced taste, you can marinate overnight.
4) After time has passed, remove the fillets from the solution and dry them using paper napkins.
5) Heat the frying pan, lay out the pieces of meat and fry over high heat with olive oil on both sides. It is important not to dry out the fillet!
6) Mix rice, sugar, cinnamon and tea leaves. This is the smoking mixture.
7) Take a frying pan with a thick bottom, line it with foil, put the mixture on the bottom.
A grate is placed on the frying pan, with the smoking mixture underneath.
9) Initially turn on high heat, gradually reduce it. Place the chicken breast on the grill. The mixture emits a pleasant aroma. The chicken turns out tasty and spicy.
10) Smoke the chicken breast under the lid for 30 minutes. It must be turned over several times so that it does not turn out raw on one side.
Cold smoked chicken breast
Cold smoking of chicken breast can last several days. The temperature in the smokehouse is always the same - 40 degrees. The meat is smoked with cold smoke.
If you decide to use the cold smoking method, you must remember that the pieces of meat must be constantly turned over and monitored at the temperature.
Marinade recipes can be used the same as for hot smoking.
We recommend: Cold smoked pink salmon
Pasta with mushrooms
Smoked chicken dishes are often instant pasta.
For example, this recipe suggests using sour cream sauce and 2 types of mushrooms to create a restaurant-quality dinner from simple ingredients.
What ingredients will you need?
- 2 tbsp. l. unsalted butter;
- 1 medium onion, chopped;
- 300 g cremini mushrooms (dark champignons);
- 300 g shiitake mushrooms;
- 1 tsp. salt;
- 4 tsp. flour;
- 1.5 tbsp. chicken broth;
- 2 tsp. Dijon mustard;
- 1 tbsp. l. paprika;
- 300 g smoked chicken, cut into small pieces;
- 360 g medium egg noodles;
- 1.25 tbsp. sour cream;
- fresh dill, chopped.
Step-by-step cooking process
- Melt the butter in a large frying pan over low heat, add the onion and cook until it becomes translucent.
- Next, you need to increase the heat to medium, add cremini and shiitake and salt, fry until the mushrooms are browned.
- Then turn down the heat, add flour and cook for 1 minute, pour in the broth, season with pepper and mustard, set the heat to low and simmer until the sauce thickens, 3 minutes.
- You also need to place smoked chicken there and cook for 1 minute.
- Meanwhile, cook noodles according to package directions and drain.
- Immediately before serving, add sour cream and chopped dill to the sauce and mix thoroughly.
The prepared noodles need to be placed on plates and the smoked chicken and mushroom sauce should be placed on top of them.
Smoked chicken breast properties
Smoked chicken breast contains a lot of protein, which helps strengthen muscles, the musculoskeletal system, nails, hair and teeth. There is also iron, which is good for the blood; vitamins A, group B and PP.
The dish itself has a rich, pleasant spicy taste. Ideal as an appetizer for alcoholic drinks, or as a separate dish.
Smoked chicken fillet is well suited for both diet-conscious people and junk food lovers. This is a budget-friendly and very tasty dish, and also healthy if made at home.
Breast selection and preparation
You can buy ready-made fillets, because any store sells individual parts of chicken.
If you purchased a whole carcass, but want to smoke exclusively the fillet, then you should carefully separate it from the keel. There is no need to remove the skin, because after cooking it will be especially tasty and attractive.
You can buy ready-made fillets, because any store sells individual parts of chicken. When purchasing chilled meat, it is worth remembering that it has a short shelf life. Therefore, it is necessary to very carefully analyze the condition of the fillet for smoking at home.
- High-quality chicken fillet should be light pink in color. If there are stains or blood clots on the surface, this indicates errors were made during transportation or storage.
- It is worth assessing the smell of the fillet even if it is wrapped in cling film.
- If there is mucus or a strange substance on the surface of the meat, or there is an unpleasant odor, then it is better to refuse the purchase, because such fillet is spoiled.
If you have a choice between buying chicken fillet or rooster fillet, then preference should be given to chicken. Its meat will be more juicy, tasty and tender.
Benefits and harms
It’s difficult to make smoked chicken breasts an absolutely healthy product. They are dietary in themselves and contain vitamins and microelements that are beneficial to health. In addition, chicken fillet is very high in protein.
If you cook smoked chicken at home, without using liquid smoke, all its beneficial properties will be preserved.
Store-bought smoked breasts are usually prepared using liquid smoke. In this case, it can harm human health. People with diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and liver are at particular risk. The harmful effect of purchased smoked meats on these organs is the strongest. It is also contraindicated for patients with kidney disease to eat this dish.
