For this month’s Mike vs Jeff challenge – we decided to take turkey and turn it into an Asian dish. Since turkey is on sale for Thanksgiving, we decided this is the perfect challenge for us. Growing up, I’ve never really liked roasted turkey because I’ve never had them done right, whether was turkey eaten at home or even in restaurants, they are either too dried and overcooked or else bland and flavorless. Well, with this Chinese tea smoked turkey, I set out to transform turkey into a delicious meal.
I didn’t have time to do a brine of a full turkey so I ended up cutting the turkey into sections. I removed the bones from breast, legs, and thighs. As for the wings, I just left them be. The carcass was used to make a beautiful turkey broth. I think the broth taste a lot better when it’s made from raw turkey bones instead of roasted turkey bones. The flavor is simpler but richer. Taking my sectioned meat, I did a dry brine. Basically salt, sugar, some herbs and a little bit of rice wine and enough water to get the solids melted. It’s much easier to brine in ziplock bags instead of a giant pot. It helps with my limited fridge space as well. Just need to remember to flip them once in awhile.
For this tea smoked turkey, I decided to do the turkey three different methods first before smoking. The beauty of this Chinese tea smoke method is that the food should already be cooked and the smoke is just adding an outer layer of flavor to it. The advantage is that it only takes about 10 minutes to smoke instead of hours.
For the turkey breast, I gently roasted in the oven at 350°F until reaching 160°F internal temperature. For the wings and one of the thigh, I used the Chinese braising method. Basically soy sauce, star anise, ginger, garlic, green onion, chili pepper, and rice wine mixed in water. Lastly, for the remaining thigh, I steamed it which is more of the Chinese style since most kitchens in Asian don’t have ovens. After every piece of meat is cooked, I prepared the smoking ingredients.
Ingredients for smoking:
- 3 lbs turkey breast / thigh deboned and cooked
- ½ cup flour
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup tea leaves (dried)
- ¼ cup uncooked rice (jasmine)
- 1 tbsp sesame oil (after smoking)
The sugar helps add color to the meat because it burns easily. The tea is obviously for infusing smoked tea flavor to the meat so you can use any kind of tea that you like. For this recipe, I used a mixture of oolong and jasmine tea. The rice helps to take out the bitterness of the smoke. Many smoking recipes calls just for sugar, rice, and tea leaves. However, we do have a secret ingredient here. Pro Tip: We add flour to help increase the smoke which decreases the smoking time and increase the smoke flavor.
Directions:
You can do smoking in a heat resistant wok or a cast iron dutch oven. However, since I’m in California and it’s still a comfortable 70 degrees outside, I fired up my grill and smoked in the grill. The method is the same so it doesn’t matter how it’s done as long as there is a heat source that will cause the sugar to melt and ‘burnt’ to provide smoke. 
First, line your pan or grill with heavy duty aluminum foil (do not use the thin ones or else it might burn through causing a cleaning nightmare). Mix in your smoking ingredients. I basically create a huge bag of this smoke base and keep it stored up so I don’t have to do the mix each time I want to smoke. Pour a thin layer of the smoking ingredients on the foil. Now the key is to have decent separation between the smoking and the meat. I used a wire rack sitting on top of two bricks for the grill. If you were using a wok, usually a circular steaming rack would do the trick. You really only need about 1” to 2” separation.
Next, place the meat on the rack and then close the lid. Turn on the fire on high and let it smoke. At first, the faint wisp of smoke would start to appear. But that’s not actually smoke, it’s partly steam. After the water has evaporated, there will be a phase two of smoke, the white smoke. A few minutes later, you will start to see faint yellow smoke (also known as smog in LA). Allow the smoke to go for another minute and then turn the heat down to medium low and this is when the timer starts. For a light smoke, only need about 2-5 minutes. For a heavier smoke, you can smoke for up to 10 minutes. Once it’s done, turn off the fire, leave it covered for another 1-2 minutes for the smoke to settle. Then remove and brush with sesame oil and carve and serve.
Note:
After tasting all three styles of turkey, I find that the soy sauce braised turkey provides a very deep and rich flavor while the roasted turkey is mild with a hint of smoke. This smoke recipe can be used to add smoke flavor to chicken, beef, pork, and even vegetables. Deeeelicious!
- 3 lbs turkey breast / thigh deboned and cooked (roasted / steamed / braised)
- ½ cup flour
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup tea leaves (dried)
- ¼ cup uncooked rice (jasmine)
- 1 tbsp sesame oil (after smoking)
- mix the dry ingredients for smoking
- line pan / grill with heavy duty foil
- add the smoking ingredients
- put wire rack on top of smoking ingredient (1”-2” separation)
- place meat on the rack and cover pan / grill
- heat on high heat for 3 stages of smoke
- stage 1 - steam / smoke
- stage 2 - foggy smoke
- stage 3 - yellow smoke - turn heat to medium low
- allow to smoke 2-5 min for light smoke and 10 min for heavier smoke
- turn off fire and let smoke settle for another 1-2 minute
- remove and brush with sesame oil and carve and serve