BBQ81/17 – Hang Fire Mai Thai Chicken Thighs:
What a great name for a dish! I saw it and knew I had to make it! The picture in the book is great too.
The smoker was on for the smoking cubano so I decided to cook this for lunch to make use of the space in the smoker!
The Prep:
The night before I made the marinade: Juice from a lime, juice from an orange, pineapple juice, Thai fish sauce, seasame oil, soft light brown sugar, chilli sauce, chopped ginger, garlic cloves, red chillies, spring onions and Thai basil. Thai basil can be quite hard to get where I live, there are a couple of Thai/Chinese grocers in Edinburgh who sell it and you can buy it online but you can also get jars of it online so I tend to have a jar handy in case I can’t get fresh. A quick Google suggests Sainsbury’s and Waitrose sell it too.
I trimmed the chicken thighs a bit to remove some of the excess fat and skin hanging off then placed them in a foodsaver bag. You can use a ziplock bag but I didn’t have any so I used my foodsaver to create a bag. I blitzed the marinade with a hand blender then poured it into the bag and gave it a good mix. I sealed the bag and removed as much air as possible then put it in the fridge overnight.
The Cook:
The next day the smoker was running at 225F and was part way through another cook so I put the chicken on the top grill and added some Pear chunks. I used Pear because I haven’t used it very often and I am trying to break away from my addiction to constantly using Oak and Cherry!
I made the basting mixture: Lime juice, groundnut oil, soft light brown sugar and dark brown sugar which I applied to the chicken after they had been in for 20 minutes and then every 20 minutes after that.
Once the chicken hit 75C internal temperature I crisped the skin briefly under the grill. I know, I know but I wasn’t going to fire the BBQ up just to crisp the skins and it wasn’t going to be easy to hover them over the heat beads in the smoker so I took an easy route!
Ready to Eat:
I served the chicken up with a basic salad, squeezed some of the lime over the chicken and took some chilli too.
Summary:
The chicken was really, really tasty – totally enjoyed it! Great taste from the marinade, the basting mixture and the smoke. It all worked really well together. I didn’t quite get the skin as crispy as I wanted which is an ongoing problem I have with chicken! I was determined not to burn it and it was starting to turn, I probably could have grilled it further away from the heat so it took a bit longer. I will try that next time.
Great dish though and one I will be repeating more often. Good use of space and heat when the smoker is on for a long cook and an easy way to get lunch cooked!
| Cook Equipment: | Weber Smokey Mountain |
| Cook Method: | Low and slow |
| Charcoal: | Piggybacking another cook |
| Smoking Wood: | Pear |
| Cook temperature: | 225F |
| Cook time: | 2 hours |
| Internal temperature: | 75C |
| Notes: | 1: Grill the skin longer further away from the heat to try and crisp it up better. |
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