If you cannot catch fish but like smoked food there are at least two alternatives. If it is fish you like you just cannot avoid a visit to the Coromandel Smoke House. Great taste and terrific variety. If you like smoked chicken, or even sausage you can make your own, and, you don't need to buy an expensive smoker. Why would you if you can't catch fish?
All you need are a few bits of redundant kitchen equipment. Start with an old wok or a wok frypan without it's handle, (they often unscrew, if not a more drastic approach is needed!). Add to this an old sandwich cake baking tin, a circular cake cooler, some manuka chips or sawdust, wide aluminium foil and you are in business.
The supermarket has a big variety of marinated fresh chicken you can smoke or you can marinate your own. Whichever approach you choose it helps to split the chicken. Rest a chicken, back down, on a chopping board and insert an heavy knife through the neck opening and out the other end. A downward rocking pressure from both hands will split the chicken and it can be opened out flat and marinaded.
This simple marinade works well. Just mix2 tspn brown sugar
2tspn crushed garlic
2 Tblspn light soy sauuce
Rub all over both sides of split chicken(or you can use breasts bone in or out but you need skin on to prevent drying out)
To smoke the bird 1) put an handful of manuka chips on the bottom of the wok
2) put the cake tin, to catch the cooking juices, on
3) put the cake rack on the tin and put the flat chicken, skin side down, on it
4)Seal the bird in the wok with silver foil.
5)Pre heat your oven to 200 C.6)Place the wok on a hot element and move it around until a little smoke starts to escape the foil. Reduce the heat and continue to smoke for ten minutes.
7)Put the wok into the preheated oven and continue the cooking for 25 minutes. Stand for 20 minutes, don't remove foil.
When the wok has cooled remove the chicken and organise your partner to clean up the mess! The result is really worth the effort!
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