C – Tea isn’t just for drinking.
You can cook with it too. I am excited because I get to use my tea collection to do great things this week. It’s tea week! I am addicted to collecting teas. But, my collection of tea has gone overboard.
I love tea and there are so many different types. In the Be Mindful. Be Human. kitchen, we have teas ranging from extremely cheap to extremely expensive. We even have a green tea that costs $200 an ounce.
Sadly, I still want more. It’s even starting to grow at my boyfriends house too. He has about ten to fifteen different varieties of teas. I love tea. I can’t just drink the same one over and over again.
One of my favorite teas is Orange Peoke. It was a $10.00 find and I seem to have a life-time supply. We have two pounds of it! It’s a tea you use to make chai tea. My idea of making chai tea as a morning routine hasn’t stuck. Oh well. There’s other uses for this tea. Like that tea smoked tenderloin and tea smoked eggplant we made a few weeks ago. Delicious.
These chicken wings started from the same idea as the tea-smoked tenderloin brine. I wondered what the tea would taste like in chicken, without the smoke. I am glad I did it.
| Tea Week: Tea-Brined Chicken Wings |
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar
- ¾ cup soy sauce
- ¼ cup dry sherry
- 1 thumb-size piece of ginger, minced
- Pepper to taste
- ½ cup black tea leaves
- 12 chicken wings, drum-lets cut off
- Place garlic, brown sugar, soy sauce sherry, ginger, tea and pepper into a large bowl. Mix well.
- Add chicken wings. Mix well. Cover and let marinate in refrigerator overnight.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Remove chicken from marinade. Remove all of the tea leaves and other particles from the chickens.
- Place chicken wings on a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or cooked until crispy. Flip once.
- Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes.
- Serve with rice.
- Enjoy!
It had a nice rich earthy taste to it. The tea made the chicken wings a wonderful brown color. The taste was a deep rich salty piece of crispy chicken wing. Jim loved it, too. He thought it was a very different take on chicken. He wants to try it with a whole chicken next.
This box of Orange Peoke has a few more cups left. Maybe the chai tea will happen. But, I think the roasted, tea-brined whole chicken might happen before then. Can’t wait.