Name: Tea-braised Chicken with Tamarind Mushrooms
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 2 cloves garlic, minced; 2 teaspoons finely shredded ginger; 1.8 kg organic chicken; 2 tablespoons ghee; ¼ cup dilmah cinnamon tea leaves; ¼ bunch water spinach; 120 ml Tamarind Dressing; ½ punnet enoki mushrooms, stalks trimmed; 8 chestnut mushrooms, stalks trimmed and cut in half; 8 straw mushrooms, sliced lengthways; 2 tablespoons fresh cloud-ear fungus, torn into bite-size pieces; 2 red shallots, finely sliced; 40 ml mirin; 20 ml Shaoxing rice wine; 40 ml light soy sauce; 3 litres White Chicken Stock; 5 cm cinnamon stick, broken in half; ½ teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns; 1 star anise; 1 piece dried tangerine peel; 3 tablespoons shredded fresh coconut; 4 fresh curry leaves; 1 teaspoon minced ginger; 1 small green chilli, sliced; 1 small clove garlic, chopped; pinch of ground turmeric; ¼ teaspoon sea salt; 65 ml Tamarind Liquid

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Fire

By Christine Manfield

Published 2008

About

I love the flavour that the tea imparts into the chicken when prepared this way. It’s terrific shredded into a salad or added to an aromatic broth or soup, like black pepper chicken tea. When I first started preparing this dish, I used Karaikkuai tea with its rich, fruity aromatics and lingering sweetness. For a more smoky flavour, I would use Lapsang Souchong. After visiting the highland tea plantations of Sri Lanka and tasting the warmth and spiciness of