Smoked Chicken with Paprika Stuffing

Smoked Chicken with Paprika Stuffing is a phenomenal recipe for chicken. (It’s also excellent for duck.) 

Smoking is so easy.

If you’re worried that smoking would be really difficult, or needs to be done outside, or needs fancy, expensive equipment, let me reassure you that this none of these are true. All you need is a piece of charcoal the size of a bean and a little aluminium foil – that’s it, it’s that simple. I promise you, you can do this and I’ll show you how.

This is not the regular stuffing you may expect

This isn’t stuffing as you may know it though. The chicken isn’t kept whole and its cavity filled. This filling is stuffed under the skin and so coats the meat.  The bird is then marinated over-night so the flavours permeate fully before it’s roasted. Believe me these flavours are simply incredible.

What heat levels do you enjoy?

The recipe does include fresh chillies, so consider what heat levels you enjoy. Either use mild chillies which provide all the flavour but only a little heat or maybe choose ones that have a bit more of a kick if that’s what you enjoy.

The spices in the marinade infuse the meat

The sweet paprika and the slight spiciness of the chilli infuse the meat and gives it such a powerful boost of flavour which compliments the essence of the meat and elevates it rather than overwhelms it.

Like so many other ladies in Egypt, my daughter in law’s mother is a fabulous cook. This is a wonderful dish that she makes on frequent occasions. I remember the first time I had it. It was so unusual, the flavours were amazing and it just blew me away.  

Chicken with Paprika Stuffing is a great choice for entertaining

This is a great recipe for when you’re having friends around. All the prepping gets done the day before and then you just need to pop it into the oven for half an hour on the day.  Plus, in my experience it’s always a real crowd pleaser and people are blown away by the flavours.

Ingredients

• 1 chicken – cut into quarters

Ingredients for the salt rub

• white vinegar
• juice of a lemon
• liberal sprinkling of salt

Ingredients for the Marinade

• 2 medium onions very, very finely chopped or grated
• 3 beautiful ripe tomatoes – skinned and de-seeded and flesh finely chopped
• 1/2 ripe red pepper – very finely chopped or grated
• 1 red & 1 green chilli finely sliced into rings
• juice of 1½  lemons
• 2 stock cubes – grated
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp sweet paprika
• 1 tsp sugar
• ½ tsp chilli flakes
• ¼ tsp cumin
• ¼ tsp cinnamon
• 2 bay leaves very finely chopped

To make your Smoked Chicken with Paprika Stuffing smokey you need:

• a piece of charcoal the size of a bean
• some aluminium foil
• 1/2 tspn cooking oil

Method

First you need to make your pockets

Take the chicken and make pockets between the skin and the meat where the stuffing will be put. Simply lift the skin and slip your fingers in to make the pocket. There’s a lot of stuffing and it all needs to go in, so, make the pockets as big as you can.  You may need to use the tail end of a spoon or something similar to ease the skin up.

Rub in the salt mix & pop in the fridge

Rub the salt rub deep into the skin and flesh of the chicken and put it into the fridge for about ½ hour whilst you prepare the stuffing.

Let’s make the stuffing for your Smoked Chicken with Paprika Stuffing

To skin the tomatoes cut a cross slit into the skin, put them into a heat-proof bowl and cover them with boiling water. Leave them for about 5 minutes, then remove them from the water and their skins should just slip off. If they don’t come off easily simply repeat the process.

Once skinned cut the tomatoes in half and scoop out the seeds. Then chop very finely.

Slice and chop all the ingredients for the stuffing as required and then put them into a large bowl.  Bring them all together by really squeezing them between your fingers and do this for several minutes.  This will amalgamate all the ingredients and produce finely chopped ingredients within a lot of liquid. 

* PLEASE make sure you wash your hands thoroughly after handling the chillis and even then don’t touch your eyes for the rest of the day or even your face (or other parts) as it will make them burn and tingle beyond belief.

*You could alternatively do this in a food processor and blitz everything until it’s very fine.

Rinse off all the salt

Take the salted chicken out of the fridge and rinse it under cold running water, rubbing it with your hands as you do so, to remove all the salt rub.  Remember to rinse out the pockets you made to make sure that salt hasn’t got stuck in there.  Squeeze the portions to remove as much water as possible and allow them to drain for a couple of minutes before moving on to the next stage.

Now to fill those pockets for your glorious Smoked Chicken with Paprika Stuffing

Now you are ready to begin stuffing. 

Take one portion at a time and resting it above the bowl of stuffing, open up each pocket and scoop up the solid part of the stuffing and push in as much of it, under the skin, as you possibly can.  It may seem like there is far too much stuffing but as it cooks down it will reduce down and actually become quite a thin, but very tasty, layer.

Marinade your Chicken with Paprika Stuffing over-night if you can

When you’ve used all the stuffing to fill the pockets, put the duck portions into the bowl and pour the liquid from the stuffing over the top.  Cover the bowl with cling film and leave in the fridge for a couple of hours or preferably over-night to marinade.

Pre-heat your oven

20 minutes before cooking, Pre-heat your oven to 170 degrees C.

Bake in the oven

Remove the chicken portions from the marinade and place on a baking tray.

Rub a ltlle oil onto the skin of the chicken pieces, this will help it to crisp up and brown.

Roast in your pre-heated oven for about 25 minutes until the skin becomes beautifully golden and crispy.

Remove from the oven, cover with kitchen foil and allow your chicken to rest for 10 minutes before serving. During this time the final layer of flavour is added with the smoking.

Time to get smoking

Take a piece of aluminium foil about 30cm square and fold it in half and then in half again to form a square. Then lay it in the palm of your hand. Make your hand into a bowl shape and with your other hand push the foil to also make it into a bowl.

Put the piece of charcoal over a flame on the stove and allow it to catch alight. Blow out the flame and at this point it will blow red.

Put half a teaspoon of oil into the foil bowl that you’ve just made and lay it in the roasting tray with the cooked chicken under the foil.

The foil covering the roasting tray needs to be airtight so check that first. Then lift it quickly to allow access to the foil bowl.

Using tongs or a spoon pick up the glowing charcoal and put it into the foil bowl, quickly putting the foil back over the roasting tray, ensuring that it’s airtight again. This is important, because otherwise you’ll end up with a smoke filled kitchen.

Allow the chicken to smoke for 10 minutes. Then remove the charcoal and drop it in water to stop the smoking.

Your glorious Smoked Chicken with Paprika Stuffing is now ready

As Smoked Chicken with Paprika Stuffing has so much flavour, it’s good to serve it with something simple like Egyptian Rice and maybe a a Herb Salad. This allows the chicken to take centre stage and for all the wonderful flavours to shine through.

I do hope you’ll try this recipe for Smoked Chicken with Paprika Stuffing, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed, as I said the flavours are incredible.