Smoked Chicken with Zucchini and Ezme
A word of caution: smoke your chicken outside!! I had the bright idea to do this indoors in our NYC apartment. The collateral damage stuck around for 20 minutes with me and Jasmine trying to work while shrouded in a grey plume of smoke. You can skip this step completely and pan fry the thighs if you don’t want to run the risk.
Ezme is a Turkish condiment, similar to Mexican salsa. This recipe makes quite a large batch so feel free to freeze it to keep in on hand at all times.
Ingredients
Smoked Chicken Thighs
1 bone-in, skin-on chicken thigh
1/2 cup water
Ezme Sauce
490g tomatoes
25g tomato paste
152g red bell pepper
219g green bell pepper
231g onion
52g garlic
133g olive oil
77g pomegranate molasses
50g parsley
4g sumac
7g sugar
12g salt
28g lemon juice
Aleppo pepper to taste (tt)
Black pepper tt
Zucchini Salad
1 zucchini, sliced thin
1 cup chicken stock
1 tablespoon tumeric
1 teaspoon msg
1 pinch lemon zest
lemon juice tt
white pepper tt
Season the chicken thigh lightly with salt all over and leave it in the fridge overnight.
Remove the chicken thigh from the fridge and pat dry with a paper towel. Place it skin side down in a cold pan and turn the heat up on high.
Once the skin starts to sizzle, lower the heat to medium-high and cook for 6 minutes.
Flip the chicken, turn the heat up to high, add the water to the pan and put the lid on to steam. Cook the chicken through completely, 3 minutes.
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Finely dice everything and add it to a bowl with salt to taste. Leave covered in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before using.
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Combine everything and adjust the seasoning until it is umami forward with a slight tartness from the lemon juice. Store in the fridge for up to 3 days.