4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 teaspoon Chinese five spice
1/2 cup black tea leaves
1/2 cup raw rice
2 tablespoons ginger, sliced
1 tablespoon orange zest
1 tablespoon sesame oil
salt and pepper
water

1. Prepare grill for indirect grilling.
2. Combine tea leaves, rice, ginger and orange zest on a sheet of tinfoil. Fold the tinfoil to seal in the ingredients and poke several times with a fork. Toss smoke pouch directly above the grill (alternately, put ingredients in grill's smoker) and turn to high until smoke starts coming out of the grill.
3. Meanwhile, rub chicken breasts with five spice and season with salt and pepper.
4. Bring water to a boil and steam chicken breasts over it until flesh turns white but the chicken is not completely cooked.
5. Lower the heat on the grill and place the chicken on the unheated side. Smoke until chicken is fully cooked, about 30-40 minutes.
6. Brush chicken lightly with sesame oil before serving.

makes 4 servings

3 tablespoons peanut oil
1/2 pound bok choy, sliced
1/4 cup chicken stock
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon cold water

1. Heat oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat and add the bok choy.
2. Fry bok choy for about a minute, then add a pinch of salt.
3. Stir in chicken stock, soy sauce and sugar and fry for another minute to combine.
4. Meanwhile, combine corn starch and water to form a slurry. Whisk this into the bok choy and stir until thickened. Serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings

Since the only vegetation I still have in my fridge is bok choy and mixed greens after spilling chicken juice all over the place a couple of days ago, I made another bok choy dish. This one was the best of the lot so far, though still not particularly impressive. Basically, it's just Bok Choy with Sauce and the sauce is just thickened chicken broth with soy sauce. It's salty and thick and much more like something I've actually eaten in a Chinese restaurant.

After the Tea Marbled Devilled Eggs, I wanted to try a few more recipes with tea. The tea recipes don't seem to be turning out nearly as well as all of the coffee ones, which were definitely favorites. Technically this didn't really work out because I ran out of propane on my barbecue and couldn't get it hot enough to fill it full of all that much smoke. The Tea Smoked Chicken was more like grilled 5 spice chicken with a sort of odd smoky flavor that left my tongue a bit numb. I couldn't really eat very much of it at all before throwing it all away. I thought it tasted sort of like a dry licorice spice tea. Here's hoping I get a chance to go grocery shopping soon so I don't have to make a mixed green casserole tomorrow.