Apple Cider Cured Smoked Salmon |
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Prep Time: 30 Minutes Cook Time: 20 Minutes |
Ready In: 50 Minutes Servings: 4 |
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Taken from the Food Channel's Best of Show, The Critic's Choice. Great flavors! Ingredients:
1 cup brown sugar |
1/4 cup salt |
4 cups apple cider (or juice) |
2 cinnamon sticks |
1 teaspoon fennel seed |
1 teaspoon whole allspice |
1 teaspoon black peppercorns |
2 bay leaves |
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes |
6 sprigs thyme (or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme) |
1 large salmon fillet, skin and small pin bones removed (about 1 pound each) |
1 bunch wood chips (soaked) |
Directions:
1. To make brine:
2. In a saucepan, combine the brown sugar, salt and apple cider; bring to a boil. Add remaining brine ingredients, remove from the heat and cool. The brine can be made 2 to 3 days in advance and kept in the refrigerator.
3. Place the salmon fillets in the liquid brine for at least 6 hours up to overnight(making sure it's submerged), refrigerated. Remove the salmon from the brine and place uncovered, on a wire rack set in a shallow baking pan(or a cookie sheet). Refrigerate the fillets for at least 6 hours, or overnight, to dry them out. (A dry fillet will take on smoke quicker than a moist fillet)
4. To smoke salmon:.
5. In an outdoor grill, make a small fire using mesquite charcoal or briquettes. When the fire has burned down to a hot bed of coals, after about 1 hour, place the soaked wood on the coals. Position the grate 8 to 12 above the smoking wood and place the salmon fillets on the grate.
6. Cover the grill and shut any open-air vents. After 5 minutes, check the heat of the grill; large fillets will be cooked and smoked through in about 30 minutes if the heat is low, about 300* to 350*F., while a hotter fire will cook the fillets in 15 to 20 minutes. Serve the salmon hot off the grill and enjoy!
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