Tag: Chicken

Homemade Deli Meat – With and Without Ham Maker

written 4/15/2024, updated 7/21/2025

The juices that came out of this… YUM

What

Making deli meat at home by combining different cuts of meat (can be same kind of meat or a mixture) with and without a Ham Maker

Why

Ability to control what’s put inside your own cold cuts, and can be cheaper

Time and Effort

Time: A few hours

Effort: Easy

Ingredients

Meat

Seasonings

Supplies

Mixing Bowls

Cutting Board

Knives/Meat Grinder/Processor

Ham Maker

Plastic Wrap/Sausage Wrapping

Foil

Pot/Rice Cooker/Oven

Ham Maker Method

Using a Ham Maker is really the easiest way to make a formed meat, especially if you want to mix several cuts or meats together. It can also be used without mixing meats or grinding them. Ham Makers make the wrapping step a cinch.

Ham Maker

Ingredients and Supplies

Meat, Seasonings, Water, Ham Maker, Cooking Bag, Tall Pot, Pot Thermometer, Stove, Refrigerator

Time

30 minutes Prep + 2 hours Cook + overnight Chill

Process

  • Wash your Ham Maker if you haven’t
  • Fill a tall pot with Water, and heat it up on the stove (Target: 182-195F)
  • Choose your meat:

Whole Meat – an entire piece of meat, uncut (e.g. pork loin, pork shoulder, whole breast)

Mixed Meat – a formed mash of different cuts or combinations of meat types

  • Prepare your selection by removing veins, bones, and sinews. Decide if you want to keep, and how much, any fat
  • If using a meat mixture, chop, mince, grind, process, or any combination as desired
  • Season your choice of meat, to taste
  • Allow to set for a few minutes
  • In the meantime, line the Ham Maker with a Cooking Bag
  • When ready, place meat into the canister
  • Twist the top of the bag closed
  • Close the Ham Maker with the press and lid, then insert the thermometer
  • When water in the pot reaches between 180 – 195F, place the full Ham Maker in the water, making sure the water level sits above the fill line of the meat inside
  • Keep the temperature steady (I set my gas stove low-medium)
  • Cook until internal temperature reaches the safe cooking temperature for your meat choice, about 2 hours
  • Place the hot Ham Maker on a hot pad in the refrigerator and cool overnight
  • When fully cooled, run canister under warm water to release the meat

Slice and Enjoy!

Pictures!!

Chopped, Minced, and Processed
Removing Air Bubbles
Squish
It’s Hot!
Chilling
Opening
Pour out the juice
Release
Still in Bag
There it is!

Ta-DAAA!! The hole is where both the twist top of the plastic and the thermometer when in. You can see the texture differences from the different cuts/processing of the meat. Delicious!

No Ham Maker Methods

Sous Vide and Smoked are two methods of making this. If you don’t have a sous vide device, there are alternatives

Sous Vide Method

There are different ways to sous vide without actually using a sous vide device. You can use an oven, a Dutch oven or a pot, and even a rice cooker.

Ingredients and Supplies

Meat, Seasonings, Mixing Bowls, Water, Pot/Oven/Rice Cooker, Thermometer, Refrigerator

Time

35 minutes Prep + 2 hours Cook + Chill

Prepare Meat

*Pictures below

  • Remove any veins, sinews, and bones. Remove or use fat as desired
  • Choose your meat:

Whole Meat – an entire piece of meat, uncut (e.g. pork loin, pork shoulder, whole breast)

Mixed Meat – a formed mash of different cuts or combinations of meat types

  • If using Mixed Meat, prepare a [diced: minced: ground] meat ratio of [¾ : ½ : ⅓ lb] or [350 : 250 : 150 g]
  • Season the meat, to taste (If desired, season each texture a bit differently for a combined complex flavor)

Wrap

  • Set out a double layer of plastic wrap and sprinkle half with smoked paprika and whatever else you’d like
  • Turn out meat mixture
  • Tightly roll into desired shape and size

NOTE: Make sure wrapped meat log(s) will fit into your cooking implement so it can be covered in water!

  • Secure the ends

Cooking

Here are 3 methods of cooking the meat ham without dedicated Sous Vide equipment

Pot Method

  • Fill with water
  • Bring water to a boil
  • Place meat log into the water (make sure meat is and will be fully submerged the whole time)
  • Bring to a boil again
  • Turn off heat and place lid tightly on top
  • Leave for 45 minutes to 1 hour
  • Check for doneness with thermometer
  • Repeat if necessary
  • When done, let cool and enjoy, or chill in refrigerator

Oven Method

  • Preheat oven to 215 – 220F (100C)
  • Select a deep dish or oven safe pot
  • Boil enough water to fill
  • Pour in boiling water
  • Place meat log
  • Cover with parchment paper
  • Cover that in foil and/or a tight lid
  • Cook for 1-3 hours until 160F (75C)
  • Remove from oven
  • Place in an ice bath and/or refrigerator until internal temperature is 50F (10C)

Rice Cooker Method

  • Boil water
  • Pour boiled water into rice cooker
  • Using a thermometer, mix in cold water until water temperature is somewhere between 175-195F
  • Place meat log into water
  • Close
  • Set rice cooker to Keep Warm
  • Cook for about 2 hours
  • Be sure temperature is safe for choice of meat
  • Let cool then enjoy or chill in refrigerator

Pictures (Oven Method)

Ground
Cubed
Diced
Flavoring
seasoning
Combine
Let sit
Rolling
…Yeah it doesn’t fit well. Pouring in the boiling water
Wax paper
Foil and in the oven
Ice bath
Ta Da!! Taste was ON POINT

Smoker Method

This method uses a meat grinder then a meat smoker. You can use a dedicated meat grinder, a meat grinding attachment for a stand mixer, or even just a food processor

Prepare Meat

  • Decide on ratio of meat cuts (e.g. [½ : ½] ratio of [skinned chicken thigh : skinless chicken breast])
  • Cut into small pieces

Grind/Process

  • Grind/Process 1st time
  • Grind/Process 2nd time
  • Add any desired seasonings and half of total water

NOTE: For 1lb of meat, add 20ml (⅔ oz. or 1⅓ Tbsp) of water

Total ratio is 40mL water per 1lb (40mL = 1⅓ oz = 2¾ Tbsp)

  • Grind/Process 3rd time

Wrap

  • Place ground meat in a mixing bowl
  • Add the rest of the water, and then mix together really well (should be very sticky)
  • Pump or stuff into an edible or inedible casing (100mm is the largest size I could find on Amazon)
  • Secure the end

Cooking

Overview: 1 hour Dry + 1 hour @ 130F + 1 hour @ 145F + 1 hour @ 160F + more @ 175F

Total: ~5 hours

  • Set smoker to 120F (50C), NO smoke, NO humidity, OPEN dampers to dry the casing for 1 hour
  • Set to 130F (55C), ADD smoke, ADD humidity (water pan), ¾ damper for 1 hour
  • 145F (65C) for 1 hour
  • 160F (72F) for 1 hour
  • 175F (75C) until internal temperature reaches 160F (72C)
  • Place in an ice bath to separate the casing and the meat

Slice and enjoy!

Notes

Attempt 4/14/24: Used Oven Sous Vide Method. Should have added something like cornstarch in the meat mixture to give it some adherence. That and/or changing the ratio to add more ground/pureed meat to fill in the gaps in the meat, while taking away from the original cubed meat. Even if cubing (altered the recipe directions to use smaller pieces), then should process a little. 3 degrees of food processor chopping to make the final product smoother would be more ideal. The way this ended up was more of a headcheese. There IS an obvious complex texture, but it all fell apart easily. The 3 different flavor profiles gave it GREAT taste. Made the mistake of not thinking about the cooking vessel until after rolling the meat. Should have cut it in half and then would have been able to have 2 smaller hams and able to cook it inside of the Dutch oven with the water filled to the top. The way I had it, the water didn’t even cover the whole meat log, so cooking was very uneven. Unsure of how to test internal temperature of meat log without making a mess. Cooking @ 215F took about 2.5 to 3 hours total. Used way too much plastic wrap and wasn’t able to use a lidded dish, just 2 layers of foil. Meat used: Chicken. 3 thighs, 1.5 breast, ¼lb ground chicken (hand squeezed to pulverize). NEXT TIME: more ground chicken, less cubed breast. Add cornstarch for smoothness and adherence. Smaller logs for more even cooking. More food processing. Maybe try using meat casing.

7/21/2025: Used Ham Maker

  • Sous Vide cooking charts recommend cooking chicken at 150F for 1-3 hours.
  • A Ham Maker is a MUCH easier method of doing this. It’s a metal contraption with a spring in it that fits right into a stock pot on the stove and does the same thing neatly. However, if you don’t have one and don’t want one, this is fine, too.
  • There’s always the option of baking or broiling it after the fact for a possible crust or rind? Haven’t attempted that yet

Smoking Meat in Oven with Wood Chips

written 3/4/2024

Background

I wanted to try using smoking wood chips inside of the house because I didn’t want to pull out the smoker and the chimney starter, etc, and I just wanted to imbue smoke in half of a chicken. After an extensive online search on pages overrun by advertisements and liquid smoke, I decided to just wing it. Here are my notes:

So, is it Possible?

In a word: yes. If you don’t mind your house smelling like a smokehouse for a few days

**WARNING: Please exercise caution when dealing with fire, open flames, and charcoal. Have heat rated gloves, other fire precautions, tongs, etc. When dealing with charcoal, have a vessel or means to starve it of oxygen, and a fire extinguisher. ALWAYS make sure to dispose of refuse properly**

Materials

Small wood chip pieces

BIC flexible lighter

Small baking dish

Aluminum foil

Fire mat

Heat gloves

Fire starters

Baking dish larger than other dish

Equipment

XL Toaster Oven with 2 racks

Meat thermometers

Attempt Process

  • What’s needed is something that will continuously burn the wood chips. Since I have experience using a regular meat smoker, that knowledge came in handy
  • I decided NOT to soak the wood chips. I quit soaking my wood chips for the meat smoker to begin with. I’ve found that the smoke that comes off of wet wood is different from dry wood smoke, changing the taste of the meat. Plus, wet wood creates steam, which could be useful if you want it, but is easily achieved with just a small bath of water or apple juice. PLUS, I was already puzzling about how to keep the wood lighted in the oven without it being wet
  • I tried fire starters broken up into small pieces under the wood chips, but those fizzled out really quickly. Even trying to keep them smoldering by blowing on them wasn’t enough to light the wood chips despite them being really small (think cocktail smoking chips)
  • That’s when I realized that the foil-lined cooking dish I was using had no air flow whatsoever to maintain a flame. Even the BIC flexible lighter I was using kept going out while I was trying to light things
  • I tried lighting single pieces of smoking chips and then setting that into the pile, but that kept going out and it was surprisingly hard to light them on fire to begin with (I have no experience lighting campfires, fyi)
  • Tried multiple times to light the wood chips, but they would barely char even though the fire starter materials burned strongly around them
  • Considered whether or not having an open, uncontrolled flame in the oven was a smart idea. Came to the conclusion that it is not a good idea, so then a controlled flame would be necessary
  • So, what’s needed: a continual burn source that would not be an open, uncontrolled, flame… sounds quite a bit like: charcoal

These were my many attempts to light the smoker chips without charcoal and only fire starters. No success. Note the fireproof mat and foil covers

Added the charcoal pieces and they’re successfully smoldering. You can see how after 20 minutes of trying, none of the smoker chips were even charred from the firestarters

  • Ended up placing a few small charcoal pieces  on top of the fire starters and wood chips
  • Made sure to get them ashed over outside so that the strong charcoal black smoke would not affect the meat so much
  • Placed aluminum foil overtop the small baking dish with holes large enough for convection air flow to continually feed the burning charcoal. Too small of holes just put out the flame instead. The foil also keeps any possible arching flames in check
  • Immediately, smoke emanated from the toaster oven, so made sure to open windows enough to create a crosswind. Smoke detector did not go off! Surprisingly!
  • Meat DID have smoked taste, especially on the parts closer to the exterior of the meat, and because the low and slow smoker cook was incorporated halfway through, much of the interior was quite soft, especially on the breast portion of the chicken
  • Caveat: The house smelled heavily like a smoker for several days
  • Figured out later that only 1 of the 2 pieces of charcoal I used had stayed lit which explains why that side of the chicken was more smoked than the other

What the small dish looked like the next day after everything cooled. You can see how everything around the spent piece of charcoal burned and therefore smoked. The right side had a piece of charcoal that did not successfully stay lit yet did manage to char the surrounding wood chips. Consequently, the left side of the chicken had a far stronger smoke flavor than the right side

Directions

These directions are not to cook it fully like a smoker, but rather just give it the flavor of smoke. You are welcome to add the smoke in increments, or as short or as long as you’d like. The key is to start the charcoal to light the wood chips, just like in a smoker. Disclaimer: While I used a toaster oven, I don’t know how or if using charcoal inside of one would cause damage.

  • Start heating up the meat in the Toaster Oven with meat thermometers to monitor the temps
  • Use 2 racks, placing the meat on the upper one
  • I used half a chicken at 350F
  • After about 15 minutes or so, prepare a small baking dish by double lining it with foil
  • Go outside, prepare a fire-safe station to start a fire (I use a fireproof blanket/mat made for underneath fire pits, had my heat gloves handy, some tongs are smart, and foil not only to cover, but to smother in case it goes crazy)
  • Place some fire starters (pulled apart tumble weeds, broken up starter cubes, or whatever) on the bottom and place a few small pieces of charcoal over top.
  • Light up the fire starters (chimney starters have lots of airflow on the bottom to feed the flame and direct the heat up into the charcoal, but here the charcoal is small and will start to catch fire quickly)
  • When the charcoal is burning (when you blow on it you’ll see it is red) and has a nice white ash on top, throw your chips on top of the burning charcoal
  • Poke some big holes into a foil sheet for smoke, fire control, and airflow to the coals. Too small and you’ll put out your fire
  • After around 30 minutes or when the meat reaches around 100F, lower the temperature to 250F
  • Cover your smoking dish with the holey foil, put on your heat gloves, and place the dish on the bottom rack under the meat
  • OPEN YOUR WINDOWS if you haven’t, ideally creating a crosswind through the house to help the smoke you’re creating and will create when you open the oven door
  • Monitor the cook for several minutes.
  • When it’s about 10-15 degrees from being done, remove the smoking dish, and increase the temperature of the oven again
  • SAFETY: Bring the smoking dish over to your fire station and cover it with a larger baking dish to smother the fire. I placed my small dish on an aluminum roasting pan, and then the larger dish on top of that
  • Once the meat reaches doneness, let it rest before eating
  • FIRE SAFETY: Make sure to allow everything in the dish to cool down for several hours, and then dispose of properly!! Do not just throw charcoal in the trash! You can cause a fire even hours later!!!

ENJOY!