If you go to most Hawaiian barbeque places, chances are pretty good that you're going to be lied to. Oh sure, they'll have slow cooked Pua pork, maui style ribs, and maybe even barbequed chicken cooked in a light terriaki sauce, but they won't have something you'll find on damn near every local's grill. They're not going to have Huli Huli chicken.
Tonight, i came about as close to making proper Huli Huli as a hauli can get. Real Huli Huli, is pretty much a family secret and consists of a surprisingly small set of ingredients as well as a pretty diligent cooking method. Still, it's summer, and dammit you owe it to yourself to at least try this.
You Will Need:
1 Fryer sized Chicken (fresh) cut into parts.
1/3 c. Ketchup
1/3 c. Shoyu *
1/3 c. Rice Wine Vinegar
1/4 c. Crushed Pineapple (in juice, not syrup)
1 tbsp fresh ground ginger (or about 1/4 tsp ground)
few shots of fish sauce. **
1 grill (charcoal or gas with a smoke box preferred)
Ok, first off, a few things to note. *Shoyu is, technically "soy sauce". i wish Steve still had his diatribe against Kikoman's but yeah, there's a difference to the stuff. i went with a lite salt Japanese Shoyu. As for the second ** fish sauce is much like shoyu and likewise runs the gamete from moderately light (Worcestershire) to some of the thicker "make the neighbors move to another state" varieties sold in the hazmat section of the local asian market. You only want a bit of this, so use whatever you like.
One last thing of note: Huli Huli chicken is not what one would call "5 star cuisine" made from only the finest ingredients. i've seen recipes that call for things like white wine and chicken stock. Ignore those. This is beach food. You should be able to get everything in one go for $20, total, and it gets cheaper for the next batch because you've got most of the stuff left over.
Right, on to the prep. Dump all that is not chicken or grill together. Stir. Dump about half of the sauce into a plastic bag with the chicken bits. Let it chill in the fridge (preferably overnight, but half an hour will do).
As for cooking, get the grill to about 450° (or coals to white and grill about 6 inches above) and add the chicken. Flip and baste every five minutes, starting with the sauce that's left in the bag, then follow up with the other half of the sauce you kept. For you gas folks, after about 10 minutes, back your gas grill down to 300° remember to baste every time you turn. i'm going to also say the obvious here and tell you:
1) don't use a fork to turn food on a grill, use a pair of tongs. Forks tear up the food and let the juices run out before they can work inside the meat.
2) yes, the sauce will caramelize. With the sugar in there, you bet it will. Neat freaks should obviously avoid cooking this. Folks with gas grills know how to clean stuff like this off. Charcoal grills may require some additional assistance.
3) You're backing off the temperature to mimic what happens with the coals. There should be black bits of sauce, but the whole thing shouldn't look like a chunk of chicken flavored coal. If you notice things getting too black, back off the heat. If you don't see anything getting black at all, add some more heat.
The chicken will be done in 40 minutes. (Wings will be done far sooner, obviously, so pull them off after 25 minutes or so.)
Serve with sticky rice (short grain CalRose or jasmine would be best), some sort of green (locals would probably pick macaroni salad), and beverage of choice.
As always, you know if you're doing a good job when your neighbors start to drool.
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