I saw the official glam photo accompanying the recipe and immediately fell in love. Love became lust when I read the ingredients list! Shoyu chicken is a Hawaiian classic that does it all: quickly, inex-pensively and flavourfully! And it uses thighs!
“Shoyu Chicken is one of my all-time favorite comfort foods and a truly iconic local Hawaii meal,” raves recipe contributor Jess Leiolunani Larson. “If it’s new-to-you, you’re in for such a treat!
‘Shoyu’?
“Hawaii is […] a melting pot of people, cultures, and traditions from all around the Pacific Rim. This is […] reflected in Hawaii’s local food scene and the staple ingredients you’ll find on the island,” Larson explains. “Shoyu is a perfect example of this – a staple in Hawaii kitchens, and the star ingredient in this easy chicken recipe! In Hawaii, soy sauce is commonly called shoyu, the Japanese word for soy sauce.”
With that out of the way…
… Let’s get on with the dish. Starting with its amazingly simple 6-item ingredient list. Aside from 6 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, you need only:
-
- 2/3 cup / 150 ml shoyu
- 2/3 cup / 150 ml dark brown sugar
- 4 scallions, thinly sliced
- 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
- 1 3 in / 7.5 cm piece fresh ginger, finely chopped or grated
- cornstarch slurry
What you do
Mix up the braising liquid and pour into a dutch oven.
Add the chicken pieces skin-side up.
Bring to a boil over high heat then reduce to simmer, covered, for another 30 to 35 minutes. The chicken should be fall-off-the-bone tender.
For a special touch, move the chicken to a baking sheet and set under the broiler for 4 to 5 minutes. The golden brown skin will add both colour and flavour to the finished dish!
Add enough cornstarch slurry to the braising liquid to thicken to a consistency that suits your pre-ferences for appearance and pourability. Be sure to simmer the cornstarch long enough to produce a transparent, glossy sauce!
Serve over rice, spooning the sauce generously over the chicken. Garnish with more chopped scal-lions, if desired.
Tips and hacks…
DO use bone-in, skin-on thighs. The bones will aid in evenly cooking the chicken during the braising process. The skin – as hinted above – will form a beautiful crispy golden crust…
Serve with classic Asian veggies on the side. My go-to melange is: red and green bell peppers, mush-rooms thinly-sliced carrots and mushrooms. You can cook them in the same pot, at the same time as the chicken. But don’t broil them…
If you want to keep things gluten free, you can use tamari in place of the shoyu. This is, in fact, a great tip for any Asian dish in which soy sauce is called for. And that’s most of them!
My take
Here’s another great Asian dish that takes a minimum of ingredients and prep time, but captures all the exotic charm and complexity of flavour Eastern cuisines are famous for.
And let’s not forget, it leverages the extra deep-umami flavour, juiciness an tenderness of that too-often neglected chicken cut – the thigh!
~ Maggie J.