Huli Huli Chicken Tim and Victor's Totally Joyous Recipes www.TJRecipes.com

 

One of the more fun things about going to Cost Plus is finding obscure and/or off the wall food items. We spent a lot of time at Cost Plus when we lived out west and I really miss the convenience of having a store in the neighborhood.

We did a fun shopping trip when we were in Oregon and after getting home and receiving a few emails – and online coupons – I decided to do a bit of online shopping.

One of the first things I saw was Huli Huli Sauce. For the uninitiated, Huli Huli sauce is a Hawai’ian staple. It’s a teriyaki-type sauce with a Hawai’ian flair. It’s been around forever and Huli Huli Chicken stands are everywhere on Oahu. And they’re relatively inexpensive.

I think the first time I had Huli Huli Chicken was when 2 of my sisters lived in Hawai’i back in the mid-70s. Another sister and I flew over to visit them for a couple of weeks and we didn’t have a lot of money – it was definitely pre-credit card days. I know we flew over on a DC-10 and I have a vague recollection of taking mushrooms right before we took off. Kids today will never know the joys of walking right into an airport and getting on a plane without standing in long lines, taking off shoes, submitting everything for x-ray, and having their nether-regions photographed. It was so civilized. And drinks were only a buck and there was a huge smoking section. Smoking and drinking were important when you took mushrooms on an airplane to Hawai’i. Ah… sweet youth…

But I digress…

The word huli means “turn” in Hawai’ian, which is what the cook does with the chicken on the charcoal grill that is traditionally used.

Being the non-traditionalist that I am, I mixed the pineapple juice from the can of pineapple rings, along with some sambal oelek for added heat and marinated chicken breasts in it for about an hour. I drained the chicken and grilled it on my non-charcoal gas grill.

I boiled the marinade and then thickened it with a bit of cornstarch. It’s not really recommended to use marinades for sauces because there’s always the possibility of catching something, but I boiled it for a long time before thickening it. I like walking on the wild side.

The chicken came out really moist. I served it over a really good Lundberg rice blend. I really like Lundberg rices – whole grain, environmentally conscious, and just flat-out good. Grilled pineapple rings finished the plate. It was spicy-good.

I think a Huli Huli stir-fry may be in our future…

I’ll pass on the mushrooms…