Huli Huli Chicken Recipe is bursting with sweet and tangy flavor! The secret’s in the sauce and allowing it to marinate long enough!
This chicken smells WONDERFUL cooking!!! It will definitely get everyone to the table fast!
What is Huli Huli Chicken?
Huli-huli chicken is a grilled chicken dish in Hawaiian cuisine, prepared by barbecuing a chicken over mesquite wood, and basting it with a sweet huli-huli sauce.
I made this on the stovetop but you can easily grill it. For grilling, I recommend cutting it into 1 to 2-inch cubes and skewering it instead of grilling the whole chicken breast. This allows more surface area for the marinade. And, believe me, you want as much of that flavorful marinade as possible!
You can add just chicken to the skewers or you can also add onion, pineapple, and peppers to the skewers.
This marinade is made with brown sugar, ketchup, soy, chicken broth, apple cider vinegar, ginger, and garlic. It has a wonderful sweet, tangy, and spicy taste. It’s a great marinade for not only chicken but try it on pork and beef as well. It makes a flat iron steak absolutely amazing!
TIPS AND TRICKS
- Chicken – I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts but you can use thighs as well.
- Rotate – It’s best to turn the chicken a few times while it’s marinating so that all the pieces get equal time in the liquid.
- For the minced garlic – I recommend fresh garlic or jarred minced garlic in water instead of dried granulated garlic or dried garlic powder. Fresh has much more flavor than dried.
- For the ginger– If there’s one ingredient that you simply must use fresh it’s ginger. Dried ginger tastes nothing like fresh ginger. Ginger is a root and it adds so much flavor to recipes. A little ginger goes a long way! It’s in the produce section of your grocery store. It’s inexpensive and you’ll just need a very small knob. As well, it’ll last 3 to 4 weeks on the countertop.
- For the soy sauce – I highly recommend you use low-sodium soy sauce.
WHAT TO SERVE WITH HULI HULI CHICKEN
- One Pan Stick of Butter Rice
- Extreme Rice
- Cilantro Lime Rice
- Panzanella Salad
- Potsticker Pasta Salad
Huli Huli Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 pounds chicken breasts boneless, skinless
- ½ cup brown sugar light or dark, packed
- ⅓ cup ketchup
- ⅓ cup low sodium soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon ginger fresh, grated
- 1 teaspoon garlic fresh, minced
- 2 tablespoons oil
Instructions
- Combine the brown sugar, ketchup, soy sauce, chicken broth, apple cider vinegar, ginger, and garlic in a small bowl.
- Cut the chicken into 1 to 2-inch cubes. Place the chicken in a ziptop bag. Reserve 1/2 cup of the marinade and pour the remaining over the chicken. Gently toss it to cover all the chicken.
- Refrigerate 6 to 24 hours. The longer you can marinate it the more flavor the chicken will have. Toss the chicken occasionally.
- Allow the chicken to come to room temperature before cooking.
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add the oil. When the oil is hot, add part of the chicken to the hot skillet. Don't crowd the chicken in the skillet, it'll steam instead of brown is you do.
- Allow the chicken to cook 4 to 5 minutes per side until it's brown and easily releases from the skillet. Turn and cook on each side. Cook remaining chicken.
- Heat reserved sauce in the microwave. Serve immediately with warmed sauce.
Nutrition
You can also find great recipes at my recipe index or at Meal Plan Monday and Weekend Potluck.
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Tammy says
Very good. The whole family loved it. I cooked it in a cast iron skillet to make sure it had good caramelization, cooked up great, just had to be very careful not to let it burn.
Scarlet says
I love the flavor of this chicken from the soy sauce vinegar marinade with the fresh ginger. Yum!!
Linda says
I love huli huli chicken and ate this a lot when I went to Hawaii. Can’t wait to make this again and stick to boneless, skinless chicken breast.
Av says
Deliciously sweet and tangy. It was like going on a Hawaiian vacation!