Huli-Huli Vous?

I love barbecue in all of its variations. My dad was a great barbecue master, and his sauce was legendary in northeast Phoenix. Unfortunately for my brothers and me, Dad never shared his recipe (“It’s my secret, and if it is what makes you come home every couple of years, it will remain a secret”, he would laugh.) Dad’s recipe was never passed along to us and the closest I ever found to it was Everett and Jones Mild Sauce. Now, Everett and Jones is an East Bay institution, and it was where you would most likely find me and a cold beer on a Friday night when I lived in Oakland. Imagine my delight when I found Everett and Jones Sauce at my local Safeway a few weeks ago! I made my poor family eat ribs drenched in Everett and Jones until they could not look at another rib!

  

So what does that have to do with huli-huli? For that matter, what is huli-huli? In a few words, it is Hawaii’s own famous barbecue sauce. Huli is the Hawaiian word for turn, and huli-huli (turn, turn) chicken is one of the Oahu’s great delicacies. It became familiar as a fund raising tool on the island after Ernest Morgado came up with the recipe in the mid-1950s. He mixed up all the flavors of Hawaii (brown sugar, shoyu (soy sauce), pineapple, and ginger) and came up with a great marinade and basting sauce. In the early 1970s I would find huli-huli chicken stands wherever I drove around the island, functioning as a fundraiser for Little League, church choirs and just about any other activity that needed to raise money. Used to be that you would never find it on any restaurant menu, only in roadside stands where cooks lovingly cooked and sold their wares. Yum – it was one ono kaukua (delicious food).

So here is the huli-huli sauce recipe that I was given by a co-worked before I left Honolulu. My original recipe calls for ¼ of a pineapple, pureed. I have substituted ½ Cup of frozen pineapple juice concentrate – so much easier to work with, and the taste is almost identical.

Huli-Huli Chicken Marinade and Basting Sauce

• ½ Cup Catsup
• ½ Cup Shoyu (soy sauce)
• ½ Cup Dark Brown Sugar
• ½ Cup Frozen Pineapple Juice Concentrate
• ¾ Cup Sherry
• 2” Piece of Ginger Root, finely minced
• 2 – 3 cloves Garlic, mashed
• 2 – 3 cut up chickens 

Mix all ingredients together. You can marinate chicken pieces for a few hours before grilling or just brush sauce on chicken before placing on grill. Turn and baste frequently, until chicken is done, probably 30 – 40 minutes.