Hawaiian Teriyaki BBQ Chicken

During my last Oahu trip with the family, after chillaxin’ and swimming at Kailua Beach all morning, we were hungry and wanted to stop by a local market to get some fresh and cold Poke to cool down and replenish our starving bodies.  Yelp reviews and pictures led us to The Hibachi.  Even though the poke looked and tasted amazing, some of the workers were outside BBQing some amazing smelling chicken and I just had to order to see what it was all about.  When we received the Teriyaki Chicken lunch plate we received bone-in chicken thighs.  It was super yummy, developed perfect bits of char, and infused with the smokey BBQ flavors I was missing all trip.

After coming home from our trip and experiencing Hawaii withdrawals like I do every time I come back from paradise, I decided to use the marinade from my Grilled Hawaiian Teriyaki Chicken recipe and my bone-in chicken BBQ technique to recreate the Hawaiian experience.  It turned out amazing and anytime the family needs a little aloha in our lives in San Jose, this would be one of the go-to recipes enjoyed with rice, salad, and when available…mac salad.

Ingredients:

3-4 pounds bone-in chicken, legs and thighs
1/2 cup Aloha shoyu
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
6 garlic cloves, grated
1 ginger, few slices
sesame seeds (for garnish)
green onions, chopped (for garnish)

Steps:

Prepare Marinade – In a medium bowl, combine Aloha soy sauce, water, sugar, black pepper, and rice wine vinegar.  Mix ingredients until the sugar is dissolved.  Add garlic and ginger. Mix again.

Marinate Chicken – In a medium bowl or ziplock bag, add chicken pieces.  Pour marinade over chicken and mix well.  Cover and marinate the chicken in the refrigerator preferably overnight or for at least 3 hours.

Prepare Chicken – Place the chicken on a sheet pan and pat dry.  Add reserved liquid into a small saucepan.

Prepare Grill – Fill a charcoal chimney 3/4 full of charcoal briquettes.  Light up the chimney until coals are fully burned.  Spread hot charcoal over one side of the grill to set up a two-zone fire on the grill for indirect grilling.

BBQ Chicken – Add chicken pieces skin side up to the indirect side of the BBQ grill.  BBQ the chicken with the lid closed at 325-350 degrees. After 30 minutes, open the lid and rotate chicken pieces to ensure even cooking.  Close lid. After 45 minutes, check the chicken for doneness.  Chicken is ready when the internal temperature of chicken reaches 175 degrees.

Tips:

• You can use any bone-in chicken pieces for this recipe.  For bone-in chicken breasts, make sure internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.
• If Aloha soy sauce is not available, regular soy sauce is fine as well.