Shoyu Chicken - Hawaiian Version of Chicken Teriyaki

Been a while since I blog. Too busy with work. Speaking of which, any easy to make recipe is good for weekday dinner these days and Shoyu Chicken is one of them. This chicken came out tasting so Oishii. A close friend of mine, Taka, is originally from Hawaii. He told me that this is the Hawaiian version of teriyaki chicken. There are of course plenty of variations out there on how to make the delicious Shoyu Chicken. However, I love Taka's recipe cos it is simple and so good. Make sure you cook plenty of rice with it. The teriyaki sauce is amazingly good with rice and vegetables.

Shoyu Chicken (Recipe courtesy of Taka)

Ingredients
8 pieces of chicken thighs with bone, or 3 large split chicken breast (about 2.5lb)


Marinade
1/2 cup Shoyu (Japanese soy sauce or just use light soy sauce)
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of water (I use mirin, Japanese cooking wine just because of I have it in the fridge)
1/2 large onion sliced thin or one whole small onion
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 1/2 teaspoon of ginger, grated

Sliced green onion and toasted sesame seed for garnish


Method
1) Brine the chicken for 2 hours. Remove from brine and pat dry.
2) In a large bowl, combine all marinade ingredients. Immerse chicken into the marinade and leave in the fridge for at least 3 hours. (Overnight is fine)
3) Preheat the oven to 350F. In a large baking pan, place the chicken, skin side up. Bake for 25 mins, basting with marinade occasionally.
4) In a small pot, pour remainder of marinade and heat to boil. Let simmer until sauce has thickened. (Note: I added another 1/4 cup of sugar to the sauce). Reserve for glaze and extra sauce for serving.
5) Glaze chicken by brushing teriyaki sauce over the chicken every 5 mins or so.
6) When the 25 minutes has passed, turn on the convection oven function. Let chicken cooked for another 8-10 minutes till skin crisp up a little and teriyaki sauce is caramelized.
7) Garnish with sliced green onion. Serve with rice and vegetable. Drizzle with more teriyaki sauce if desire.

Variation: Layer the pan with sliced onion and bell pepper. Place chicken on top of vegetables. You will have  teriyaki chicken with vegetables all ready for your meal.