ground control to major mom's huli huli chicken
Posted with aloha from Ground Control to Major Mom

Before there were Zippy's chili fundraisers, there was huli huli chicken. Not barbecue, not teriyaki--a uniquely smoky, slightly sweet spit roasted chicken. Churches, schools, baseball teams would grill tons of these on over-sized grills and huge charcoal sinks, yelling "huli!" (turn/flip over) to flip them over to cook both sides. 

I'd been looking for an authentic, old-time huli huli chicken recipe for awhile. This one arrived in a most circuitous way. A Food Buzz link led me to a blog that happened to have a guest posting for huli huli chicken. Turns out the guest post was Ground Control to Major Mom, who lived in Hawaii as a kid and also shares a kinship to huli huli chicken. And as a bonus, her blog is wickedly funny.

---

3 pounds of chicken, with skin and bones
3/4 cup shoyu
1/4 cup white wine
2T brown sugar
1 1/2t grated ginger (original uses 1T)
1-2 cloves garlic, minced (recipe says 1, but I love garlic)

Very nice to have if possible
Spray bottle for marinade

---

Make huli sauce. Marinate the chicken pieces for at least 2 hours, but overnight is best.

Grill over low or indirect heat for 45-60 minutes. Every so often, spray the marinade on the chicken, yell "huli!" and flip it over. This doesn't help the flavor, but will definitely get you in appropriate frame of mind. Also helps to have a beer handy.

As a second option, bake the chicken at 350F for 1 hour, again marinating and flipping every so often. With this method, you can give it one last sear/baste for about 5-8 minutes per side. 

NOTES:

Ground Control to Major Mom's "original-original" recipe also included MSG. Neither she nor I include it anymore.

---