Huli Huli Chicken
My absolute favorite meal when I go to Hawaii is Huli Huli Chicken! This easy recipe inspired by a little roadside shack in Maui tastes identical to the real thing. The key is a ketchup base infused with pineapple juice, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, and a few other easy staples. Marinate, and grill for a delicious weeknight, weekend, or perfect Summer dish.
What is Huli Huli Chicken?
The term ‘Huli’ means to grill over an open flame in Hawaiian. The chicken is marinated, then grilled to perfection while you rotate it often, resulting in a carmelized, sweet and tangy chicken. This chicken is most often served at BBQ’s, luaus, and in our case, for dinner at home!
Huli Huli Chicken Ingredients
Huli Huli chicken marinade comes together really easily. In fact, you most likely already have the ingredients on hand! You can modify it to your liking, making it more or less sweet.
- Ketchup: The base of the marinade. The sweet but tangy finish comes from the mixture of tomatoes and vinegar.
- Soy Sauce: You can also use coconut aminos if you prefer.
- Pineapple Juice: I like to use a can of pineapple rings in juice because grilled pineapple is soooo good with this chicken!
- Brown Sugar: This adds to the sweetness and helps caramelize the chicken on the grill.
- Sesame Oil: Purely for flavor. A little goes a long way!
- Garlic: You can use fresh diced, dehydrated, or jarred.
- Ginger: For the best flavor I recommend using ginger paste or freshly grated.
Marinating Hawaiian Grilled Chicken
The best part about this marinade is that you don’t need to marinate long for great flavor. At least 2 hours, but no more than 24. Because this marinade has pineapple juice in it, marinating for too long can result in tough chicken, so keep the marination time to 24 hours or less.
Grill the chicken at 400 degrees on each side for about 10 minutes. The beauty of chicken thighs is that they have extra fat in them opposed to a chicken breast. Because of that, they grill up super well, and they’re really hard to overcook! Chicken is fully cooked once it reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit. We recommend using an electronic meat thermometer.
If you like easy chicken recipes, here’s a few more of our favorites:
Huli Huli Chicken
Ingredients
- 12 boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1.5 cups ketchup
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1 cup pineapple juice
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp fresh garlic (minced)
- 2 tbsp ginger paste (or fresh, minced)
- 1 tsp sesame oil
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine marinade ingredients. Whisk until fully combined.
- Add chicken to marinade bowl, and stir to cover.
- Marinate chicken for at least 2 hours, but no more than 24 hours.
- When ready, preheat grill to 400 degrees fahrenheit. Add chicken, and cook on each side until golden brown with char marks. Chicken is fully cooked once it reaches a temperature of at least 165 degrees fahrenheit.
- Allow chicken to rest for 5 minutes before slicing and serving. Enjoy!
Nutrition
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