Chang Family KICK ASS Teriyaki Chicken

From my Hawaiian friend, Allison:

For about 40 – 50 pieces of chicken (dark meat tastes better)

Mix this in a big pot (my mom uses a 2 gallon ziplock bag but I’m always afraid it’ll explode and my fridge will be a chicken soy sauce mess) and marinate the chicken pieces for at least 24 hours in the fridge.  My mom says 2 days is better. 

*2-3 cups soy sauce

2 cups water

1 cup of sake or beer (or you can do 2 cups of sake/beer and then only do 1 cup of water or omit the water altogether if you are soaking it for 2 days)

*3-4 cups sugar, brown sugar, honey – whatever you have (some brown sugar taste better, make sure it is packed when you measure it) – but when you taste the sauce it has to be sweet.  If it’s salty, the chicken will be like eating a salt lick.

*1 bunch of green onions rough chopped

*1 bunch of cilantro rough chopped

*About 1 cup of ginger julienned (about 7-8 inches of ginger julienned)

*7-8 cloves of garlic minced

Pepper to taste (about half a teaspoon – I use white pepper or black pepper)

4 tablespoons of sesame oil (optional)

2 tablespoons of sesame seeds (optional)

1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper (optional but it gives the chicken a nice kick)

*ingredients are absolutely necessary. 

Mix all the ingredients in a big pot until the sugar has dissolved.  Taste it.  Add extra stuff if it’s not sweet enough.  After you get the taste right, throw in the chicken.  When you grill it, grill it over medium to medium low heat.  Watch it because the sugar in the marinade will burn if you leave the skin on the chicken.  If you are doing drumsticks, score the thick part so that the marinade gets into the meat.

For vegetarians (ahem, Chris), you can take some of the marinade before you put in the chicken and marinate some FIRM tofu.  It has to be the firm tofu or else the tofu falls apart.  The tofu doesn’t need a 24 hour soak – probably half a day or a few hours is enough.  You can grill the tofu too.