Huli Huli Chicken: Fun to say, even better to eat

I make a lot of lists. I really love checking things off a to-do list (in fact, I will often add something I’ve already done, or am in the process of doing, just so I can cross it off and feel more accomplished).

But there are some lists that I’ll probably never finish. Last year, I decided I wanted to watch every Academy Award best-picture winning movie ever and, since then, I have watched precisely zero that I hadn’t already seen. And then I decided I had to read every Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction and have maybe put the teensiest, tiniest dent into that list. (Don’t even get me started on the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die spreadsheet that’s on my computer’s desktop.) Oh, and, since I like crossing things off lists, I told myself I would make a 101 things to do in 1001 days list.  After I came up with maybe 5 things I wanted to do, just thinking of 96 more made me tired. That project was dunzo.

But I’ve really, really been trying to do some damage on my recipes-to-try list. It’s hard because for every recipe I make, I star 26 others in my Google Reader, dog-ear 20 more in magazines and cookbooks, and save 40 to my recipe box on Epicurious. Tonight, I vowed to knock two off the list (the other will come soon, assuming it turned out because it *does* involve baking…).

As soon as I saw this chicken dish in the blog Ezra Pound Cake, I was salivating. The ingredients were right up my alley, and just the look of that charred, skin-on chicken was amazing.  Remembering I had some chicken legs in the freezer, I decided to make these tonight.

I wish I could have smoked this chicken because it would have only made it more awesome but I don’t have a smoker and the husband was not really in the mood to whip out the charcoal grill/smoke-type accessories on a weeknight. Still, it turned out fabulously using my broiler–which you know I love so much. I will definitely be making this again–and often–because it’s so simple and I always have the ingredients on hand.

1 recipe down, 349859059 to go…

Huli Huli Chicken

Serves 2
Adapted from Ezra Pound Cake

1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/3 cup pineapple tidbits/chunks
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. ketchup
1 Tbsp. rice vinegar
1 knob ginger, grated
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 bone-in, skin-on chicken leg quarters (or 4-6 thighs)
1-2 tsp. canola oil

Preheat the broiler. Add the soy sauce through the Worcestershire sauce into a food processor and pulse until smooth.

Rub the chicken with the canola oil and then broil skin side up, about 6″ from the element, for 8 minutes. Flip and broil for another 8 minutes.  Brush the chicken with the glaze mixture and broil for an additional 16 minutes or so, flipping and basting every 4 minutes.