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Grilled Huli Huli chicken is a delicious Hawaiian BBQ recipe. You start by marinating the chicken in huli huli sauce and then slowly roast your chicken by turning it over your grill.
What does Huli Huli mean?
It’s called “huli huli” because huli is the Hawaiian word for “turn” and huli huli chicken is turned constantly on the grill as it is cooked. It is also called Hawaiian BBQ.
Ingredients Needed
- Chicken Thighs, boneless, skinless. You can also use chicken breasts although I recommend using thighs.
- Pineapple juice. I used canned juice.
- Soy sauce
- Brown sugar
- Rice vinegar. Can substitute with white vinegar if needed
- Ketchup
- Garlic, fresh minced
- Ginger, fresh minced
- Worcestershire sauce
- Cornstarch
- Green onions, for garnish
Huli huli chicken is marinaded in a Hawaiian BBQ sauce. It is a wonderful combination of pineapple juice, soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger and a few other lovely flavors!
How to Make Huli Huli Chicken
Huli Huli Sauce
When you are ready to grill the chicken, add a tablespoon of cornstarch to the reserved marinade, heat it up, and stir until thickened. This is your huli huli sauce that you will baste the chicken with while you are grilling.
Once the sauce has thickened, remove the chicken from the marinade and discard the marinade. Put the chicken on the grill and turn, turn, turn. After each turn, use the huli huli sauce (thickened marinade) to baste the chicken.
Once the chicken is cooked through and a nice glaze has formed on the chicken, it is ready to serve. I garnished it with some sliced green onion which looks pretty and adds some nice color.
We had neighbors over for dinner who have four small children so I was hoping this huli huli chicken was a good choice. I served it with some white sticky rice and it was a hit with everyone at the table.
Frequently Asked Questions
Huli huli chicken can be made in the oven or on the stovetop.
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Huli Huli Chicken
Ingredients
- 4 lbs. boneless skinless chicken thighs (or breasts)
- 12 oz. pineapple juice
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 1/3 cup ketchup
- 1 tsp minced fresh garlic
- 1 tsp minced fresh ginger
- 1 Tbsp worcestershire sauce
- 1 Tbsp cornstarch
- green onion chopped for garnish
Instructions
- Mix together all ingredients but chicken, cornstarch and green onion.
- Set aside 1 cup of marinade.
- Pour remaining marinade over chicken in a bowl or zippered plastic bag and refrigerate for 3 hours to overnight.
- In a sauce pan combine 1 cup of reserved marinade and cornstarch, stir and heat until thickened.
- Discard marinade from chicken.
- Place chicken on grill over medium heat. Cook on each side, turning several times and brushing chicken with thickened marinade after each turn. Grill until cooked through and glaze has thickened.
- Garnish with green onions
- If doing in the oven bake at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Baste and turn as youl would on the grill.
Allison says
We had a luau theme for my sister’s birthday dinner and made this as the main dish. Such a huge hit! To cut time the day of, I did this freezer meal style: trimmed the chicken (I used breasts), made the marinade/sauce and put in a freezer bag. For the reserve sauce, I froze that in a mason jar. Followed the recipe exactly. Such a delicious flavor!
Claudia says
I made this for dinner tonight. We had guests and everyone raved about it. It couldn’t be easier to make and is absolutely delicious. Thank you for another great recipe. I make quite a few of your recipes and they are all hits!
Jennifer says
How long can you store the marinade in the fridge?
Leigh Anne Wilkes says
3-4 days
Heidi says
This is one of our MOST favorite recipes! We love it best grilled. We buy a big bag of chicken thighs at Costco and grill it all. Anytime we’ve made and shared it, everyone asks for the recipe. We often make a big batch of your rice pilaf to serve with it. We’ve tried 1 other Huli Huli recipe and will only use this one now.
Leigh Anne Wilkes says
I love hearing this! We just made it again this weekend!
Jess says
This was so delicious! I’m so excited to have an easy and delicious homemade Huli Huli sauce now! Yum!
Leigh Anne says
It’s definitely a favorite at our house too – so glad you loved it.