Shoyu Chicken

Shoyu chicken — a simple dish featuring bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs simmered in a salty-sweet combination of soy sauce and sugar — is beloved in Hawai’i. Served with white rice and macaroni salad, it’s a staple at plate lunch restaurants, potlucks, and dinner tables across the islands.

Shoyu chicken is classic local-style food in Hawaii. While not something Native Hawaiians ate before colonization, it’s part of the food culture that has emerged from plantation life, in which bits and pieces of dishes from different immigrant nations came together to create their own unique cuisine. Inspired by dishes like Japanese teriyaki and Filipino adobo, shoyu chicken is considered a hallmark of Hawaiian-style food. 

Broadly speaking, shoyu is the Japanese term for soy sauce; it is also the standard terminology for soy sauce in Hawai’i. So don’t worry if you don’t see any bottles labeled “shoyu” on your grocery store shelf. Kikkoman soy sauce is a popular choice when making this dish in Hawai’i, and is widely available in most grocery stores. 

I’ve eaten this dish countless times, and they all differ a bit depending on the cook. I consulted family members, and perused blogs as well as my collection of plastic comb-bound community cookbooks. Modern shoyu chicken recipes typically use bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. They provide the most succulent meat after a long simmer. The bones contribute heft to the broth, while the skin adds a considerable amount of fat. You can easily skim off some of the fat from the top of the broth after cooking, but I don’t bother. In my humble opinion, chicken fat-coated rice is one of life’s greatest savory treats.

Most recipes include water, shoyu (soy sauce), and sugar plus some ginger and garlic. But, variations often include several wild-card ingredients like sake, mirin, oyster sauce, honey, sherry, chicken broth, and onion. Some recipes reduce the sauce down, while some thicken it with cornstarch, and others leave it as is, a thin broth. My version cuts back on the sugar, opting for a combination of brown sugar and mirin for sweetness as well as added flavor. I also use less cooking liquid than many recipes call for, resulting in a slightly sticky, flavorful sauce that runs through the grains of rice and mingles with the creamy macaroni.