Shoyu Chicken

Yesterday I was laid up and in need of some comfort food. R and I decided this was just what we needed. We made this delicious chicken while watching SciFi's "Tin Man," which was a super awesome rendition of "The Wizard of Oz." Especially enjoyable if you have a girl crush on Zooey Deschanel like yours truly.

This recipe is courtesy of my love's mother. She is a very good cook. Her mom is Chinese and her dad is Hawaiian, and people in Hawaii LOVE shoyu chicken. This recipe is fantastic! I could have drank the extra marinade. Please enjoy!!

Shoyu Chicken

1/2 c shoyu (which is soy sauce, you sillies!!)
1/2 c water
3 T brown sugar
1 star anise
1 slice ginger, crushed
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 t thick soy (optional)
1 cinnamon stick (also optional)
sm strip orange zest (also optional)
3 whole cloves (again, optional)
3-4 # chicken

Marinate chicken (whole or pieces...we ended up using much less chicken, and used breast tenders, because that's what we had in the freezer) in all ingredients.

Bring everything to a boil in a pan then simmer, covered, 25-30 minutes. Turn the chicken over once while cooking to brown evenly.

Cool, then chop into small pieces and arrange on platter. Top with chopped green onions if desired.

Here's what we did differently, besides the chicken amount: I used candied ginger, since my ginger went bad, so I reduced the amount of sugar to 2 1/2 T and used turbinado instead of brown since we are out of brown. We included the cinnamon stick, but left out the other optional ingredients, mostly because we don't have them right now.

Next time I want to be sure to have ALL ingredients (optional included) and I want to use boneless skin-on thighs because I think it will taste much more fantastic, and R informed me that he likes to eat the skin. Weirdo.