Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Total Time: About 1 hour
Servings: 4-6
Cuisine: Hawaiian
Course: Main Course
Serve With: Macaroni salad, cole slaw and white rice.
Ingredients:
- 1 whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces
- Mesquite chips, for smoking the chicken
BBQ Chicken Marinade:
- 1/4 cup Hoisin sauce
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup ketchup
-
1/4 cup Hawaiian honey or regular honey
- 1/4 cup concentrated frozen pineapple juice
- 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
-
2 teaspoons garlic-shallot puree, or 3 cloves of mashed garlic
- 1 tablespoon grated ginger root
- Salt to taste
Directions:
- You'll need one whole chicken for this recipe, which I've cut into eight pieces. Check out my video on how to cut a chicken if you're not sure how to do this.
- To make this Hawaiian BBQ chicken, prepare your BBQ chicken marinade the day before you plan to grill. Sometimes I like to toss in a couple drops of Sriracha sauce into the marinade for a spicier flavor. Mix the marinade ingredients well and place into a Ziploc bag or baking pan covered in plastic wrap. Marinate chicken pieces for at least 2 hours, but preferably overnight.
- When cooking BBQ chicken, I like to use my smoker box and today I'm using mesquite chips, which is called kiawe in Hawaii.
- Grill this slowly for about 40 minutes, turning and basting with the Honey BBQ chicken sauce as needed.
Huli Huli, which means turn, turn, refers to flipping the chicken on the grill. It was invented in 1955 by Ernest Morgado, who decided to grill his famous teriyaki chicken outdoors. It's been a popular Hawaiian barbecue recipe ever since.
Most Hawaiians have their favorite huli huli chicken, but the basics of this easy BBQ chicken recipe are the same. I've tried this as a BBQ rotisserie chicken, but honestly I prefer the results when the chicken is cut into pieces. It allows a lot more flavor to shine through.
I hope you enjoy it!