Monday, February 9, 2009

Slow Cooker Shoyu Chicken

So, I have a son who attends Oregon State University. I went to stay with him last weekend at his off campus house as we attended my daughter's deployment ceremony.

One day, he decided we should have lunch at some place in Corvallis, Oregon called Local Boyz. I obviously was hesitant being the gourmet kind of guy I am (cough!) but agreed. Needless to say, we drove to some hole in the wall place, that was on the second floor of some structure not even part of a strip mall. 12 tiny tables, water jugs and glasses, and a line out the door. I was dubious. We ordered a combination plate which consisted of macaroni salad, rice, soy chicken, steak tips, and Hawaiian BBQ small ribs. It was................. wait for it............... fabulous!

I told my son I will try to find and duplicate the food we had that day.

I will kill to get the BBQ recipe for those ribs, but have been unsuccessful so far. (Ok, I wouldn't actually kill, but maiming is not outside the realm of possibility, they were THAT good) The first thing is, the "ribs" are a very thin cut of pork (oops, update, just found out it's beef!) with small bones showing and I can't find that cut of meat, much less duplicate the sauce.

That being said, I DID find a number of recipes for Soy Sauce chicken, or Shoyu chicken and took the best of each and adapted it to this rendition. (See link for the main one Food Network)


So please try and enjoy this recipe. It really is simple, easy, and delicious.

Ingredients and Method:

6 - 12 chicken drumsticks (larger ones are perfect)

1 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 cups soy sauce

3 cans chicken broth

1/4 cup white wine

1 cup pineapple juice

1/4 cup cider vinegar

2 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

chopped green onion for garnish

4 tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 water

Combine all ingredients except green onion, cornstarch and water in slow cooker. Rinse the drumsticks and add to cooker.

Cook on high for 4 hours.

After about 3 hours you should see the meat falling from the bones in the crockpot. Remove all the chicken drumsticks and debone. At this time skim some of the fat and any stray ginger you might come across from the crockpot and discard. Return the chicken to the broth, and continue to cook for one hour.

During the last half hour, take 4 tablespoons of corn starch, dissolve in a half of cup of water and stir into the crockpot and leave on high for the last half hour stirring occasionally to thicken the sauce.

Serve warm over freshly cooked rice garnished will the green onions. This tastes even better the next day after it's steeped overnight.

Enjoy!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Ron,

This sure brought back memories of living in Honolulu many years ago. Basically what you were served is called a "plate lunch" and usually came in a styrofoam container, overflowing! Those Hawaiian ribs you speak of, are they also referred to as "Maui Ribs"? We used to get awesome ribs at "Azeka's" in Kihei (on Maui).

The Bumbles said...

Well that just looks and sounds purely delicious! And a good use of the crock pot instead of the standard beef stew or chili.

Anonymous said...

The ribs you're looking for sound like kalbi. The cut of beef is short ribs cut thin across the grain & bone.

rcspott said...

That chicken looks great, Azeka Ribs, my friend and me have 25 years eating them while they were available, we have a recipe that is pretty darn close. A couple margaritas while your cooking them and you will feel like your back on Maui.

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/522330

Let me know what you think.

rcspott@yahoo.com

Rich

WVernon said...

I went to OSU for 5 years and Local Boyz was one of my favorite all-time places to eat. There is also a place in SW Portland called Bamboo Grove. I swear the food is identical only with a larger menu. Rumor has it, its owned by the same family as Local Boyz.

Ron Merlin said...

Thanks for the heads up WVernon. My kids live in Portland so I'll send them that way.


The Merlin Menu

dub said...

nice looking recipe and as a graduate of oregon state myself, i love going back to get local boyz.

anyways, if you are still trying to find those style of ribs, try any of the asian markets and look for beef short ribs. also, if you want a more flavorful soy sauce, try and find some datu puti soy sauce. in fact you can find both the ribs and soy sauce at fou lee market on beacon hill.

Ron Merlin said...

Thanks Dub for the reference to a good Asian grocery.

I did, however, continue my quest for the Local Boyz pork. Here's my blog post a few months later than the one you read.

http://themerlinmenu.blogspot.com/2009/02/maui-ribs.html