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!