Hawaiian Shoyu Chicken

Fall hit Utah County this week like it was making up for lost time — sixty degrees on Monday, forty-three by Wednesday, frost on the windshield Thursday morning. I dug out the bin of winter coats from the basement and spent twenty minutes matching gloves because no child in this house has ever returned a pair of gloves to the same location twice, which I consider a personal failing on my part and a cosmic inevitability on theirs. Lily's coat from last year is too short in the sleeves. She's six and growing like she's being paid for it. I took her to the DI on Saturday and we found a purple puffer jacket for four dollars and she wore it out of the store, which is the kind of victory that only counts if you're operating on the budget I'm operating on.

Ethan had a book report due Friday. He chose a book about the Bataan Death March, which is not what I would have chosen for a twelve-year-old, but Ethan has always been drawn to heavy things. I helped him outline it at the kitchen table Wednesday night while the slow cooker did its work behind us — white chicken chili, a recipe I've been tweaking for three weeks. The original came from a church cookbook Sister Hammond gave me in 2009 and it was fine, in the way that church cookbook recipes are fine, which is to say: edible, beige, and flavored primarily with cream of something. I've been adding green chiles, cumin, a squeeze of lime, and enough garlic that Brandon can smell it from the driveway. This week's version was right. I made a triple batch — one for dinner, two for the freezer. I wrote the recipe on an index card in my neatest handwriting because the legal pad is getting full and the accountant in me is starting to think about organization.

Noah said "Mama" forty-seven times on Tuesday. I counted because I needed a number to hold on to. Forty-seven times my three-year-old said my name and needed something — milk, his shoe, a hug, the blue truck, the other blue truck, not that blue truck. The needing is relentless and the relentlessness is the only thing keeping me upright, because if no one needed me I would have to decide to get up on my own, and I don't trust myself with that decision yet. The freezer has twenty-two meals in it. I know because I inventoried it Sunday night. Twenty-two meals. Forty-seven Mamas. Some women count blessings. I count what I can prove.

The white chicken chili is going on the index card system. I'm starting a box.

The white chicken chili earned its index card this week — and it reminded me that slow cooker dinners are the backbone of how I keep this household fed without losing my mind. Hawaiian Shoyu Chicken is the other recipe in that same category: it asks almost nothing of me during the day, it makes enough to freeze, and it costs so little per serving that I can justify the triple batch without guilt. Some nights the slow cooker is the only adult in the room, and I mean that as a compliment to the slow cooker.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 6–8 hours (low) | Total Time: 6 hours 10 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

3 lbs bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 6 pieces)
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup water
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated (or 1 teaspoon ground ginger)
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
3 green onions, sliced (for serving)
Cooked white rice, for serving

Instructions

Mix the sauce. In a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the soy sauce, brown sugar, water, garlic, ginger, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and red pepper flakes until the sugar is mostly dissolved.
Load the slow cooker. Arrange the chicken thighs in a single layer in the bottom of a 6-quart slow cooker. Pour the sauce evenly over the top.
Cook low and slow. Cover and cook on LOW for 6–8 hours, or on HIGH for 3–4 hours, until the chicken is tender and cooked through to an internal temperature of 165°F.
Optional — reduce the sauce. If you want a thicker glaze, transfer the cooking liquid to a small saucepan and simmer over medium-high heat for 8–10 minutes until reduced by half. Spoon over the chicken before serving.
Serve. Plate the chicken over steamed white rice and spoon extra sauce over the top. Garnish with sliced green onions.
Freeze for later. Cool completely, then portion into freezer-safe bags or containers with some of the sauce. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and reheat gently on the stovetop or in the microwave.

Nutrition (per serving)

Hawaiian Shoyu Chicken — The Recipe That Earned a Spot in the Box