Grilled Huli Huli Chicken

Grilled huli-huli chicken is a taste of Hawaii in a sweet, savory barbecued chicken recipe. This easy marinaded chicken takes just a few minutes of active prep time and results in a juicy, flavorful main dish each and every time.

We dream of going to Hawaii.

While that’s not in the cards for us anytime soon, we can at least treat our tastebuds to some Hawaiian cuisine with this grilled huli hul chicken.

It’s tangy, sweet, and salty and a winner whenever I make it!

What is huli huli chicken?

This chicken is marinated in a sweet sauce made of pineapple juice, soy sauce, brown sugar, ketchup and spices.

Traditionally the chicken was cooked on a grill over a makeshift spit and was turned often.

Huli means turn in Hawaiian and refers to how huli huli chicken was originally cooked.

Ingredients

To make this you’ll need:

• Chicken breasts– Boneless, skinless breasts trimmed of fat
• Pineapple juice– You can sub pineapple mango juice for pineapple juice, if needed.
• Soy sauce– If you are concerned about saltiness, use low sodium soy sauce.
• Vinegar– Seasoned rice wine vinegar
• Ketchup
• Seasonings– Minced garlic, ginger paste, and Worcestershire sauce
• Cornstarch– To thicken the sauce
• Garnish– Sesame seeds and sliced green onions

How to Make

This tasty huli huli chicken is pretty easy to make!

To do it, just whisk together all of the ingredients except the chicken, cornstarch, and garnish.

Measure out 1 cup of the marinade, and set it aside.

Then, put the chicken breasts into a large ziplocking bag and pour the rest of the marinade into the bag.

Seal the bag and squish the marinade around to cover the breasts.

Refrigerate the marinating chicken for at least 4 hours, flipping the bag every 30 minutes or so.

Make the thick sauce from the remaining marinade by pouring the reserved cup of marinade into a skillet and whisking it with the cornstarch.

Heat the mixture, whisking often, just until it slightly thickened.

Set it aside to let it cool.

It will continue to thicken some as it cools.

Using tongs, transfer the marinated chicken breasts to a grill and cook over medium heat.

Discard the excess marinade.

Grill the chicken, turning it often.

Brush the thickened sauce on top of the chicken after each turn.

Let it cook until it reaches 160°.

Transfer the grilled chicken to a serving dish, and brush the remaining sauce evenly out over all of the chicken.

Sprinkle green onions and sesame seeds evenly out overtop.

Serve warm and enjoy!

Storing Leftovers

Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

What to Serve with Huli Huli Chicken

This chicken is on the sweeter side, so to make it a filling meal we round it out by serving it with steamed white rice and a side of vegetables like steamed broccoli.

It’s also fantastic served over a big salad with crisp greens and grilled pineapple.

If we’re having a barbecue though, I’ll pair it with this Hawaiian macaroni salad.

Tips and Tricks

• The minimum marinade time I recommend is 4 hours, but the longer you let the meat rest in the juices the better it will be. We’ve let this go up to 12 hours/overnight.
• Chicken should be cooked to 165F. We recommend removing the chicken from the grill at 160F because it will continue cooking for several more minutes, and you don’t want it to get dry or over cooked.
• You could get a little creative with your garnish and add grilled pineapple rings to the the top for presentation.

Other Grilled Chicken Recipes

Huli huli chicken treats your family to a taste of paradise right at home.

Make it and enjoy!

Looking for other grilled chicken recipes?

Try these:

• Grilled Teriyaki Chicken
• Grilled Barbecue Chicken Kabobs With Pineapple
• Grilled Chicken Fajita Foil Packets

If you’ve tried this HULI HULI CHICKEN or any other recipe on the site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out, we love hearing from our readers! You can also follow along with me on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK, and INSTAGRAM to see more amazing recipes and whatever else we’ve got going on!