Hawaiian Chicken

When Brian and I went to Utah a few weeks ago for his Mom’s college graduation, it turned out that my cousin, Devin, was graduating also. His wife, Lauren, threw him this great little luau themed graduation party with amazing food. Me, and all the other guests, were dying for the recipes. Lauren was kind enough to email them out and last night I fed them to my seven dinner guests. They were a huge hit! I couldn’t take all the credit, obviously, but they were quite good.

The chicken is a super easy recipe and I don’t see how anyone wouldn’t be able to make it. The coconut sweet potatoes had a bit of my spin on them. The recipe calls for sweet potatoes, and Lauren used the ones with the orange flesh. When I was at the grocery store they had sweet potatoes and yams. So I bought the sweet potatoes, only to get home and find out that mine were not orange inside, but more of a yellowish color and had the texture of a white baking potato. So I did some research to find out what the deal was with yams vs. sweet potatoes. Bottom line: either white or orange flesh, they’re all called sweet potatoes, they are just different varieties. People generally call the orange flesh yams, which apparently is in error, but that’s how was do it in America. Turns out the real yams and sweet potatoes aren’t even related botanically. So if you want the orange colored flesh make sure you buy the sweet potatoes with the darker skin. (more sweet potato info here) more info. But the good news is that the recipe turned out with the sweet potatoes just the same. It is a very sweet recipe, I would think about cutting down on the sugar, and the original recipe called for water, but I substituted milk, made more sense to me. But definitely try these out and feel free to post up any other luau recipes!

Hawaiian Chicken Recipe:
About 10-12 chicken breasts
2 cups pineapple juice
2 cups sugar
2 cups soy sauce
1 small can of pineapple (optional)

Throw everything into a pot and bring to a boil. After brought to a boil, turn down heat and simmer for 45 minutes. Take out the chicken and thicken the sauce with cornstarch. (Mix cornstarch with some of the sauce, instead of water). Put chicken back in and re-warm (if they've gotten cold). Serve over rice

Aloha Sweet Potatoes: (these did not photograph very well)
5-6 medium sweet potatoes (dark flesh, or "yams")
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup coconut
2 tbsp milk

Boil the sweet potatoes in their skins until soft, about 25 minutes. Let them cool, then peel. Cut up into squares. Melt butter in sauce pan, then add brown sugar and coconut and water and mix together. Add potatoes and mix together and rewarm on stove if necessary.