cooking for large groups – All About Becoming

Shoyu Chicken is a delicious easy way to feed your family or a really large group. One of our house favorites.

I didn’t get a whole lot of pictures for this, but wanted to get it posted anyway. I’ll take more later. ;o)

Here’s what you’ll need: 5 lbs boneless, skinless THIGHS (I get these at costco in a 5lb package), 1 C + of Aloha Shoyu, 1 C + Brown Sugar, a thumb size portion of fresh ginger, fresh garlic (0ptional). Aloha Shoyu is basically a lighter soy sauce. You can find it at Walgreen’s or Long’s Drugs. If you can’t find it, you can either use a light soy sauce or you can use a regular soy sauce and add some water to it. I don’t mind it with the full strength soy sauce either. I’ve done it all ways. It’s all good!

Mix 1 C Shoyu (soy sauce) and 1 C brown sugar in your large pan. Peel the ginger and cut it into slices. Add to mixture. Turn your pot on and add your chicken to the sauce. Bring it to a boil, then drop it down to a simmer. Cook until the chicken is done (about 1-1/2 hours). (If you’re doing a really small pot and the chicken isn’t frozen, it only takes about 20 minutes.) After it is cooked, you may see some floaters in it from the chicken juice. If this bothers you or you are serving it to a group and you don’t want anyone freaking out, then take the chicken out of the pot and strain the liquid. Pour it all back over the chicken. Whether you strain it or not, then add some additional shoyu and brown sugar (about 1/4-1/2 C of each). It will be ready to serve.

If you are cooking for a large group, it is easier to cook this in your soup pots, then pour it into your roasting ovens unless you can put it into your roasters and let it cook for a couple of hours or more. I did a big batch in the roaster and it didn’t cook fast enough, so I took it out and cooked it in batches.

Super yummy served over rice with the sauce!

If you’re doing a small batch just for your family, you can also add some veggies with it. The sauce makes it like a teriyaki bowl!

Kalua Pork has to be one of my most favorite recipes for feeding a large group. I love it for my family, too, but the expense and ease of it make it one of the best meals for those large gatherings of people. Here’s what you’ll need:
Pork Shoulder Roast about 12-15 lbs. (I get mine at Costco), Aloha salt (can usually get it at Walgreens or Longs Drugs), and liquid smoke. Yep….. three things! You’re liking this already aren’t you? (If you can’t find Aloha salt, don’t panic, just substitute kosher.)

Pour your liquid smoke on your roast and massage it into the roast. You will flip and turn your roast and pour a little more. You will use about a 1/2 a bottle per 12-15 lb roast. So pour and rub it in until you have the whole roast covered well.

Then do the same thing with your salt. Sprinkle it on and rub it in. You will use about a 1/2 a cup for this large roast. I know it sounds like a lot, but trust me. ;o) Can you see the salt on there all massaged in?

Here’s an up-close view of the salt and smoke all rubbed in. Now to cook it, you can just put it in your crock pot for 11 hours on low. It is important to cook it slow and low. The meat will just fall apart!

When I shot these pictures, we were doing my son’s Eagle Scout Fundraiser and had a lot of these roasts to cook, so we had about 2-3 of these roasts in these big pans and put lids on them and cooked them all night in the oven. If you zoom in, you can see we had the oven set on 200 and let them cook all night. I’ve also used my roasting ovens. If you want to put them in the roaster, then wrap the meat in tinfoil, put it in the roaster and pour water to half way up the meat and set it on 200 and let it cook all night or all day, too. Then you can slip the meat out of the tinfoil. If you’re using the roaster, you will have to check it periodically to make sure that that the water doesn’t totally evaporate. You may need to add some. The advantage is that if you cook it in the roaster, then you can just shred it right in there. I use it when I have a couple of roasts to cook and am serving it and need to keep it warm. The crock pot works best if you have a small 5 lb roast you are feeding your family with.

After the meat is done cooking, just take your forks and shred it. If you’d like to extend the meat a little bit or do it real Hawaiian Style, then throw some cut up cabbage in it after you shred it and let it cook a few minutes longer. Yummy either way!!

I forgot to get pictures of the end result. It was a big day. ;o)