There isn’t anything easier than shoyu chicken. Mix, pour, simmer. That’s all you need to do. But it simmers for a good hour, so be sure you’ve planned ahead. That cooking hour turns the tangy acidity of the vinegar into mellow sweetness. The meat soaks up that rich sauce and becomes very tender and could win over anyone. Very promising.

This recipe is from one of my Japanese-American friends from Hawaii. Shoyu is the word for soy sauce in Japanese. This correspondence in the name of the dish surely carries some nostalgic implications to me. Now a household favorite in the islands of Hawaii, and a must for the buffet table at any social gathering, shoyu chicken was most likely the idea of Japanese immigrants who lived in Hawaii and experimented with combining local tastes and tastes from their homeland.