Chef Makoa
Chicken Hekka (Hawaiʻi Local Plantation-Style Chicken Sukiyaki)
Hawaiʻi Local chicken hekka, the plantation-camp cousin of Japanese sukiyaki, with tender chicken, long rice, shiitake, bamboo shoots, and sweet shoyu gravy for rice.
Culinary Explorer
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Mochiko Chicken (Hawaiʻi Local Sweet Rice-Flour Fried Chicken)
Created by
Hawaiʻi's Local potluck fried chicken, sweet-savory from mochiko rice flour and shoyu, fried in bite-size pieces and right at home beside two scoops rice and mac salad.
Main Dishes
Polynesian, Hawaiian
Potluck
Game Day
Comfort Food
20 min
Active Time
25 min cook•8 hr 45 min total
Yield6 servings
The plate lunch taught plenty of us kinship from a foam box. Two scoops rice, one scoop mac salad, chicken piled high, everybody eating in the shade with the rice cooker still warm inside the house. This is Hawaiʻi's Local food, born from sugar-camp stoves and lunch counters, where Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Korean, Filipino, Puerto Rican, and plenty other hands fed one another with what the plantation world put in front of them.
Mochiko chicken belongs to Hawaiʻi, and I name it that way. Not Sāmoan, not Tongan, not Tahitian, not Cook Islands, not Māori. The mochiko, sweet rice flour, comes through Japanese hands; the shoyu, garlic, ginger, sugar, and frying oil became part of the everyday language of home kitchens, potlucks, game days, graduation parties, and drive-in plates. No blame the plate for being humble. Humble food fed hard-working people.
This isn't deep food like poi, where we sit down with Hāloa, the elder brother, or like Sāmoan palusami and Tongan lū where taro leaf and coconut cream carry old knowledge. This is the other half of the table, the Local half, the part that says the islands are still living and still making supper. Across the Triangle, every cousin has foods like that now: Sāmoan sapasui, Tongan lū pulu with tinned corned beef, Māori boil-up, Hawaiian Spam musubi and plate lunch. Same ocean, different pantry, people still feeding people.
So marinate the thighs long enough for the shoyu and ginger to get inside, then fry steady, not angry-hot. You want the edges crisp, the glaze dark-gold, the meat juicy all the way through. Eat it with rice. Eat it with mac salad. Eat what you have, and make enough for one more.
Mochiko chicken grew from Hawaiʻi's twentieth-century Local food culture, especially the plantation and lunch-counter world where Japanese ingredients like mochiko, shoyu, and ginger met the plate-lunch format of rice, macaroni salad, and a protein. It is Hawaiian in the Local sense, food of Hawaiʻi's multiethnic kitchens, not an ancestral Kanaka Maoli dish like poi, laulau, or kālua puaʻa. That distinction matters because the deep foods and the plantation-creole foods are both real parts of the table, each with its own history and its own hand.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
boneless skinless chicken thighs
Quantity
2 pounds
cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
mochiko sweet rice flour
Quantity
1/2 cup
cornstarch
Quantity
1/4 cup
granulated sugar
Quantity
1/4 cup
shoyu, or Japanese soy sauce
Quantity
1/2 cup
large eggs
Quantity
2
beaten
garlic cloves
Quantity
4
finely grated
fresh ginger
Quantity
1 tablespoon
finely grated
green onions
Quantity
3
thinly sliced, plus more for garnish
toasted sesame seeds
Quantity
1 tablespoon
plus more for garnish
kosher salt
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
black pepper
Quantity
1/4 teaspoon
neutral oil
Quantity
as needed
for frying
cooked white rice
Quantity
for serving
macaroni salad
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| boneless skinless chicken thighscut into 1 1/2-inch pieces | 2 pounds |
| mochiko sweet rice flour | 1/2 cup |
| cornstarch | 1/4 cup |
| granulated sugar | 1/4 cup |
| shoyu, or Japanese soy sauce | 1/2 cup |
| large eggsbeaten | 2 |
| garlic clovesfinely grated | 4 |
| fresh gingerfinely grated | 1 tablespoon |
| green onionsthinly sliced, plus more for garnish | 3 |
| toasted sesame seedsplus more for garnish | 1 tablespoon |
| kosher salt | 1/2 teaspoon |
| black pepper | 1/4 teaspoon |
| neutral oilfor frying | as needed |
| cooked white rice | for serving |
| macaroni salad | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy 5-quart Dutch oven or deep cast-iron pot
- •Deep-fry thermometer
- •Wire rack set over a rimmed sheet pan
Instructions
- 1
Cut the chicken
Trim the thighs and cut them into bite-size pieces, about an inch and a half. Thigh meat is the right one here, forgiving and juicy, the kind that stays tender after the fry and still tastes good when somebody comes back for seconds after the game.
- 2
Mix the marinade
In a large bowl, whisk the mochiko, cornstarch, sugar, shoyu, eggs, garlic, ginger, green onions, sesame seeds, salt, and pepper until it looks like a thick tan batter. It should coat a spoon and fall slow, not run like water.
Mochiko is sweet rice flour, the sticky-rice flour that gives this chicken its chew-crisp edge. Regular rice flour won't act quite the same. - 3
Marinate it cold
Fold the chicken into the batter until every piece is coated, then cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours, overnight if you can. The shoyu, garlic, and ginger need time to move inside the meat. No leave it on the counter. Food has to feed people, not make them sick.
- 4
Heat the oil
Pour 2 inches of neutral oil into a heavy pot and heat to 330F to 350F. Line a tray with a rack or paper towels. Stir the chicken once so the coating comes back together, then let the excess drip off each piece before it goes in.
- 5
Fry in batches
Fry the chicken in small batches, 4 to 6 minutes, turning once or twice, until the outside is deep golden-brown with a glossy shoyu edge and the center reaches 165F. Don't crowd the pot or the coating gets heavy. Let the oil come back up between batches.
- 6
Drain and season
Lift the chicken to the rack and let it settle for a minute. The crust should hold its little ridges and the meat should feel springy, not tight. Scatter with more green onion and sesame if you like, but don't bury it. The chicken already said what it came to say.
- 7
Plate it Local
Serve hot or warm with two scoops white rice and one scoop macaroni salad, plate-lunch style. A little cabbage under the chicken is fine. A plastic fork is fine too. This is potluck food, lunch-wagon food, home-kitchen food, and it knows exactly where it belongs.
Chef Tips
- •Use thighs, not breast, unless that's truly what you have. Breast cooks fast and can go dry before the coating gets its color.
- •The batter thickens as it sits. If it looks too stiff after marinating, stir in 1 tablespoon water at a time until it loosens enough to coat the chicken again.
- •Keep the oil steady. Too cool and the coating drinks oil; too hot and the sugar in the marinade darkens before the chicken cooks through.
- •Leftovers make a strong next-day bento or rice bowl. Reheat in a 375F oven or air fryer until the edges crisp again.
Advance Preparation
- •Marinate the chicken the night before and keep it covered in the refrigerator. Overnight gives the best flavor.
- •Slice the green onions and make the rice and mac salad ahead, so the chicken can be fried close to serving.
- •Fried mochiko chicken holds well for a potluck for about 1 hour at warm room temperature. For longer holding, keep it on a rack in a 200F oven so the coating doesn't soften too much.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 440g)
Calories
965 calories
Total Fat
45 g
Saturated Fat
8 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
37 g
Cholesterol
215 mg
Sodium
2000 mg
Total Carbohydrates
97 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
13 g
Protein
43 g
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