One-Pan Shoyu Chicken Recipe Is the Best Thing I've Ate All Year by Donna John

A Food & Wine recipe for butter shoyu chicken caught my eye the other day. Yum, but the amount of butter in the skillet chicken recipe almost made me scroll past it. Almost. Even with tweaking the recipe and reducing the butter by half, this one-pan Asian chicken recipe was the best thing I've put in my mouth so far this year.

First, some research and ordering had to be done. After ordering a bottle of shoyu from Amazon, I googled to learn more about shoyu. With as many bottles of sauces I have in my fridge and pantry, shoyu was one that I've never cooked with.

Basically, shoyu is the Japanese word for soy sauce. Shoyu is a Japanese-style soy sauce made with wheat instead of all soy like traditional soy sauce, which makes the Asian sauce sweeter, less salty and more complex. After one taste of the amazing sauce from this chicken recipe, I wondered why I waited to long to discover this delicious sauce. Now I'm on the hunt for more recipes using shoyu!

To make this one-pan recipe you will need the following ingredients: bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, cooking oil, butter (I reduced the butter from 6 tablespoons in the original recipe to 3 tablespoons), green onions (scallions), fresh garlic, fresh ginger (I use frozen ginger cubes), mirin, low-sodium chicken broth, shoyu and light brown sugar. This high-protein recipe is on the table in about 45 minutes. (Check out the health benefits of protein.)

Serve the juicy, succulent, moist chicken thighs drizzled with the sauce for dinner over rice, noodles or your favorite grain to soak up the sauce. Add your favorite side dishes and you'll have a dinner you'll put in this year's dinner rotation.

Cuisine: Japanese / American / Asian
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 6 chicken thighs, bone-in and skin-on
• 1 tablespoon olive oil or vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons butter (divided)
• 5 green onions (scallions), chopped (divided)
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and minced (I used frozen ginger cubes)
• 1/2 cup mirin
• 1 1/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1/3 cup shoyu
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar

Here's how to make it: 

1. Heat the cooking oil in a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add the chicken, skin side down, and cook, not disturbing, until golden brown, about 15 minutes. (You can season the chicken lightly with salt and black pepper, if desired. I only used black pepper.).
   
2. Turn the chicken over and cook for 2 more minutes. Remove the chicken to a plate.
   
3. Add the garlic, ginger, 1 tablespoon of butter and the pale green and white parts of the green onion to the pan. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
   
4. Pour in the mirin. Cook, stirring constantly and scraping up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan, for about 2 minutes.
   
5. Add the chicken broth, shoyu and brown sugar.
   
6. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.
   
7. Put the chicken back into the skillet, skin side up.
   
8. Reduce the heat to medium-low, partially cover the pan with a lid and cook for about 10 minutes.
   
9. Flip the chicken over and continue to cook until chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes. (Chicken is cooked through at 165 degrees internal temperature on a food thermometer.)
   
10. Remove the chicken to a plate.
    
11. Increase the heat to medium-high and cook the sauce, stirring often, until it reduces to about 1 cup, about 5 minutes. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and stir until melted.
    
12. Spoon the sauce over the chicken on the plate. Garnish with the remaining green onions and serve.
    
13. Alternately, you can return the chicken to the pan, garnish with green onions and serve that way.
    
14. Serve the chicken over rice, noodles or your favorite grain, if desired. Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge and reheat in the microwave.
    

Recipe cooking times, nutritional information and servings are approximate and provided for your convenience. However, 30Seconds is not responsible for the outcome of any recipe, nor may you have the same results because of variations in ingredients, temperatures, altitude, errors, omissions or cooking/baking abilities. Any nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and it is up to the individual to ascertain accuracy. To ensure image quality, we may occasionally use stock photography.

Take 30 seconds and join the 30Seconds community, and follow us on Facebook to get recipes in your newsfeed daily. Food, fun, health, happiness.