Hawaii's huli chicken - barbecued chicken stands

Sunset, July, 1994 by Jeff Phillips

Loyal followers and visitors have a taste for this fund-raising tradition

LIKE SURFING AND pure cane sugar, huli chicken sold straight from smoking barbecues in parking lots and roadside pullouts is a Hawaiian institution. Just ask retired University of Hawaii professor Jim Koshi, who's been buying mesquite-grilled halves of this succulent, specially sauced chicken for as long as he can remember. Along with other loyal followers, he lines up in the hot sun and smoke because sales benefit local groups--and because huli chicken is so ono (delicious) it brok da mout (literally translated, breaks the mouth).

Huli is Hawaiian for turn, and refers to the way brawny barbecuers flip big racks of sizzling, spitting marinated chicken halves over hot coals. However, the real secret of this island-style entree is Huli-Huli Sauce, a registered brand name for an old family recipe refined by Hawaii-born chicken farmer Ernie Morgado.

"Actually, it was really my mother's recipe," admits the 77-year-old Morgado a little sheepishly. "I was the youngest of seven kids and everybody liked their sauce different. My father liked it salty. We kids liked it sweeter. Today we make it the way I like it: just a little on the sweet side, with lots of fresh ginger juice and aged soy sauce."

A TASTY LOCAL FUND-RAISER

Morgado is president of the Pacific Poultry Company in Honolulu, which he founded in 1954 as the first commercial operation raising and processing chicken in the Islands. He quickly became famous among both farmers and suppliers for parties where he served marinated, barbecued chickens. Within just a few years, his culinary talents were in demand for a growing number of local potluck fund-raisers. "When it got to where I was away more weekends than I was at home, I knew I had to do something," he says, "but I didn't want to open a restaurant."

The result was a unique program that has been helping charitable Hawaii organizations--from local churches and youth groups to the University of Hawaii sports program--to raise funds for more than 30 years. Groups make at least $1.50 for every half-chicken sold. Last year, Pacific Poultry ran up to six benefit barbecues per weekend, and Huli-Huli Chicken sales helped raise more than $800,000 for community groups.

While organization volunteers help with sales, cooking, and cleanup, to ensure quality Morgado has specially trained crews at each event that set up an average of five fire-blackened 10-foot-long portable barbecue troughs, fill them with mesquite charcoal, and cook fresh chicken on special racks that huli about 32 halves at a time.

Huli-Huli Chicken stands sell only chicken, with prices typically $3.50 per half. On an average day, a group will sell from 3,000 to 6,000 halves, but in 1981, for an Iolani School benefit, 46,386 halves were cooked in less than 9 hours, a feat once found in the Guinness Book of World Records.

HOW TO FIND A HULI STAND

This low-key, Hawaiian-style system works great for local charities and aficionados like Koshi, but until recently Hawaii visitors relied mostly on luck to find a barbecue. Now you can find Huli-Huli locations nearly any weekend by calling Pacific Poultry at (808) 841-2828 between 7 A.M. and 1 P.M. weekdays.

Chicken barbecues are scheduled regularly on Oahu, less frequently on other islands. Even if you miss out on the chicken, you can find a bottle of the sauce at any major supermarket (about $2.75 for a 24-ounce bottle) in Hawaii, and a few specialty stores on the mainland.