dad's grilled garlic soy chicken

...dad's grilled garlic soy chicken...

I’m the son of immigrants.  Because of that, I always had to re-introduce and teach myself about certain things of culture de Americana when I was growing up.  So things like Godparents, Creamed Vegetable, Autumn Cornucopias, and BBQ.  You know, general knowledge that is important for everyone to know – Especially in a rousing game of Jeopardy and Trivial Pursuit.  Most were things that I learned in Elementary School when I was arguing with my schoolmates [because my Taiwanese parents knew everything about US Culture...].  But, BBQ was something I had to re-learn in high school.  My parent’s definition for BBQ was any outdoor cooking involving a grill and charcoal briquettes.  Later on I learned that was definitely not the case.  Oh well, it was delicious whatever it was called.

I was spoiled with sunny weather most of the year in Southern California.  So my Dad did a lot of outdoor cooking [or BBQ as my parents liked to call it], which always meant his soy garlic chicken and my Mom’s garlic bread (store bought baguette with butter mixed with garlic powder).  I got so excited for the preparation for the BBQ – I would go outside and wash the yard furniture, top the cooler with ice and soda, and get the ping pong table ready to act as a buffet.   Actually, now that I think of it, I don’t think we ever used that table for ping pong.  The star of the whole meal however was always my dad’s chicken.

I put more soy sauce than my Dad usually does, but that’s because I wanted to use the marinade to basically brine the chicken.  You only need five things, not including the chicken, so this doesn’t require a lot of prep.  Make sure you have a long time to marinade the chicken.  Mine went for about six hours.  I wouldn’t go less than two.  When I was little, I couldn’t really wait for the chicken to make it to the ping pong table, so my dad would take a paper towel and wrap it around the drumstick so I could eat it right off the grill.  Wait, come to think of it, I like to do that now.

~enjoy!~

~stuff

10 pieces of chicken, I had 6 wings and 4 drumsticks

4 large garlic cloves, smashed

6 scallion stalks, 1 inch slices

5 tsp garlic powder

1 cup of soy sauce

½ cup of Chinese rice wine, or dry sherry

~steps

mix all ingredients in a bowl or Ziploc bag

marinate for at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours

grill over medium high heat until fully cooked and juices come out clear

-serves 5-6-

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