It’s bound to happen: You’re away at college on the mainland, and a friend invites you to visit her home for a few days. Wonderful. You’ll get to see how others live and get out of the dorm. While you’re there, the family asks you to cook something from Hawaii. Panic. What is foolproof and has easy-to-find ingredients?

One solution is soy sauce chicken. It’s simple because it requires just a few ingredients for the sauce. You simply cook the chicken in the sauce for about 40 minutes, and you’re done. The only tricky part is skimming the oil if you would like to serve the sauce over rice or noodles. If you’re an inexperienced cook, here’s a tip: Buy dark meat, such as thighs or drumsticks. Dark meat is more forgiving than white meat and will not get dry if overcooked.

To make it fancier, you can boil salted water and quickly cook a green vegetable to serve on the same platter, along with the sauce. Vegetables add color and nutrition to the dish. Use any vegetable. A few suggestions: broccoli, bok choy, Chinese cabbage (also called Napa cabbage), Shanghai cabbage, mustard cabbage or plain cabbage. Arranged nicely on a platter, the dish looks like a gourmet offering.

Scared to cook vegetables? Surround the chicken instead with sliced tomatoes or cucumbers.

All the ingredients should be easy to find in grocery stores, even if you are miles from a big city. If you’re lucky, you may even be able to find an Asian grocery. Nowadays you can find soy sauce throughout the U.S., but it may not be a familiar brand.

Chinese-style soy sauce chicken has a hint of licorice flavor from the star anise in the sauce. Can’t find star anise and you like that flavor? Try half a teaspoon of aniseed. Can’t find either? Don’t worry; omit and serve a classic Japanese/Hawaiian-style shoyu chicken.

Although they use a similar marinade, teriyaki and soy sauce chicken are different. Their cooking methods determine the distinct textures of the chicken skin. Teriyaki chicken calls for marinating the meat in the sauce, then baking, broiling or grilling, which produces a crisp, often charred skin. Soy sauce chicken is simmered on the stove and creates a glistening dark skin. Nowadays it’s not politically correct to serve chicken skin, but I find the look of the dish is more attractive with the skin. Those who are reaching their fat quota can just peel it off.

If you want to cook an entire meal for your host family, add in any type of fried rice. If you serve a cooked vegetable with the chicken, you’ll have a complete meal with a Chinese flair.

Fried rice, or chow fan, was a way for people to use leftover, hard rice. Now it’s part of Hawaii’s rich culture, and people consider the dish a local food. That is true especially when made with Hawaii’s favorite canned meat: Spam.

There is no wrong way to make fried rice. You can add whatever is in your refrigerator; however, traditionally the Chinese have never made fried rice with beef or lamb.

I like to use a bit of bacon to flavor the rice, but any type of second meat is good: chicken or turkey, pork, shrimp, scallops, lobster or smoked meats and sausages.

You can cook to suit your fancy. Don’t like onions? Use green onions. On the mainland these are sometimes called spring onions. Love Chinese parsley? Know that it is referred to as cilantro or fresh coriander across the nation.

For seasoning, oyster sauce is great, but if you can’t find the bottled sauce, use any type of soy sauce.

To make the dish Chinese style, use long-grain rice for grains that stay separated (medium- and short-grain rice is stickier). But any type of rice, including brown rice, is fine to use. In fact, you don’t even need a rice cooker to cook the rice. (See page D1 for directions on how to cook rice on the stove.)

If the chicken and rice seem like a breeze and you’re feeling even more ambitious, top off your meal with some easy Delicate Almond Cookies.

The most complicated part about the recipe is molding the crumbly dough into rounds the size of a quarter. If you can’t find whole almonds without the skin, do it yourself. Just boil water and cook the almonds for about 3 minutes. Remove them from the pot and you can easily squeeze off the skins.

The recipe at left makes a delicate cookie because it uses shortening (Crisco) instead of butter. In olden times, bakers would use lard for its flavor and to achieve that same texture.

SHARE A BIT OF HAWAII

These classic and easy recipes are ideal for sharing with family and friends.

CHINESE-STYLE SOY SAUCE CHICKEN

6 chicken thighs and 6 drumsticks
3 cloves garlic, smashed
1-1/2 cups soy sauce
1-1/2 cups water
2-inch piece ginger, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons dry sherry (or any type of liquor)
6 star anise (or use 1/2 teaspoon aniseed)

Garnishes of green onions and Chinese parsley, or whatever you like (optional)

Clean chicken by washing it with water. 

In large pot, mix garlic, soy sauce, water, ginger, sugar, sherry and star anise. Add chicken and cook on medium heat for 35 to 40 minutes. Turn over at least once so pieces are evenly brown. Test for doneness. Drumsticks might be finished first. 

Skim oil and remove ginger, garlic and star anise. Use sauce to coat chicken.

Optional: Blanch green vegetables and plate with chicken. Top with sauce. Serves 6.

Approximate nutritional information, per serving (assumes 1/2 sauce consumed): 700 calories, 44 g fat, 12 g saturated fat, 300 mg cholesterol, greater than 2,100 mg sodium, 10 g carbohydrate, no fiber, 9 g sugar, 58 g protein

EASY BACON SPAM FRIED RICE

4 cups cooked long-grain rice or any other type of rice, cooled (if frozen, bring to room temperature)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 large eggs, beaten
3 strips bacon, cut into 1/4-inch strips
1 small onion or half of large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup Spam, cut into 1/4-inch cubes (or use shrimp, cubed ham, chicken, pork, or sausage)
1/2 cup frozen peas, defrosted
3 tablespoons oyster sauce or soy sauce
1 tablespoon Sriracha sauce (optional)
1/4 cup green onions, chopped
2 tablespoons Chinese parsley, chopped (optional)

 It’s best to use rice cooked the day before, then frozen to dry it out. Bring rice to room temperature before cooking.

On medium in wok or large skillet, heat vegetable oil and scramble eggs. Set aside. 

In same skillet on medium, cook bacon 4 minutes, then add onions and garlic. Cook until the onions are translucent.

Add Spam or protein of your choice, rice and frozen peas. Stir continuously until rice falls apart. This could take 10 minutes, depending on how cold rice is. 

Add oyster sauce and scrambled eggs. Add Sriracha if using. Keep stirring and make sure there are no clumps of white rice. Stir in green onions, except 1 tablespoon, which will be used for garnish along with Chinese parsley. Serve hot. Serves 6.

Note: This dish freezes well.

Approximate nutritional information, per 2 servings: 340 calories, 17 g fat, 5 g saturated fat, 90 mg cholesterol, 800 mg sodium, 36 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 2 g sugar, 11 g protein

DELICATE ALMOND COOKIES

1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup shortening (Crisco)
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon water
24 blanched whole almonds
In small bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt.

In another bowl or mixer, add shortening, sugar and almond extract. Mix until fluffy. Add flour mixture in three batches. Make sure flour is thoroughly incorporated.

On parchment or waxed paper, roll mixture into quarter-sized roll and refrigerate 1 hour. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut cookie dough into 24 pieces. Round edges and put on a baking tray lined with parchment or Silpat liner. Mix egg yolk with water. Brush tops of cookies with egg mixture. (You will probably end up with extra egg wash.) Press a whole almond into center of each cookie.

Bake 20 minutes. At 10 minutes, rotate cookie sheet. Cool and serve. Makes 2 dozen bite-size cookies.

Approximate nutritional information, per 2 small cookies: 160 calories, 10 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 15 mg cholesterol, 100 mg sodium, 17 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 9 g sugar, 2 g protein

Nutritional analysis by Joannie Dobbs, Ph.D., C.N.S., a nutritionist in the Department of Human Nutrition, Food and Animal Science, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaii-Manoa.

Lynette Lo Tom is writing a cookbook about Chinese cooking in Hawaii and would like to include recipes from restaurants of the good old days like Wo Fat and Tin Tin Chop Suey. Reach her with any recipes or cooking tips at 275-3004.