Last weekend was Brad Pitt’s birthday and, if you recall, I made a (terrible) layer cake. Fortunately I completely redeemed myself with the Macadamia Nut Chicken and Shoyu Cream Sauce that I made for dinner. 
While this isn’t the easiest recipe, its also not too difficult. You are mainly just dealing with a gazillion ingredients. And dredging the chicken through flour, eggs and nut mixture which I always find to be a huge pain in the ass, but well worth it in the end. You also need to plan ahead so you not only have time to marinate the chicken but also let it sit with the nut mixture for awhile before actually cooking everything.
I went to four different stores looking for mirin and shoyu.
Four.
Different.
Stores.
And none of them had either of those items. Add that to the “pain in the ass” category. I even yelled “Show Me the Shoyu!!!” as I ran up and down the grocery store aisles and it still didn’t help.* In the end, I just substituted sake (for the mirin) and soy sauce (for the shoyu). My dish turned out delicious, so I can only imagine what it will taste like when I finally track down these ingredients.
Here is the recipe if you want to try your hand at the dish. Birthday dinner or not, it is well worth the effort. And you can say “I’ll Shoyu some chicken for dinner!!”
*I didn’t really run up and down the aisles yelling that, but it sure does sound like a good idea now.
PigTales 