Hawaiian Haystacks!

Hawaiian Haystacks
Serves...6 people?

Recipe by Linda Peterson

Just to be fair, I will say I looked at melskitchencafe.com to get a basic idea. But then I did what I wanted to do!

Ingredients

Chickeny Saucy Goodness:
1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
4 heaping tbls brown sugar
1 1/2-2 lb chicken (3-4 chicken breasts), chopped in big cubes or shredded
1/4 cup freshly chopped onion OR 1 1/2 tbls dried chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tsp Chinese five spice*
crushed red pepper
5 tbl soy sauce (more if desired)**
1 1/2 tsp Worstchershierisreisire sauce (i have no idea how to spell it...)
1/3 cup flour
2 cups milk
2 tbls sour cream

Other Possible Haystack components
Rice (required)
chow mein noodles
pineapple
mandarin oranges
coconut
chopped bell peppers
green onions
celery
shredded carrots

*Chinese five spice is made up of cinnamon, anise, fennel, ginger, and clove (in that order of quantity). If you don't have it in your cupboard but you have some of the constituent spices, just shake in some of those in whatever seems like a good ratio to you!

**You may especially want to dash in more soy sauce if the pan seems dry or the mixture seems too clumpy as you're adding the flour. You can probably add up to a 1/4-1/3 cup and it would be great!

Directions:

1) In a large pan (I used a 14-inch roasting pan with deep sides), put the butter, brown sugar, chicken, onion, garlic, five spice, soy sauce, and worsterchireshrires sauce. Shake as much crushed red pepper as desired across the surface (1 to 1 1/2 tsp is a pretty safe amount, more if you want a kick).
2) Cook over medium heat until chicken is done
3) Gradually shake in flour, stirring thoroughly so it gets incorporated well. It will start to clump up a little bit around the chicken. (Add more soy sauce if desired)
4) Gradually pour in milk, stirring thoroughly to incorporate the flour/sauce mixture. Sauce should thicken a bit as mixed and heated.
5) Stir and heat till mixture starts to bubble a bit (NOT a full boil). Continue to stir and heat for about 40 seconds.
6) Add sour cream. Stir and heat till steamy--it's ready to eat!
7) Hawaiian Haystacks are a self-assembled meal. You put out the chicken mixture, the rice, and any desired stackers (mandarin oranges, peppers, etc) and people put whatever they want in their stack! Yum!