Struck by sudden hunger pangs one afternoon while staying at my brother's house out in the country, I had to improvise. And what I came up with, that day and other subsequent days turned out pretty darn good.

It's a form of shoyu chicken, but one with some quirks.

All Brother had in the freezer was some frozen chicken drumettes. I don't care much for drumsticks, so I wanted to get them as far from their original form as possible.

Though there are many forms, most people make shoyu chicken by concocting the Island standard marinade of equal parts soy sauce, sugar and water and throwing in some garlic and ginger and possibly a little vegetable oil. Variations range from using mirin instead of sugar, sake instead of water to all kinds of other ideas. The marinade is then painted over chicken thighs, which are baked and perhaps periodically basted.

But I didn't want to bother with basting (or dealing with messy drumstick bones). So I threw everything together and made a sort of stew of the half-defrosted drumsticks, shoyu/sugar/water marinade sufficient to cover the meat well, chunks of peeled ginger and whole peeled garlic cloves. (I didn't even bother to chop.) Because his oil smelled a little off, I used some butter. And there was some tired-looking green onion in the fridge, so I whacked that up a little and added it.

I let this bubble over medium heat for an hour or more, until the meat was falling from the bone and the aromatics had all melted. And then — here's the quirky part — I pulled the chicken out and set it aside to keep warm while I reduced the sauce by about half, until it was viscous and glazed. And I made a shoyu beurre blanc (butter sauce): Reduce the heat to very low and very gradually whisk in ice-cold pats of butter one at a time, tasting frequently and adding anything that seems needed. Then return the chicken and serve immediately. Shoyu Chicken a la Francais!

The second time I made the dish, I added a few splashes of shaoshing Chinese cooking wine (because I'm kind of into that ingredient right now) and some juice from my brand-new Meyer lemon (our little potted bush is loaded down this year). We had some tomatoes that were a bit soft but still good, so I chopped those up and let them cook in the sauce with the chicken until they melted. There was some leftover tomato sauce, too, so I added that. And I wanted a little spice, so I put in a goodly spoonful of chili paste (sambal oelek). Keep tasting ... you don't want it too salty and may have to add water or broth.

When the mixture was cooked down to a deep, glazed chocolate brown, I pulled out the chicken, repeated the cold butter step, returned the chicken to the sauce and served it with hot rice and a nice cold cucumber salad. It was sensational!

My husband asked if the recipe would be in my next book.

"No," I said. "I couldn't repeat those exact proportions if I tried!"

Send recipes and queries to Wanda A. Adams, Food Editor, Honolulu Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802. Fax: 525-8055. E-mail: wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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