Yakitori

Name: Yakitori
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 40 min
Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients: 1/2 cup soy sauce; 1/2 cup mirin; 1/4 cup sake; 2 teaspoons brown sugar; bunch green onions; 1 pound boneless skinless chicken

Who knew this was so easy! We love these popular little Japanese skewers of tasty chicken and order them all the time when we can. I recently discovered an awesome recipe for the marinade that makes it possible to make these at home.

Jump to Recipe

Yakitori is amazingly simple and so fast! It cooks in 10 minutes and the sauce has only 4 ingredients plus a little water. The yakitori sauce ingredients go into a sauce pan to reduce, thicken and become glossy while you skewer the chicken. Both skewers and sauce are ready at about the same time.

It gives me plenty of time to make a quick Japanese Cucumber Salad and some Jasmine Rice to complete the meal.

If I really want to dress it up, I serve it with an appetizer of Restaurant Style Kani Salad

If you're using bamboo or other wooden skewers, soak them in water for 30 minutes before threading the chicken and onions onto them.

While the sauce reduces, cut the chicken into approximately 1 by 2 inch pieces that are 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Skewer the chicken alternating with 1 inch pieces of green onion. Start with a piece of chicken. Fold it in half so you have a roughly 1 inch cube. Continue until you have four pieces of chicken and three pieces of green onion per skewer if you use the short ones like I did.

I discovered this recipe for the sauce over at Just One Cookbook. Nami also gives some great history on the dish and it's variations if you would like to know more.

We started ours on a pellet grill for additional smoky taste, then moved them to our little gas searing grill for just a few minutes to get a better caramelized exterior. Any grill you like to use will work for this recipe just turn up the temperature at the end if you like your yakitori with more caramelization.

You know you wanna do this so go get grilling.

Kanpai!

~Melisa

If you enjoyed this post you might like these!

Pineapple Chicken Stir-fry

Restaurant Style Kani Salad

Japanese Cucumber Salad

Panang Pumpkin Soup

Hawaiian Beef Stir-fry

Yakitori

Ingredients

1 lb boneless skinless chicken (thighs are juicier, breast is easier to handle)

1 bunch of green onions

FOR THE MARINADE

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup mirin

1/4 cup sake

1/4 cup water

2 tsp packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons finely sliced green onion (optional)

Method

Start by adding all of the marinade ingredients to a shallow saucepan and bring to a high bubbling simmer to reduce it by half and thicken the sauce.

If using bamboo or other wooden skewers, soak them in water for 30 minutes before threading the chicken and onions onto them.

While the sauce reduces, cut the chicken into approximately 1 by 2 inch pieces that are 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Skewer the chicken alternating with 1 inch pieces of green onion. Start with a piece of chicken. Fold it in half so you have a roughly 1 inch cube. Continue until you have around four pieces of chicken and three pieces of green onion per skewer if you use the short ones as I did.

When the skewers are assembled, transfer the reduced sauce to a basting dish and get your grill heated to around 375 degrees.

Place the skewers on the grill and start basting.

Turn the skewers in quarter turns and baste again every 60 seconds or so.

This keeps the chicken cooking evenly.

Keep basting until the chicken is firm and cooked through. (8-10 minutes)

We started ours on a pellet grill for additional smoky taste, then moved them to our little gas searing grill for just a few minutes to get a better caramelized exterior. Any grill you like to use will work for this recipe just turn up the temperature at the end if you like your yakitori with more caramelization.