Yakitori — Print Recipe — The Culinary Codex

Bite-sized pieces of chicken threaded onto bamboo skewers and grilled over charcoal, basted with a sweet soy tare sauce or simply seasoned with salt. A beloved Japanese street food and izakaya staple.

Ingredients

600g boneless chicken thighs, cut into 3cm pieces
8 Japanese green onions (negi), cut into 3cm lengths
80ml soy sauce
80ml mirin
2 tablespoons sake
1 tablespoon sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
Bamboo skewers, soaked in water
Sea salt for salt-style skewers
Shichimi togarashi for garnish

Instructions

1 Combine soy sauce, mirin, sake, sugar, garlic, and ginger in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil then simmer for ten minutes until the tare sauce thickens enough to coat a spoon.
2 Thread chicken pieces and negi segments alternately onto soaked bamboo skewers, packing them snugly together. Season half with salt and reserve the other half for tare glazing.
3 Preheat your grill or broiler to high heat. Position the skewers about ten centimeters from the heat source and cook for three minutes per side until lightly charred.
4 For tare skewers, brush generously with the soy glaze after the first flip. Continue grilling and basting every minute, building up layers of caramelized sweet-savory sauce.
5 Turn skewers frequently to cook evenly, about eight to ten minutes total. The chicken should be cooked through with slightly crispy edges and a glossy lacquered appearance.
6 Arrange finished skewers on a platter and sprinkle tare-style with shichimi togarashi and salt-style with a squeeze of fresh lemon. Serve immediately while piping hot.

Did You Know?

Yakitori masters train for years to perfect the art of grilling over bincho-tan charcoal, which burns at extremely high temperatures with almost no smoke, producing an incomparably clean flavor.