Yakitori
Yakitori are skewered parts of chicken sold as street food all over Japan. And by parts, I mean every part. Popular types of yakitori include chicken and green onion(negima), chicken thigh(momo), gizzard(hasami), breast(sasami), chicken skin(tori), wing(tebesaki), butt(bonjiri), heart(hatsu), liver(reba), gizzard(sunagimo), chicken cartilage(nankotsu), and intestines(shiro). The parts are skewered and grilled over small box charcoal grills. They are either brushed with a sweet glaze called tare sauce, or simply seasoned with sea salt. Yakitori isn’t limited to just chicken. Pork belly, quail eggs, duck heart, shishito peppers, beef tongue, enoki mushrooms wrapped in bacon, bacon wrapped asparagus, shiitake mushrooms, chorizo, deep fried tofu, and chicken meatballs, are all popular varieties of yakitori; just to name a few.If you don’t have a grill, you can make the yakitori under your oven’s broiler. Place the oven’s rack at the very top. When skewering up the yakitori, it is important to make sure that all the pieces of meat are uniform; about 1”. Place the yakitori on a rack on a baking pan lined in foil. Broil for 3 minutes a side. Then brush the top with the yakitori sauce. Broil for 2 minutes. Flip. Brush with more yakitori sauce. Broil for 2 more minutes. Brush with more sauce. Yada, yada, yada...They all take about 10 minutes in total.
Servings: 4
Equipment
- 20-8” wooden skewers, soaked in water for 60 minutes
Ingredients
Yakitori Sauce
- 2/3 cup soy sauce
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup sake
- 1/3 cup mirin
Yakitori Proteins
- 2 boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into 1” cubes
- 8 chicken livers cut into 1” pieces
- 16 duck hearts
- 3/4 lb pork belly skinned; cut into 1” cubes
- 20 quail eggs
- 8 green onions cut into 1 1/2” pieces
Instructions
- Bring all of the yakitori sauce ingredients to a boil over medium heat for 10 minutes until it is thick.
- Set the sauce aside and let cool.
- Skewer up all of the proteins with 4 pieces of meat per skewer. Put a piece of green onion in between every piece of chicken thigh and piece of pork belly.
- Turn on your oven’s broiler. Place the oven’s rack on the very top, closest to the burner. Place the yakitori on a rack on a baking pan lined with foil.
- Cook the yakitori for 3 minutes a side.
- Brush the top side with the yakitori sauce. Broil for 2 minutes.
- Flip the yakitori. Brush with more sauce. Broil for another 2 minutes.
- Brush all of the yakitori with more of the sauce.
