Yakitori

Yakitori (Japanese Grilled Chicken Skewers)

Yakitori is Japan's iconic bite-sized grilled chicken, traditionally cooked over smoking-hot binchotan charcoal. Skewers are brushed with a glossy sweet-savoury tare sauce or finished simply with salt (shio), and eaten alongside a cold beer.

Prep

25 min

Cook

15 min

Total

40 min

Serves

4

Difficulty

Medium

Recipe ingredients

• •600 g (1 lb 5 oz) boneless chicken thigh, skin-on, cut into bite-sized pieces; include skin and scallion segments if desired
• •120 ml (½ cup) soy sauce, Japanese shoyu
• •120 ml (½ cup) mirin, sweet Japanese rice wine
• •60 ml (¼ cup) sake, dry cooking sake
• •20 g (4 tsp) sugar, granulated
• •4 g (1 tsp) fresh ginger, thinly sliced
• •4 stalks scallion, cut into 4 cm pieces for negima
• •2 g (½ tsp) fine sea salt, for shio-style skewers
• •24 skewers bamboo skewers, soaked in water 30 min to prevent burning

Steps

1. 1 Make the tare: combine soy sauce, mirin, sake, sugar, and ginger in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and reduce gently for 6–8 minutes until syrupy enough to coat the back of a spoon. Strain and keep warm; reserve a small portion for basting and the rest for dipping.
2. 2 Prepare the chicken: pat dry and cut into roughly 3 cm (1¼ in) pieces, keeping skin-on thigh pieces intact. For negima, alternate folded chicken pieces with 4 cm (1½ in) scallion segments.
3. 3 Thread onto skewers: slide 4–5 pieces of chicken onto each soaked bamboo skewer, weaving slightly so pieces lock in place. For negima, alternate chicken and scallion.
4. 4 Heat the grill: if using binchotan, light until covered with a thin layer of grey ash; coals should be 10–15 cm (4–6 in) from the cooking surface. Otherwise, preheat a gas grill to high (around 250°C / 480°F) or use a cast-iron grill pan over high heat. A wire mesh placed over coals is traditional.
5. 5 Cook the salt (shio) skewers first: lightly salt both sides of 8 skewers and grill 3–4 cm from the heat. Turn every 1–2 minutes; chicken is safely cooked when juices run clear and the thickest piece reads 74°C (165°F) on an instant-read thermometer, about 6–8 minutes total.
6. 6 Cook the tare skewers: grill the remaining skewers plain (without tare) for about 4 minutes, turning frequently, until the chicken reaches 70°C (158°F). Brush generously with tare and continue to cook 1–2 minutes, turning and basting, until the glaze is glossy, lightly charred, and the internal temperature reaches 74°C (165°F).
7. 7 Rest 1 minute, then serve immediately on the skewers with the reserved tare in a small dipping bowl, a wedge of lemon if desired, and a cold Japanese beer.