Yakitori recipe

Mmmmm, yakitori. This is the Japanese version of your standard chicken Kebab/kebob. Skewered chunks of chicken on wooden sticks coated in a deliciously rich tare (タレ) sauce.

List night out of sheer chance I made yakitori, so i’m going to show you how to make them today. Let it be known that I cheated (*shock!* *horror!*) by using a pre-made sauce. We’re going to making Negima (ねぎま) yakitori today. That is, yakitori with onion.

Ok, you will need (for roughly 6 skewers):

- Three large Chicken breasts
- One large White onion
- A few green onions (spring onion/scallion/negi [ねぎ], whatever you wanna call them)

and for the sauce

- 1/2 cup of dark soy sauce (or 4 tablespoons)
- 1/2 cup of mirin (or 4 tablespoons)
- 2 teaspoons of sugar
- 2 teaspoons of sake (optional)
- 1 clove of crushed garlic (optional)

The best way of doing yakitori is over a flame, so if you’ve got access to a BBQ or something similar that’s great. If you haven’t got a flame, then a griddle is the next best option. No griddle? Then use a grill, or as a last resort, cook the chicken and onions in a frying pan and then skewer them afterwards.

Just take care! Especially be careful with the skewers. Not only are they sharp but if you use a flame, the wooden types can catch fire. The metal ones will get hot, so use something to turn them with. Surprisingly though the metal skewers tend to cool down after taken them off the heat really quickly. Just take care.

Take the chicken breast and cut them up into cubes about 1 inch x 1 inch x 1inch. I prefer to marinate them in half the sauce either overnight or for a few hours.

For the white onion:

Chop each end of the onion off, take the skin off and then chop the onion in half from one end to the other. Then cut these two halfs in half, and then in half again.

Cut the green onion up into about half inch segements. Discard the ends.

Now take your skewers and skewer the chicken, onion and green onion onto them. I usually go onion, green onion, chicken, repeat. I say about 3 pieces of chicken on each skewer is enough, maybe 4. Dip them in sauce if you didn’t marinate them, then cook them over the fire/griddle/grill. Cook on either side for about 10 minutes each. Remember that on a fire or under the grill, the chicken will cook OK, but you’ll probably need to turn the chicken onto all four sides if using a griddle like me.

Some people prefer to cook without the sauce on first, which is understandable because of washing up that is bound to come from it. Trust me, I had a hell of a time getting the burnt on sauce off of my griddle. One thing to consider though, griddle plates with the ridges and BBQ grate give the meat and onions that classic BBQ stripped look! So if you’re doing food for a party or something, then the look is usually important

Once both sides are no longer pinkish and have started to brown, brush on some more sauce and put them back on. After a few minutes, I would take on piece of chicken off and cut it in half to see if it is cooked. Put the rest of the sauce you made in a frying pan and heat for a few minutes until it starts to simmer and gets thicker. Take the chicken off the heat and serve on a plate, and pour over the thickened sauce onto the skewered chicken kabobs.

And there you have it, Negima Yakitori!

I actually used a pre-made sauce from Wagamama. Soy and rice wine yakitori marinade. Beautiful, well recommended. For those going out for the ingredients, your local Morrisons/Tescos/Adsa should have all these stuff, including the mirin. If you can’t get the mirin or sake, don’t worry, just add a little more sugar to it. Maybe a little rice wine vinegar or white vingar depending on your tastes.