Chicken Yakitori (Japanese Grilled Skewers)

About This Recipe

Yakitori means simply 'grilled bird,' but in Japan it has been refined over a century into one of the world's great street and izakaya foods. The classic version uses chicken thigh and scallion (negima), threaded onto bamboo skewers and grilled hot and fast over high-grade Japanese binchotan charcoal, which burns nearly smokeless and gives off intense infrared heat. The skewers are basted repeatedly with tare — a sweet-savory glaze of soy, mirin, sake and sugar that thickens as it caramelizes onto the chicken — or finished simply with salt (shio) when the meat is good enough to stand alone. A proper yakitori-ya may offer twenty or thirty parts of the bird, from skin (kawa) to gizzard (zuri) to soft bone (nankotsu), each charred to its own ideal point. Made at home over a small grill or even under a broiler, yakitori is forgiving and fast: the key is fierce heat, regular basting, and stopping while the meat is still juicy.

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 700 gboneless skin-on chicken thigh, cut into 2.5 cm cubes
• 6scallions (white and pale-green parts only), cut into 3 cm batons
• 12short bamboo skewers, soaked in water 30 minutes
• 180 mlJapanese soy sauce (Kikkoman or Yamasa)
• 180 mlmirin
• 120 mlsake
• 4 tbspgranulated sugar
• 1scallion green, smashed
• 1 small pieceginger, sliced
• 1garlic clove, smashed (optional, non-traditional)
• shichimi togarashi, to serve
• flaky salt, for shio-style skewers

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the tare

   Combine soy, mirin, sake, sugar, smashed scallion, ginger and garlic in a small saucepan. Bring to a strong simmer over medium-high heat and reduce by about a third (15–18 minutes) until the sauce coats a spoon. Strain into a tall, narrow glass for easy dipping. The narrow vessel lets you dunk the whole skewer.

2. 2

   Skewer the chicken

   Alternate cubes of chicken and batons of scallion on each skewer — typically 3 pieces of chicken and 2 of scallion. Pack them tightly so they cook evenly; loose skewers char on the edges and stay raw in the center.

   Keep the tip of the skewer clean by leaving 4 cm bare — gives diners a handle.

3. 3

   Preheat your heat source

   Light a charcoal grill (binchotan if you have it; lump charcoal works) and let it ash over. Alternatively, set an oven broiler to high with the rack 10 cm below the element. You want fierce heat — yakitori needs to color fast.

4. 4

   First sear — dry

   Place skewers over direct heat. Sear 2 minutes per side without sauce — this sets the surface and prevents the tare from burning later. Skin should crisp and the meat should release easily from the grates.

5. 5

   First glaze

   Dunk each skewer into the tare, lift, let drip 2 seconds, return to the grill. Cook 60–90 seconds per side until the glaze bubbles and darkens but does not burn. Watch closely — sugar in the tare can scorch in 10 seconds.

6. 6

   Repeat glazing

   Dunk and grill twice more, building lacquered layers. By the third glaze the skewers should be mahogany-glossy and the chicken just cooked through (internal 72°C / 162°F).

7. 7

   Finish and serve

   Pull from heat, give a final brush of fresh (not used) tare for shine, and dust with shichimi togarashi. For shio-style skewers, skip the tare entirely — just season with flaky salt before and after grilling.

Variations

• •

  Tsukune — minced chicken meatballs on skewers with shiso and tare, served with a raw egg yolk for dipping.

• •

  Kawa — chicken skin only, threaded ribbon-style and grilled until shatter-crisp, then salted.

• •

  Negima with quail egg — add a small parboiled quail egg between chicken pieces for a richer skewer.

• •

  Vegetarian: tofu and scallion 'yakitori' with the same tare — surprisingly satisfying.

Storage

Best eaten straight off the grill. Leftover skewers refrigerate 2 days; reheat under a hot broiler 90 seconds, never in a microwave (rubberizes the meat). Tare keeps refrigerated 3 weeks in a sealed jar.

Frequently Asked Questions