Nowadays, ramen is the food every visitor seems to want to eat on a visit to Japan but not so long ago, the "must have" Japanese food was yakitori, fried chicken.
This is a dish which has a long history, going back to the days when the eating of livestock was banned and people sourced meat, in part, from the hunting of wild birds. So the first yakitori that appeared was likely to have used duck or pheasant, not chicken.
But in modern times, yakitori has come to mean, almost exclusively, chicken. In this recipe, I use chicken momo, meaning chicken thigh, but in Japan, you'll find yakitori made from minced chicken meat balls, heart, wing and other parts.
Eating yakitori doesn't require chopsticks and it's quick to make, so it's origin was very much as a street food. Today, people still buy yakitori from stalls and small specialist outlets at festival time or to bring home for dinner, but it is also very easy to make it yourself.
The ingredients in my recipe are simple, chicken and leek. The yakitori sauce I use can be ready to go in 10 minutes, (why buy it in a bottle when it is so easy to make for a fraction of the cost?) so this really is still a fast food even when you make it at home. Best of all, it is authentic and very tasty.
You can find the written recipe for Yakitori and Yakitori sauce just below. For the Youtube tutorial click Yakitori or scroll to the bottom of the page for both Youtube tutorials.
Happy cooking! Kurumi XXXX.
If you'd like to try a non-mean variant of this dish, why not try my Tofu kebabs in Miso Tahini sauce. You can find that recipe here.
Classic Yakitori.
ingredients:
for the yakitori:
(makes 8 skewers)
8 x 18cm skewers*
300g boneless chicken thigh
3 small leeks (you only use the white part of the leek in this recipe)
a sheet of aluminium foil
for the yakitori sauce:
(makes approx. 250ml)
180ml soy sauce
6 tbsp sugar
90ml mirin
1 small chicken skin
1 spring onion
*i use steel skewers. if you use bamboo skewers, you need to soak them in water first
how to:
to make the yakitori:
cut the leek stems into 16 x 2 cm pieces
cut the chicken into 24 bite size pieces
push 3 chicken pieces and 2 leek pieces alternatively onto each skewer
to make the sauce:
combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan, bring to the boil with a lid on and simmer for 7-8 mins, adjusting the heat as you simmer to preventing from boiling
to cook under the grill:
cover a tray with foil, place the yakitori on the try and brush with yakitori sauce
grill on a high setting for 3 mins, then remove the yakitori from the oven, turn over and brush with more sauce. grill for a further 3 mins
your yakitori are now ready to eat
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