How to Make Yakitori

Yakitori, which translates as fried or grilled chicken in English, is a common Japanese snack food, often found at street-side kiosks or walk-up restaurants in places like train stations. Yakitori is a light, easy-to-make food that, because it is portable and easy to eat with your fingers, makes a great party snack or appetizer. Because of the simplicity of its ingredients list, you won't have to hunt down a specialty Asian grocery store to make this authentic Japanese treat.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 6-inch bamboo skewers, soaked in water for at least half an hour
• Six boneless chicken thighs
• One bunch scallions
• 2/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tbsp. sake or other dry white wine
• 1 tbsp. flour
• Chopped green onions for garnish (optional)
• Shichimi (optional)

Prepare the Sauce

1. Put the flour into a small pan.

2. Stir in the soy sauce, sugar and sake.

3. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly.

4. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. The sauce should be about a third less in volume when it's done.

5. Set aside.

Make the Yakitori

6. Cut chicken into bite-size pieces (about an inch).

7. Chop the scallions into similar-sized pieces.

8. Place a piece of chicken on the skewer.

9. Place a scallion piece on the skewer next to the chicken piece.

10. Add chicken and scallion pieces alternately, ending with a chicken piece. Generally, each skewer should have three pieces of chicken and two scallions.

11. Brush the chicken and scallions on the skewers with the yakitori sauce.

12. Place the skewers under the broiler or on the barbecue and cook for about 5 to 10 minutes. Make sure to brush the skewers with sauce periodically.

13. Serve the skewers with the extra sauce. You can include extra chopped green onions as a garnish. Shichimi (Japanese seven-spice blend) is often served with yakitori as a salt-free flavoring alternative.

Tips & Warnings

• Use chicken breasts instead of thighs for a lower-calorie meal.
• Use an alternate flour, like soy flour or corn flour as a gluten-free alternative.
• Use caster (superfine) sugar instead of regular granulated sugar. It dissolves faster.
• If you can't find shichimi (also called shichimi-togarashi), consider making it yourself. Its seven spices are black and white sesame seeds, poppy seeds, Sichuan pepper corns (sansho), rape seed, tangerine peel (dried and ground), ground chili and hemp seed roughly ground together.
• Don't forget to soak the skewers for at least half an hour before preparing. If you don't, the skewers can char or catch fire.

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