Photo by Keiko Oikawa

Chicken Yakitori - Negima

Likely one of the most universally most popular dishes, chicken on a stick. From Far East Asia to the Middle East we have for 100s of year enjoyed the popular bird skewered and cooked over a live fire.

Yakitori literary means ‘grilled bird’ and originated as more of an urban phenomenon in Japan, before spreading like wildfire around the globe. Its a great way of eating, accessible to all, and the perfect street food.

Almost any part of a chicken can be diced and skewered, then grill over binchotan (or hardwood coal) on a narrow yakitori grill, seasoned with sea salt or a generous helping of tare sauce. It is a pretty simple kind of eating, but with the additional care and attention I do not think anything can beat the home-cooked version.

Binchotan coal give a pure grilling, it is a penetrating infrared heat reaching above up to 600 degrees C. Its recommended to use schichirin or yakitori girll for these coals. Or for a DIY version use a standard BBQ, but place an additional BBQ griddle or a couple of foil wrapped bricks at the base of your BBQ to ensure that the high heat from the binchotan coals do not damage your grill. To start the binchotan coals use a self lighting bag of coals, ignite and then add 4 binchotan coals on top. The grill will be ready in 20-25 minutes.

Negima is the king of the yakitori and I start with this recipe, the other dishes in the picture above will follow.

Or for more recipes like this I recommend my book on the subject: Robata - Japanese Home Grilling

Makes 8 or serves 4 in combination with 3 or 4 other robata or sushi dishes

100 grams caster sugar

50 grams sea salt

3 cm piece konbu

100 ml. boiling water

400 ml. cold water

1 bunch spring onion (scallion)

4 tablespoon tare sauce

1 tablespoon mirin

1 tablespoon sake

8 wooden skewers

Soak the skewers in cold water.

Make the brine. Place the sugar and salt in a mixing bowl, then pour over the boiling water and mix well. Top up the brine with ice cold water. Trim any sinew or loose bits from the chicken. Cut the chicken into 1.5 cm x 1.5 cm cubes, add to the brine and leave to cure in the fridge in 2 hours.

Make the tare sauce following the recipe here. Mix mirin and sake with 200 ml. cold water and transfer into a food safe spray bottle.

Start the grill. Trim and discard the dark green ends of the spring onions, then rinse in cold water and cut into 2 centimetre pieces. Divide the chicken into eight portions. Thread the pieces on the skewers, alternating chicken and spring onions, starting and finishing with a chicken piece.

Place the skewers directly over the binchotan coals, resting them on either edge of the robata pit. After 2 minutes grilling rotate the skewers to cook the other side, then rotate after a further 2 minutes, spraying intermittently with the sake-mirin spray. Brush the chicken with tare sauce. Repeat, adding more tare sauce and turning the chicken until slightly charred and crispy, but still juicy. The skewers are ready to eat. I recommend to serve with side orders of slaw, spinach goma and mushroom rice as seen in pictures.