Hi everyone! Welcome back to LeGourmet.tv. Today, we’re going to be making some Yakitori, which is a Japanese street food. And it’s basically just little chunks of chicken threaded on to a skewer, barbecued at really high heat and then a sauce is basted on them near the end.
So today, we’re going to use chicken thighs. And I think thighs are really the best thing to use here. They’re full of flavor and they’re really nice and moist when they’re cooked. So we’re going to start out. First, we’re going to add just a little bit of oil over the chicken pieces and then some salt and pepper. And then, just mix it all together using your hand. Your hands are going to get dirty anyway so don’t be squeamish about sticking them in almost immediately.
Now, I’ve taken the thighs, pulled the skin off and taken the bone out and then cut most of the fat off, and then cut it into these small chunks about an inch square. And, were going to thread this on to some bamboo skewer, and of course, the skewers have been soaked for about half an hour in water just to them from burning too much when we put them on the grill. So you want to thread the chicken on but you don’t want to pack it on too tight. You just kind of want to get it on there and still leave a little bit of room so that it cooks in the middle.
Okay. So we’re down to the last one and just the last couple of pieces of chicken to thread on here. Again, try to get them kind of evenly spaced out here. Not too tight but not too far apart. So I’ve prepared the grill with a two-zone high heat, no heat and what I’m going to do is put down just a double layer of tin foil. I just want to keep the ends of the skewers here from burning. I’ve soaked them but there’s still a chance that they’ll burn. And we’re just going to out these on over direct high heat. Just position the tin foil and close the lid. We’re going to keep our eye on them. We’re going to turn them. We’re going to get them nice and grilled and charred. This should take about five minutes.
Okay, let’s give them a flip. And you’ll know it’s time to flip them because they’ll actually release from the grill. They won’t be stuck on anymore. And depending on how your grill is heated, you can move them around just to make sure that you’ve got an even cooking. Close the lid and let them go for a little bit longer.
The secret to Yakitori is in the sauce, this really nice viscous sweet sauce. So what I did earlier was, I took chicken stock, soy sauce, murin, lemon juice, brown sugar and some freshly ground black pepper. Put it into a pot, put the pot on the stove and brought it up to a boil and then reduced that liquid down into this sticky sauce that we’re going to baste all over the chicken in that final moment of cooking.
You want to be careful at this point that the sauce doesn’t burn. So now, we’ll turn them over and we’ll baste the other side. Tin foil really helps. There it is, golden brown sweet Yakitori. Absolutely a fantastic little snack for an afternoon barbecue, sitting around the pool, sitting with your friends, enjoy this with a good cold glass of Japanese beer.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you again soon.
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