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The weather is warming up in Seattle, and that means more grilling! Grilled food is big in many Asian cultures. I personally love Japanese grilled food because 1) it’s delicious and 2) the dishes are usually healthier than your typical cookout burgers and hot dogs. In today’s post I’m showing you one of my favorite Japanese foods: chicken yakitori skewers! Making yakitori at home sounds fancy, but it’s actually quick and easy. Everything can come together in about 30 minutes. For this recipe, I’m also partnering with Mazola® Corn Oil. A clinical study showed Mazola® Corn Oil reduces cholesterol 2x more than extra virgin olive oil. To learn more about this claim, visit MAZOLA.com.
What is Yakitori?
The word yakitori in Japanese literally means “grilled chicken.” They’re always served on skewers, and they’re traditionally cooked over a charcoal grill. Yakitori in Japan can be very fancy. There are specialized yakitori restaurants where chefs have perfected the craft of grilling chicken, and you can order all different cuts of chicken as well!
Luckily, for making yakitori at home, you don’t need to be a professional chef. You can still enjoy delicious yakitori by grilling chicken in your backyard on any type of grill, even if you’re a beginner. One thing that all yakitori has in common, though, is highlighting the natural grilled chicken flavor without too many seasonings. My recipe uses a yakitori sauce, but a lot of times you can even just season the chicken with oil and salt and that’s it! That’s another reason to use Mazola® Corn Oil for this recipe – it has a neutral flavor that will allow the chicken to shine through.
How to Make Yakitori Sauce
My recipe for yakitori sauce is SO EASY. You can memorize it! It’s one part sugar to two parts each of soy sauce, mirin, and sake. Scale the amounts up or down for however much sauce you need. Cook it on the stovetop at a simmer until the alcohol is boiled off, only a few minutes. Then let it simmer 5-10 minutes more until you get a glaze consistency. The liquid should be reduced by about half. You can do this while you are prepping your skewers to save time. You could also make this ahead of time and keep it in the fridge until you need it.
Isn’t that simple? You won’t even need to come back to this recipe the next time you make it. Sad. I’ll miss you.
But you know what else is the great thing about yakitori sauce? IT’S EXACTLY THE SAME THING AS TERIYAKI SAUCE!
Yakitori vs. Teriyaki
Okay, were you all shocked by that bombshell I just dropped on you? It’s true. Yakitori sauce and teriyaki sauce are the same thing. So what’s the difference between the two?
Well, teriyaki is actually not a traditional Japanese dish. Some sources say it originated with Japanese immigrants in Hawaii, but Seattlites are ADAMANT that the dish as you know it was invented in Seattle!
The main difference in cooking yakitori vs. teriyaki is that yakitori is not marinated before grilling. The sauce, if any, goes on as a glaze during and after cooking. Teriyaki chicken gets marinated in that sauce prior to cooking. Other differences are also that yakitori is always in small pieces on skewers. Teriyaki is usually grilled whole and sliced after. However, if someone were to marinate the chicken, then put it on skewers, I would still consider that a teriyaki chicken skewer. So for me, it’s all about the marinade.
Anyway, now that you’ve been introduced to yakitori, let’s get grilling.
Easy Yakitori (Japanese Grilled Chicken Skewers)
Equipment
- Grill
- Bamboo Skewers
Ingredients
- 2 lbs chicken thighs
- 1 sweet onion
- 2 tbsp Mazola® Corn Oil
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1/2 cup mirin
- 1/2 cup sake
- 1/4 cup sugar
Instructions
- Soak bamboo skewers in water while you prep the rest of your food (at least 15 minutes).
- Heat soy sauce, mirin, sake, and sugar in a pan over stovetop until sugar is dissolved and sauce is bubbling.
- Leave sauce to simmer 5-10 minutes until you get a thin glaze.
- Meanwhile, cut your chicken and onion into approximately 1.5 inch pieces.
- Thread your skewers, alternating chicken and onion pieces.
- Brush the chicken and onion with Mazola® Corn Oil.
- Grill for 10 minutes or until chicken is almost cooked through (5 minutes per side).
- Brush skewers with yakitori glaze and grill for another 3-5 minutes, until chicken is fully cooked.
Notes
- Yakitori sauce can be made ahead of time and saved in the fridge until ready.
- Simmering the sauce in a shallow pan instead of a pot will allow the glaze to reduce faster, saving time.
So how did your yakitori come out? If you have any questions about this recipe, leave me a comment here or on my Instagram, and head to your nearest retailer to purchase some Mazola® Corn Oil!
DISCLAIMER: Corn Oil is a cholesterol-free food that contains 14g of total fat per serving. See nutrition information on the product label or at mazola.com for fat and saturated fat content. Very limited and preliminary scientific evidence suggests that eating about 1 tablespoon (16 grams) of Corn Oil daily may reduce the risk of heart disease due to the unsaturated fat content in Corn Oil. FDA concludes that there is little scientific evidence supporting this claim. To achieve this possible benefit, Corn Oil is to replace a similar amount of saturated fat and not increase the total number of calories you eat in a day. One serving of this product contains 14 grams of Corn Oil.