Grilled Mochi and Pork Belly Skewers

Looking for some bento ideas? Try these grilled mochi and pork belly skewers. Thread kiri mochi, shishito peppers, and Korean thin sliced pork belly onto a small bamboo skewer. Then pan fry or grill and glaze with a homemade teriyaki sauce. These mochi skewers are great for an Asian style BBQ or as a bento main dish.

Mochi That’s Not Sweet

Yes, savory mochi is a thing! I know most people in America associate mochi with mochi ice cream or other sweet treats like daifuku. And while those desserts are wonderful, the world of mochi goes WAY beyond that. Savory mochi is actually super common in Japan, especially in dishes like the famous New Year’s soup, ozoni.

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You can also find savory mochi boiled in age pouches in the popular Japanese dish, oden.

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Apparently, oden is very famous in the anime, One Piece? I posted some oden videos to TikTok and suddenly all these weird comments started popping up. I finally asked someone, and apparently it was a One Piece reference. *shrug*

Grilled Mochi

One of my FAVORITE ways to eat mochi is by GRILLING it. Oh yeahhhhh. Grilled mochi is called yakimochi in Japanese. The easiest way to grill mochi at home is actually to put it in the toaster oven! It puffs up huge like a marshmallow and develops a crispy outer skin. Actually, I guess it’s kind of like a toasted marshmallow in that sense: crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.

But this yakimochi is NOT sweet like a marshmallow. The mochi you use in yakimochi is often made from just plain rice.

What is Kirimochi?

When I make yakimochi or other savory mochi dishes at home, I often use kirimochi. Kirimochi is a shelf stable mochi. It comes in a rectangle shape, packaged in plastic, and literally sits on the shelf at room temperature with an expiration date so far in the future, my great grandchildren could still eat this mochi (just kidding). But really, kirimochi is great because it comes in single serving packages and can last forever. So you will NEVER have a mochi emergency on your hands.

Kirimochi is made from only one ingredient: glutinous rice. Therefore, it is not sweet, as there is no added sugar. You can use kirimochi in both savory AND sweet dishes, just depending on how you season it.

Alternatively, you can always use fresh mochi instead of kirimochi. Fresh mochi is just usually more difficult to come by. If you do get your hands on some, you can always freeze any leftover fresh mochi to use at another time. This, like kirimochi, is also a way to prevent a dreaded mochi emergency.

Anyway, you can find kirimochi at your local Japanese market, OR, as always, on Amazon.

Grilled Mochi Skewers

So now you know, savory grilled mochi is a thing.

These mochi skewers, however, are my own invention. There are definitely mochi-type foods on skewers served in Japan, like hanami dango. But so far, I’ve never seen kirimochi grilled on a skewer like this, at least not in Japan. (Someone correct me if I’m wrong!) I was inspired by seeing The Korean Vegan’s curried ddeokbokki skewers, and realized that mochi might do well grilled on skewers as well. I’ve also been watching a lot of bento Youtube videos, and saw that mini skewers are a common bento main dish. Et voila! These kirimochi, shishito, pork belly skewers were born!

Tips for Grilling Kirimochi

Kirimochi comes in a big, thick rectangle. To make it cook in the same time as my thin sliced Korean pork belly and shishito peppers, I sliced them into fourths. Slice one kirimochi in half crosswise. Then slice both of those halves in half again, on the horizontal or transverse plain. If you have any sort of medical background and took anatomy classes like me, you’ll now have images of human anatomy in transverse slices floating in your brain. If not, and you’re super confused, just watch the video I’ll post. Basically, you want your mochi the same size as your pork belly.

Speaking of pork belly, I get mine at our local Asian market. It’s packaged as “thin slice Korean pork belly.”

Anyhow, when grilling mochi, just make sure your cooking surface is well greased, as mochi can get pretty sticky once it gets warm and oozy. It’s really important to get your mochi the same size as your pork belly so they cook quickly and at the same time. If your mochi cooks for a really long time, it’ll get really soft, ooze out and stick everywhere. Or it’ll get too soft and start falling through cracks if you’re doing this over a grill.

For the teriyaki glaze, it’s the exact same teriyaki marinade that I use in my teriyaki chicken recipe, my yakitori recipe, and my nikumaki recipe. Can you see a theme? This sauce is SUPER versatile. So if you’ve been avoiding buying mirin and sake, DON’T. You’ll use it up just by making teriyaki sauce over and over.

I hope you like this recipe! I eat it served with rice and a side dish of stir fried veggies or with kimchi. They also go great packed in bento, as I mentioned earlier. Enjoy!