How to Make Yakitori

Nowadays, it is not so rare to see yakitori dishes at Asian restaurants worldwide. Often referred to as Japanese skewered chicken, it has gained its reputation among gourmets. While it looks like a simple skewer dish, special skills and techniques are necessary to bring the best out of the ingredients on the skewers.

Here, you will grasp the basic knowledge of how to make yakitori.

What Is Yakitori?

The history of yakitori is long, dating back to the Edo period. The simple style of the meat-on-a-skewer dish has not changed until this day. However, as time went by, the quality improved. Prices are more reasonable, and we have more variety of ingredients – not limited to chicken – today.

What defines yakitori anyway? While it is difficult to define yakitori, the Japan Yakitori Association defines the dish as follows.

Made from meat or organs of livestock such as chicken, pork, beef, etc.
Processed into bite-size pieces and skewered.
Seasoned with salt or dipping sauce and grilled.

If the dish follows these conditions, then you can call it yakitori. However, the definition above is rather a reference because there are indeed some kinds that do not follow all the above.

As we mentioned earlier, there are many kinds of yakitori dishes today. They all differ based on ingredients, sizes, tastes, types of charcoal, how to cut, skewer, and grill the ingredients, etc. In other words, you can find various styles of cooking methods and ingredients for yakitori.

What Are the Good Ingredients for Yakitori?

You can make yakitori with various parts of the chicken.

Here are major parts of chicken and dishes that are commonly used at restaurants:

Thigh
Gizzard
Breast
Negima – chicken with Japanese leek
Tsukune – chicken meatballs
Grilled chicken skin
Chicken wings
Neck
Tail
Cartilage
Heart
Liver, etc.

However, it is important to note that yakitori is not all about chicken. Even though the literal translation of yakitori is grilled chicken, that does not mean you can only use chicken. You can use beef, pork, or grilled vegetables for some variety. For your reference, some popular vegetables are,

Shishito pepper
Eringi mushroom
Shiitake Mushroom
Tomato
Asparagus, etc.

What Is a Typical Yakitori Menu?

Here are the yakitori dishes you should know if you are a Japanese cuisine chef.

Chicken

Below are the typical chicken parts and menu. It is safe to say that the majority of yakitori restaurants offer them.

Momo (thigh): a signature cut for yakitori, one of the most loved parts.
Mune (breast): low-fat meat, one of the most popular parts. With a relatively plain taste, it goes with various toppings like ume, wasabi, etc.
Negima (chicken leg with Japanese leek): chicken leg and Japanese leek are alternately skewered. Charcoaled grilled leek gives a nice fresh sweet flavoring, which matches with the juiciness of the chicken.
Tsukune (chicken meatballs): minced chicken legs mixed with finely chopped vegetables, such as lotus root and leek, turned into a small round ball.
Tebasaki (chicken wings): one of the most popular dishes. Grilled to achieve the juicy, crispy texture.
Kawa (skin): neck skin is the mainstream pick. It has a high-fat content and a unique texture, which creates a crunchy or sticky texture, depending on how you cook it.
Sunagimo (gizzard): It has a tough texture and a light and refreshing taste. Restaurants sometimes serve the dish with lemon for an even more refreshing taste.
Reba (Liver): With a slightly bitter yet rich, creamy flavor. It contains iron and vitamin A.
Nankotsu (cartilage of the chicken knee): a robust and crunchy texture that goes well with salt or lemon.
Hatsu (heart): It has a distinctive, springy texture with little flavor or odor, which can be very refreshing. It contains plenty of vitamin A, just like the liver.

Besides, there are other cuts and offals that people enjoy eating as yakitori in Japan. As you see above, yakitori comes in a large number of varieties made with every part of the meat. Although some parts are not so common in Western cultures, people in Japan see them as delicacy food.

Pork

Although many people may think chicken is the only choice for yakitori, you can also find many yakitori dishes made with pork and beef. Here, you can find some of the popular cuts of pork often used in yakitori.

Buta-bara (pork belly): A popular cut of pork for yakitori. It has a juicy flavor and sweet fat.
Ton-toro (pork neck): Marbled part from neck to shoulder. It has a lot of fat, but the texture is crispy without much greasiness.
Harami (diaphragm): Also known as “pork skirt.” It is a good mix of lean and fatty meat but still has a very tender and juicy taste.
Kashira (pork cheek): It is soft and tender while being chewy and has a light flavor.

Buta-maki, pork belly rolls with tomatoes or shiso leaves, is another dish on your list. In our yakitori course, you will learn how to make these delicious mouth-watering dishes.

Vegetables

The following vegetables are must-haves on the menu:

Shishito pepper: It gives a spicy, refreshing taste, which is a great addition to your menu.
Eringi mushroom: Grilled eringi mushrooms are very fragrant and delicious with any seasoning. The moment you put them in your mouth, you can feel the aroma and umami of the mushrooms.

Apart from the above, any other vegetables suited for grilling would work, such as asparagus, shiitake mushrooms, and fried tofu.

How to Make Yakitori?

There are various styles of cooking methods and ingredients when it comes to yakitori. Depending on the ingredients, you need to cut them to the optimum size, skewer, and grill them in the correct way. There are also different types of seasonings, and good presentation is also essential. It may seem simple, but it is actually a very complex dish.

While some yakitori masters use different techniques, we will introduce how to make yakitori in a basic, yet professional way, with chicken legs below.

Preparation Process

Remove bones from the chicken legs.
Remove tiny bones and tendons. Cut the meat off the skin by sliding a knife between the meat and the skin. Cut it into small pieces.
Cut each piece open to make it thinner. Be careful not to cut it all the way through. Make sure that the whole piece is evenly thick. Cut them into smaller pieces if necessary so that the width of the meat is about two fingers.
Stack pieces up according to size.

Skewering Process

Keep the bottom pieces small and gradually make them bigger as you move towards the tip.
Insert a skewer directly in the middle of the meat. Move a skewer in a zigzag motion. That is to say, skewer the meat up and down.
Repeat the process until the end.
When you have only a few gaps left, skewer the pieces with the skin on. This part of the meat with the skin tends to be juicier and tastier. So, it’s best to put them closest to the tip because it will be the very first delicious bite.

Grilling Process

Before you start grilling the skewers, spray sake. This sake gives the ingredients a moisture coating and prevents them from getting too dry. Another way is to brush oil on the surface of the ingredients.
Grill. Look at the backside occasionally. Turn it over when the meat is nicely browned.
Find the best spot on the grate for grilling. Depending on where you put the skewers, the heat of the charcoal varies. Either too high or too low heat ends up getting the chicken dried. It could take a few attempts to cook perfect yakitori. Try several times to find out what works best using different amounts of charcoal and the size of the meat. Make sure that both sides are browned and the chicken is charred.
Season the meat with either a) savory sauce or b) salt.
1. Dip them in the sauce and put them back on the fire. Grill both sides and dip them in the sauce again. The meat gets burned easily after you coat them in the sauce, so flip them frequently.
2. Get the skewers off the heat and spray sake. Sprinkle salt on both sides. Put them on the heat and grill both sides for 15-30 seconds to let the sake evaporate.
Serve them on a plate.

As noted above, the standard method of grilling is charcoal grilling. For example, in yakitori restaurants, there are grills specially designed for yakitori, and the skewers are grilled over a charcoal fire.

Having said that, it is worth mentioning that you do not need a charcoal fire to make yakitori. When you prepare yakitori at home, you can use a broiler or frying pan to create a flavor similar to that of charcoal grilling.

How to Serve Yakitori?

As we see above, the two orthodox seasonings for yakitori are as simple as salt and savory dipping sauce. However, you can often see some other seasonings or toppings/condiments to add distinct extra flavor to the dish. For instance, wasabi and plum sauce are becoming very popular and have earned wide recognition.

Keep in mind that the way you cook ingredients slightly varies depending on which seasoning you use in a later process. So, it is necessary to know which you will use before you start cooking.

To make your dishes look more delicious and appetizing, presentation is another essential element. If you go to an Izakaya, a low-priced, casual restaurant in Japan, everything you order might be served on a single plate.

On the other hand, chefs at a higher-end restaurant are more likely to serve each piece on a small plate one by one. Some dishes come with garnishes. For example, tsukune often comes with a raw egg, and chicken tenderloin comes with plum sauce.

Learn from the Master Chef

While people are more familiar with some other Japanese dishes, yakitori is definitely becoming more recognized and is not the one to miss. Knowing how to make yakitori can give you an extra advantage as a chef at restaurants or a home cook at a dinner table.

We are here to assist if you are interested in mastering how to make yakitori. Check out our yakitori course and take one step closer to becoming a chef of Japanese cuisine.