SOMETHING FOR THE WEEKEND - CHICKEN YAKITORI

Why we think it's fab:

Sweet, salty, sticky and charred in all the right places. Yakitori is one of those brilliantly simple things where a handful of ingredients become much more than the sum of their parts. Juicy chicken thighs and sweet spring onions are threaded onto skewers, cooked until golden, then repeatedly brushed with a glossy Japanese tare until everything is lacquered, caramelised and deliciously messy.

Ingredient Spotlight:

There are ingredients that shout, and ingredients that quietly make everything around them taste better. Mirin is very much the latter.

A cornerstone of Japanese cooking, this sweet rice wine brings a soft, rounded sweetness to savoury dishes. In our yakitori tare, it works alongside soy and sake to create that gorgeous balance of sweet, salty and deeply savoury.

sweet & salty chicken yakitori

Serves 2/3

The real magic happens when the Yakitori skewers hit the heat. As the tare is brushed over the chicken again and again, the mirin helps it reduce into a dark, glossy lacquer, catching around the edges of the chicken and spring onions until they're sticky, caramelised and just beginning to char.

It’s that moment when something wonderfully simple becomes ridiculously moreish.

Ingredients:

For the skewers

• 500g boneless, skinless chicken thighs

• 4 spring onions

• A little neutral oil, for cooking

• 6–8 bamboo skewers

  
  

For the sticky tare

• 100ml soy sauce

• 100ml mirin

• 50ml sake

• 2 tbsp caster sugar

Method:

1. . Pour the soy, mirin and sake into a small saucepan and add the sugar. Set over a medium heat and gently simmer for 10–15 minutes, until reduced slightly and becoming dark, glossy and wonderfully sticky. Divide between two bowls, keeping one completely separate for serving.

2. Cut the chicken thighs into generous 3cm pieces. Don't make them too small. You want juicy chicken with properly caramelised edges. Cut the spring onions into similar-sized lengths. If you're using bamboo skewers, soak them in cold water for 15–30 minutes first.

3. Thread the chicken and spring onion alternately onto the skewers. Keep everything fairly snug. The beauty of yakitori is having a little bit of chicken, charred onion and sticky sauce in every mouthful.

4. Heat a large frying pan or griddle until properly hot, then brush with a little oil.

Lay in the skewers and cook, turning regularly, until the chicken is beautifully golden and cooked through, roughly 10 minutes in total depending on the size of your pieces.

You can also cook them under a very hot grill, turning as they colour.

5. This is where the magic happens. During the final few minutes, start brushing the skewers

generously with the cooking portion of tare. Turn. Brush. Let it bubble and caramelise.

Then do it again.

You're looking for glossy, almost lacquered chicken with dark, charred little edges rather than simply chicken coated in sauce.

6. Pile the yakitori onto a big sharing plate and bring them to the table while they're still hot and sticky. Serve the untouched reserved tare alongside for dipping.

A note from lee:

Don't rush the final glazing. Layers are what make these really good. Brush on a little tare, let the heat caramelise it, turn the skewers, then brush again. You build up that gorgeous sticky coating rather than drowning the chicken in sauce.

These are exactly the sort of thing we'd put in the middle of the table with cold beers, good music and plenty of napkins.