Yakitori Recipe - BBQ Bliss

One of my all time favourite dishes is yakitori.... or grilled chicken. This is a wonderful meaty dish (actually, as I look back on the recipes that I've posted, I realise just how much of meat-lovers we are). It's been a common companion in our time together, although I have to admit that we don't tend to cook it ourselves. Which is a shame, as it's really quite easy.

The first thing to do - is make the skewers of chicken, onion etc...The thing to try to remember is that if you're going to use wooden skewers, it's best to soak them for a good ol'time... to avoid them spontaneously combusting on the bbq. Ok... I most probably didn't soak them quite long enough on this occasion. Another word of advice. Use free-range chickens. They're tastier, and your meat-eating soul will be all the more salved for it.

Of course the great thing about yakitori is the yakitori sauce... which is really easy to make.

Ingredients:

Approx 70 ml soy sauce

Approx 50 ml mirin

Approx. 1 Tablespoon Sugar.

Just add the ingredients into a small saucepan and put on a medium heat until the liquid reduces to 2/3 the original volume... then voila, you have it. Simple yakitori basting sauce.

In terms of yakitori themselves, well, other than chicken on skewers, you can also try a few other variations - two we tried this night was asparagus wrapped in bacon (yumm-o).

And here's a simple but tasty one - chicken skin. Yes, that's right. chicken skin. I know - healthy isn't a big concern at this point.

But to prove that we weren't wasting bits of the chicken... then you have the good old chicken wings. With all of these things you should cook lightly on the bbq first, and only then apply the yakitori baste... otherwise it will tend to cook/burn too quickly. At least that's our method - I'm sure there's many others. You paint the yakitori (and chicken wings) at least twice. My technique is to fill a flute glass with the sauce and then just dip the skewers in quickly. Simple.

So that's our recipe for yakitori... a Japanese delight and a must-eat food (especially of an evening if you've had a bit to drink... in fact, nothing like combining those two activities).

Happy eating. ?:-)

Note: The last thing I was going to do was plug my new Recipe Collection page, which I'm sure you would have missed on the top right hand side pane. This is just a collection of the recipes that I've been adding. We don't do many, but they're all favourites of ours. Have a look when you get the chance!... and in the mean time, enjoy thinking about yakitori!