Chicken yakitori is an easy Japanese grilled recipe served on skewers. The meat is basted with a savory sweet sauce as it cooks over a hot barbecue grill. A quick appetizer for a crowd or dinner served with a few extra sides.
This chicken yakitori will add some Asian-inspired flair to your weekday dinner plans. To make this recipe fast and flavorful, the technique for the sauce and basting the chicken on the grill helps to elevate taste while reducing cooking time.
I’m always looking far ways to change up the types of cuisines we eat at home each week that aren’t too complicated. And no one likes a big mess of dishes. This Japanese-style chicken is a family favorite because layers of sweet and savory flavors are generously added to each skewer as it cooks on the barbecue grill.
How to make chicken yakitori
- Chicken Selection: Chicken thighs are used in this recipe because the dark meat and additional fat keep the chicken moist and tender as it cooks on the grill.
- Yakitori Sauce: Cornstarch is a thickening agent and needs to be mixed with non-hot liquid so it can disperse in the sauce before being cooked. Make sure to whisk until no white powder is left. The cornstarch will absorb the water and swell once it hits about the boiling point of water. Make sure to constantly whisk as the sauce cooks so that the starch granules stay separate and fully expand for maximum thickening power.
- Basting the Chicken: Use the basting method to infuse the sauce on the surface of the chicken skewers. No need to marinate for a long time. The chicken is first cooked on the grill for a few minutes to initiate the Maillard browning reaction on the grill to develop flavor and color. Then the yakitori sauce is brushed on both sides of the chicken multiple times and allowed to cook a few minutes so that the sauce sticks to the surface. Caramelizing will occur as it cooks from the sugar in the sauce.
The yakitori sauce tends to be the star of this chicken dish. It’s a combination of umami and sweet flavors, soy sauce, mirin sweet cooking wine, brown sugar for sweetness, rice vinegar for acidity, fresh ginger and garlic.
The recipe makes a large batch of sauce, so you can use it for basting and save the rest for dipping. Trust me. You’re going to want to drizzle extra flavor on each bite! You can also use the sauce for beef, pork and seafood to baste or serve on the side. To make this a complete meal, some orange miso glazed green beans or cauliflower rice would be a nice compliment to the chicken.
Are you a yakitori fan? I would love to hear how you will be serving the chicken skewers in the comments section below!
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If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo #jessicagavin on Instagram. I’d love to see what you come up with. Cheers, friends!
What are the best skewers to use for grilling?
After lots of testing various recipes on the grill, I’m a big fan of reusable metal skewers or thick bamboo skewers. I’ve found that the thin bamboo burns and falls apart if cooking longer than 10 minutes on the grill. Make sure you always soak the bamboo skewers (no matter what size) at least 30 minutes so that the wood absorbs water a prevents them from burning too quickly. You could also wrap the exposed ends of the skewers with foil if you don’t have time to soak or for thin wooden skewers.
- 2/3 cup soy sauce
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tablespoons mirin
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2/3 cup light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ginger , minced
- 1 clove garlic , minced
- 5 teaspoons cornstarch
- 2 pounds chicken thighs , boneless, skinless, cut into 1” by 1 ¼” pieces
- 8 bamboo skewers , soaked in water for 30 minutes or metal skewers
- kosher salt , as needed for seasoing
- black pepper , as needed for seasoning
- 2 tablspoons vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
- In a medium-size pot whisk together soy sauce, water, mirin, rice vinegar, sugar, ginger, garlic, and cornstarch.
- Bring mixture to a boil, constantly whisk until sauce is slightly thickened, about 1 minute.
- Transfer 1 cup of the sauce to a bowl to use for basting the chicken.
- Thread cut pieces of chicken on skewers. Season with salt and pepper on both sides.
- Drizzle both sides of skewers with a small amount of oil to prevent sticking when cooking.
- Preheat grill over medium-high heat. Clean grill and then use a paper towel dipped in oil to grease the grill.
- Once the grill is hot add the skewers and cook for 4 minutes. Flip over and baste the cooked side with the sauce. Cook 4 minutes.
- Flip skewer over, baste with sauce, cook 2 minutes covered.
- Flip skewer over again, baste, cook 2 minutes covered.
- Repeat flipping, basting and covered cooking 2 additional times, 16 minutes total cooking time.
- Sprinkle chicken yakitori skewers with sesame seeds. Serve chicken skewers immediately with additional sauce.
Honey may be substituted for brown sugar.
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The recipe sounds great, but 1324 grams of sodium per serving is well over half the recommended sodium limit per day. What could be done to reduce that amount and still retain good flavor? Also your estimate of 6 minutes prep time is extremely low. The time to measure ingredients, cut and skewer the chicken adds a lot more time.
Great question Linda! I realized that I included the entire basting marinade in the nutrition information. Since you only marinate the chicken in the sauce, you aren’t actually eating all of the sodium. Without the sauce it’s about 200 mg, so you would infuse some of the salt in the chicken but not 1300 mg. I hope that helps!
Similar question — is the carbohydrate amount for the total amount of the sauce, or per serving? Have you made this with less sugar?
Hi Joanna! The carbs are per serving (1 skewer with side of sauce). However it’s a generous about of extra sauce very flavorful without it if you are tryong to cut back. I haven’t tried a reduced sugar option, but worth a try! You may need to start with less soy sauce as well and acids to rebalance the sauce. Sometimes with soy based recipes they can taste really salty without a balance of sweetness and sourness. Let me know how it goes!
I used reduced sodium soy sauce that will cut down on salt intake
Great idea Jean!
I really loved this! I also made shrimp tempura rolls and drizzled the sauce over them like you would with eel sauce. Thanks for sharing!
Oh, and I subbed the sugar with agave for its low glycemic index.
Great substitution idea!
Thank you for your feedback Alyson! I love that you used the sauce on tempura rolls too, perfect!
Thanks for this yummy recipe! We loved it and was easy to do. It was very tasty and tender by using the chicken thighs. My husband loved the sauce and actually saved the rest for another meal. 😉 He thought the sauce was like restaurant quality.
Skin on or off I would love it with the skin on
Hi.. Cooking it in our cafe.. Very popular.. But could you give me an idea of how long sauce can be kept.. Thanks
Hi Gordon- That’s awesome! Since the sauce has cornstarch it’s best to make the sauce fresh every day. The cornstarch will lose it’s thickness when reheated.