I was at a hotel in the Little Tokyo neighborhood of Los Angeles. Like usual, I was looking for something interesting to eat. A guide recommended Kokekokko, a yakitori joint right around the corner from my hotel. A restaurant that serves nothing but grilled chicken? I had to try it out.
The meal was a revelation. Skewer after skewer of chicken sat over the charcoal on a long, thin grill, just wide enough for the bamboo skewers to rest on its edges. The chefs would turn the chicken every now and again while chatting with the customers, occasionally lifting a skewer and and snipping off any burnt edges with a pair of kitchen scissors. Once the chicken was cooked to their liking, they would dip it in a big crock of tare sauce and serve it.
*Tare sauce, or yakitori tare, is a combination of soy sauce, mirin, and sake, and the juices of all the grilled chicken dipped in it over the years. Yes, years - yakitori  restaurants use the same batch for years, topping it off whenever it runs low, so the flavor of the chicken keeps building.
When I say it was "all chicken", that doesn't cover the variety in the meal. Each skewer held a specific cut. We started with skewers of chicken thigh, skewers of chicken breast, and skewers of each with green onions added. Then we moved to the more intriguing part of the menu. All chicken meant all of the chicken. There were skewers of chicken livers, gizzards, hearts, and my favorite, chicken skin. The finale was hard-boiled quail eggs on the skewer, grilled like the chicken and dipped in the wonderful sauce.
I came home determined to duplicate that meal. It seemed so simple - grill chicken on a skewer, dip it in the sauce, and serve. My first few attempts were dry, bland and under seasoned. Where was the combination of chicken flavor and tare sauce that I loved so much? I set the idea aside, determined to try again later.
This spring, The Japanese Grill
 was released. Aha! A guide on the road to yakitori; exactly what I needed. They explained where I went wrong:
- Season the chicken with a little salt before grilling. I was grilling plain chicken, counting on the tare sauce to season it. A little salt helps bring out the flavor of the chicken.
- Double-dip with the tare sauce. I missed this at the restaraunt, but the skewers were dipped, put back on the grill to cook the sauce into a glaze, then dipped again and served.
- Use chicken thighs. They have more flavor and don't overcook as easily as chicken breasts.
*You'd think that the guy who keeps preaching the power of the dark side of chicken would have figured this one out himself, don't you?
Now I have what I was searching for - yakitori that takes me back to the smoky little restaurant in Little Tokyo.
*My next project? To make yakitori using an entire chicken from my poultry CSA at Brunty Farms.
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📖 Recipe Card
Yakitori Chicken Thighs (Momo) and Thighs with Green Onions (Negima)
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Description
Bite-size chicken thigh skewers - plain, or with green onions - grilled over medium-high heat and brushed with a reduced soy, mirin and sake tare sauce.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 4 green onions (optional, for negima)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Tare Sauce
- ½ cup soy sauce
- ½ cup mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine)
- ¼ cup sake
- ¼ cup chicken broth (optional, preferably homemade)
- 1 clove garlic, smashed
- 1 thin slice ginger, smashed
Instructions
- Momo skewers: Cut the chicken thighs crosswise into ½ inch slices. Fold each slice in half (about 1 inch across), and thread onto the skewers, leaving 2 inches of each skewer bare. On a 6 inch skewer, 5 or 6 pieces fill 4 inches.
- Negima skewers: Trim the green onions, and cut the white and light green parts into 1 inch pieces. Thread a piece of green onion, two pieces of folded chicken, another green onion, two more pieces of chicken, and a last green onion onto each skewer.
- Salt the skewers: Sprinkle all the skewers lightly with the salt.
- Prepare the grill: Preheat the grill on high for 10 to 15 minutes. Brush the grate clean, and turn the heat down to medium-high. Lay two strips of foil on the grate to protect the bare ends of the skewers.
- Reduce the tare: Bring the tare ingredients to a boil, then simmer, stirring often, until reduced by half, about 10 minutes.
- Grill: Grill the skewers over direct medium-high heat, with the bare ends over the foil, for 2 minutes. Flip, and grill 2 minutes more.
- Glaze: Brush the skewers with the tare, flip, and cook for 1 minute. Brush again, flip, and cook 1 minute more.
- Serve: Move the skewers to a platter, brush one last time with the tare, and serve.
Notes
Equipment: A grill, bamboo skewers (6 inch is perfect) soaked in water for at least 1 hour, and strips of aluminum foil to protect the skewers.
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts work too, but chicken thigh is the favorite yakitori in Japan for a reason.
Chicken livers: Cook them just like the thighs, but skewer them gently - they're fragile.
Extra green onions? Make an all-green-onion skewer.
Learn the yakitori names for the different parts of the chicken at yakitori.co.jp.
For more Japanese grilling, try my Grilled Shiitake Mushrooms, Yakitori Style or Rotisserie Chicken with Teriyaki Sauce.
Adapted from Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat's The Japanese Grill.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.
Related Posts:
Yakitori Shitake Mushrooms [Coming Thursday]
Grilled Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts, Quick Brinerated
Rotisserie Teriyaki Chicken
Instant Pot Japanese Curry
Gyudon (Japanese Beef and Onion Bowl)
Adapted from:
Tadashi Ono, Harris Salat The Japanese Grill
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Brynda says
Made this tonight and it was fabulous! Thank you for posting it. I cooked mine over a charcoal grill with cherry wood and it was delicious.