Chicken yakitori

Yakitori is a Japanese sauce used on grilled chicken. The real plus for this easy chicken dish is you don’t have to marinate the meat before you cook it, so it is a perfect last minute quick meal for your weekly meal plan. So what are you waiting for?

CHICKEN YAKITORI

Prep: 5 mins
Cook: 40 mins
Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 100ml soy sauce
• 100ml mirin
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 600g / 1lb 3oz of chicken thighs, skinless and boneless
• 3–4 spring onions / scallions
• vegetable oil
• 12 bamboo skewers
• serve with steamed rice and Asian greens

Method

1. Place the soy, miring and sugar in a saucepan on mediem heat and reduce by half (about 5–10 mins). Take saucepan off the heat and add sesame oil.
2. Cut the white part of the spring onion into 2 cm pieces (the soft green bits tend to burn so keep them for use in another dish).
3. Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces and thread on to bamboo skewers – chicken first then spring onion then chicken then spring onion them chicken again.
4. Brush with a little oil and cook on the barbecue or in a frying pan or bake in the oven until cooked (about 10–15 minutes).
5. If doing this on the BBQ, remove skewers from the BBQ and place in a dish, then brush with the yakitori sauce on both sides. Do this liberally three times and cover with foil and rest for 5 minutes in oven or in a warm place.
6. If cooking in the oven, baste the chicken with the marinade a few times, returning to the oven for about a minute between each basting.
7. Just before serving brush with the sauce again. Serve with steamed rice and greens.

TIP
This is a great way to use up the spring onions from the refrigerator that you can never find a use for before they go limp.