8/28/10

Easy Yakitori



Yakitori is one of my favorite snacks which I also sometimes eat with rice as a heavier meal for lunch or dinner. Making yakitori is easy enough, but this recipe makes it even easier! You'll just need the following:
Ingredients
  • Your choice of the meat - boneless and skinless chicken breast/thigh, chicken skin (you can use the one you've pulled off the chicken breast/thigh), pork belly, bacon
  • Vegetables like leek, green bell pepper, asparagus, shiitake or button mushrooms **
  • Wooden skewers (shorter ones are better; yakitori is not usually served on very long skewers)
  • Ready-made Kikkoman Teriyaki sauce*
  • Powdered ginger (for marinating) **
  • Half a lemon **
  • Container for marinating
  • Grill (coal or gas grill is best for a smokier taste)

*I used ready-made teriyaki sauce because based on my research on yakitori recipes, the components of teriyaki sauce is very similar to yakitori marinade
** optional

Directions
  1. You first cut your meat into bite-sized pcs, about an inch wide. For chicken skin, you can just put the skewer through it right away, as if the skewer were a needle and the chicken skin, cloth.
  2. If you're using vegetables, you can cut them into bite-sized pcs as well and alternate it with the meat, much like in the photo (chicken and leek). For asparagus, it tastes bests when you wrap it with bacon and then put it on the skewers.
  3. Put the meat skewers in a container, dash some ginger powder on 'em, and pour some Teriyaki sauce on it. About a teaspoon per skewer would do the trick; make sure not to drown the skewers but have the meat damp enough to soak in the flavor.
  4. Squeeze half a lemon over the skewers.
  5. Close container and leave to marinate for 30minutes to an hour or two. Don't leave them too long or they might get too salty.
  6. Prepare the grill
  7. When the grill is hot (enough that a drop of the marinade would sizzle), place the skewers on it.
  8. Grill until the meat is cooked, turning it and basting it with left over marinade/teriyaki sauce to make sure it would meat would not dry out.
  9. Serve with a tablespoon of teriyaki sauce drizzled on the meat skewers.
  10. Eat as is or with rice. Enjoy! :)