Yakitori Chicken Recipe
by Nicola Lando
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40 minutes prep time
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20 minutes cook time
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Easy
This is a chicken yakitori recipe for people who want it quickly and without any fuss.
Proper yakitori happens over charcoal. Small grill, proper heat, and a lot of theatre. That's how it's done in Japanese yakitori stalls and bars, and that is an event in itself.
But here's the thing - once you've tasted these chicken skewers with their glossy, sweet-salty glaze, you'll want them constantly. Rain or shine, Tuesday or Saturday. I do, anyway.
So I've made them in a frying pan. Sacrilege? Perhaps. Delicious? Absolutely.
The sauce keeps for ages in the fridge, which is handy. And threading spring onions between the chicken isn't just pretty - those edges char and turn sweet, almost caramelised. Clever, really.
What is yakitori sauce made of?
Yakitori sauce is a simple mixture of
- soy sauce,
- mirin,
- sake and
- caster sugar.
This sauce is then used as a marinade, traditionally for chicken.
You can buy yakitori sauce, but because it's so easy to make, I'd recommend keeping the individual ingredients in your storecupboard for other Japanese recipes, and then make this when needed. It'll also keep well for a few days in the fridge.
What does chicken yakitori taste like?
Japanese yakitori is classically cooked over a small charcoal grill. Cooking over charcoal gives a slightly smoky flavour that’s simply delicious. You'll get similar with a little heat in the pan. The yakitori sauce has a sweet and salty balance of flavours.
Is yakitori sauce the same as teriyaki?
Yakitori and teriyaki sauce both have a base of soy sauce and sugar, however teriyaki sauce is made with ginger and garlic, giving it a slightly more complex flavour.
What do you eat with yakitori?
Yakitori chicken is a popular bar snack in Japan. The skewered morsels of chargrilled chicken and the sweet, sticky yakitori sauce are just the thing to eat with an ice-cold beer.
Yakitori bars in Japan are often packed at the end of the working day, full of people relaxing with a cold drink and some chargrilled snacks.
Is yakitori chicken spicy?
No! Our recipe for yakitori chicken only calls for chicken to be mixed with spring onions, so it is not spicy, rather sweet, salty and smoky.
However you can sprinkle it with a little shichimi togarashi spice after cooking to add more heat and complexity - and it looks great too!
Ingredients for yakitori chicken Serves: 4
- Vegetable oil
- 4 chicken thigh fillets (approx. 340g)
- 6 spring onions, white parts only
For the yakitori sauce
- 120ml Japanese soy sauce
- 120ml mirin
- 60ml sake
- 50g caster sugar
Equipment
Method
- Before you begin cooking, soak the bamboo skewers in water for around half an hour. This stops the wood from burning too much or catching fire.
- Then prepare the sauce. In a small saucepan combine the soy sauce, mirin, sake and caster sugar. Bring to the boil and boil for 8-10 minutes. The sauce should be thick and syrupy. Set it aside to cool.
- Cut the chicken thigh fillets into approximately 1 inch chunks. Slice the white parts of the spring onions into 1 inch pieces (save the green parts to garnish if you like).Thread the chicken and spring onion onto the skewers. Start with a chicken piece, then alternate with spring onion. Yakitori are only small snacks, so aim for 3 pieces of chicken and 2 pieces of spring onion on each skewer. Continue until all ingredients are used up.
- Heat a little vegetable oil in a frying pan. When hot, add the skewers leaving some space between them. You can cook them in several batches if needed. Use tongs to turn the skewers regularly until the chicken is cooked through and they start to char. This will take 5-10 minutes.
- Stack the skewers on a plate and pour over the sticky sauce. Serve immediately, with any leftover sauce in a dish for dipping.
Find more Japanese ingredients to buy here.
About the author
Nicola Lando is the co-founder and CEO of Sous Chef, where she has spent more than a decade sourcing, tasting and selecting specialist ingredients, cookware and tableware from producers around the world.
She trained at Leiths and later completed a stage at a Michelin-starred London restaurant, experiences that helped shape Sous Chef’s original mission: to give home cooks access to the same exceptional ingredients used by professional chefs.
Today, Nicola leads much of Sous Chef’s product sourcing and ingredient selection, working directly with producers and travelling internationally to food fairs, farms, mills and manufacturers. She tastes thousands of products each year and has built deep expertise across storecupboard ingredients, olive oil, condiments, spices, preserved foods and specialist cooking ingredients.
She holds an olive oil sommelier certification from ESAO in Spain, Imperial Executive Education’s Certificate in Nutrition for Health: Evidence-Based Tools and Strategies certificate; as well as studying Food Safety and Control at University of Greenwich.
Nicola also writes recipes and ingredient guides for Sous Chef, combining practical cooking experience with first-hand knowledge from producers, suppliers and specialist food makers. Her work focuses on helping cooks understand how to choose better ingredients, use them well, and get more flavour from their cooking.
