Image Credit to: 4seasons
The Jidori Yaki is a delicious meal that came from Japan, and it is made out of tasty chargrilled chicken, topped with barbeque sauce. The chicken is cooked by grilling to perfection at high heat using hot charcoal beneath a grill.
Some street vendors and restaurants may advertise the dish as ‘jidori’, which means that the chickens or hybrid birds are native breeds in Japan, with more than 50% of their DNA that stems from these native breeds. The native breeds have a more of a chewy texture to it compared to non-native kinds. The dish usually is eaten as a snack or as a light meal.
Interested in making Jidori Yaki? Check out the recipe down below that you can use to make it in the comforts of your own home.
Ingredients (4 Servings):
- 450 g of boneless chicken thigh (with skin removed)
- Vegetable oil or canola oil
- 9 pieces of scallions
(Tare Sauce)
- ½ cup of mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine)
- ½ cup of soy sauce
- ¼ cup of water
- 2 tsp of brown sugar
- ¼ cup of sake
Directions:
- Combine the soy sauce, mirin, brown sugar, water and 1 piece of scallion (green part) into a saucepan. Place the pan above the heat and then bring the dial to high heat to boil.
- Once the mixture is boiling, turn down the heat to low and then allow the mixture to simmer for about 30 minutes for it to evaporate slightly. The consistency of the sauce should be thick and dense and then let it cool at room temperature.
- Next, proceed to cut the scallions to small 1-inch pieces between the white part and green part. Carry on by cutting the chicken into small 1-inch pieces. Then, proceed to hold the chicken pieces together and pierce the skewer through the chicken at 45 degrees through the centre.
- Add a piece of scallion into the skewer and then alternate between a piece of chicken and scallion.
- Start greasing the grate of the grill with vegetable oil. Turn the dial of the grill up to high heat. Once it has been heated, place each skewer onto the grill for about 6 minutes. Take a cooking brush and sweep the sauce all over the meat and then broil for another 4 minutes to allow the sauce to caramelise around the chicken.
- After it has been cooked, place the skewers on a serving plate and brush more sauce on the chicken. The dish is best eaten fresh out the barbeque and paired with a nice cold beer.