![\"yakitori02\"](\"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/yakitori02.jpg\")
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Who doesn\u2019t love grilled chicken on skewers?<\/p>\n
Yakitori<\/em> is one of the most popular and ubiquitous types of kushiyaki<\/em> found in Japan and in areas where Japanese food is popular. Yakitori<\/em> are bite-sized pieces of chicken, skewered and grilled. In Japan, yakitori<\/em> can be found at yakitori-ya<\/em> restaurants, street food festival stands and more commonly, at izakaya<\/em>, or bar and grill style restaurants.<\/p>\n Having them at a street fair or izakaya<\/em> is quite an experience!<\/p>\n Generally paired with beer or sake<\/em>, yakitori<\/em> are perfect for after-work happy hour or after-party noshing. There are quite a few varieties of yakitori<\/em>. One of the most popular ones is tsukune<\/em>, which are ground chicken meatballs, glazed with a thin teriyaki<\/em>-style sauce and often accompanied by shichimi<\/em> pepper. Negima<\/em> yakitori<\/em> are small pieces of chicken thigh skewered on bamboo sticks with stalks of green onion, and occasionally salted or glazed. Without the green onion, these yakitori<\/em> are called momo<\/em>, literally meaning \u201cthigh\u201d. Kawa<\/em> is a traditional yakitori<\/em> preparation where chicken skin is folded and grilled extra crispy. Tebasaki<\/em> are grilled chicken wings. Sunagimo<\/em> are chicken gizzards, rebaa<\/em> are chicken livers and nankotsu<\/em> are breast cartilage\u2026 marinated, glazed and grilled to perfection. You can even get chicken heart, neck and hind end!<\/p>\n Grilling yakitori<\/em> is an art form. Binchotan<\/em> charcoal is used to heat the grill, which is smokeless and odorless, and made from hard Japanese oak. The wood is fired at extremely high temperatures in an oxygen-poor environment and quickly cooled to make it smooth and long-burning. This charcoal is the best to grill with, as it doesn\u2019t adulterate the flavor of the food.<\/p>\n Eating yakitori<\/em> is half the fun. Skewers are usually ordered in sets of two or as part of a combination plate called moriawase<\/em>. You pick your sauce or tare<\/em>, or just have your skewer sprinkled with salt. Sometimes, ordering sides of boiled eggs, potatoes or vegetables rounds out the meal, but mostly yakitori<\/em> are delicious with beer and sake<\/em> and good friends!<\/p>\n Share your izakaya<\/em> or yakitori-ya<\/em> story with us\u2026 from here in the US or from your trip or stay in Japan. Then stay tuned for next month\u2019s street food showcase!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Who doesn\u2019t love grilled chicken on skewers? Yakitori is one of the most popular and ubiquitous types of kushiyaki found in Japan and in areas where Japanese food is popular. Yakitori are bite-sized pieces of chicken, skewered and grilled. In Japan, yakitori can be found at yakitori-ya restaurants, street food festival stands and more commonly, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[740],"tags":[100,101,16,96,99,56],"class_list":["post-1917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-japanese-street-food","tag-beer","tag-izakaya","tag-japan","tag-sake","tag-skewers","tag-streetfood"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"yakitori01\"](\"https:\/\/www.zojirushi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/yakitori01.jpg\")
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