My wife and I made Yakitori on Saturday using a modified David Chang Momofuku tare recipe. This is what I learned:
-The Yakitori cuts are smaller than you think. My first pass at cutting the pieces were huge and looked like a kebab. The pieces of Yakitori should be one bite.
-it's hard to debone a chicken. It's also hard to get the cuts right for the Yakitori on first pass.
- thighs have a lot of musclature and how you cut it makes a big difference on how the pieces stay together.
- if you are overcooking your chicken and the outside isn't charred, your temp is too low.
- skin causes big flareups but is mighty tasty when you get it right.
- lemon and red pepper paste adds really nice flavor to the skewers.
- tweak your tare recipe. If you use normal kikkoman it will end up too salty.
-cut your skin into long strips about .75" wide and accordion it onto the skewer every .25" or so.
- I didn't marinade the chicken and didn't find it to be lacking flavor when glazed with the tare.
- the picture above is half a chicken deboned. It made close to 20 meat skewers:
Thigh and leek
Breasts
Tenderloin
Chicken oysters (both sides)
Wing, butterfly cut
Wing drumstick lollipop
Skin
Cartilage (keel)
Cherry tomatoes
Yamaimo ( Japanese sticky mountain yam)
Garlic
Asparagus
Pics