YAKITORI Nihonichi -Varieties-


There are many types of Yakitori. Much of a chicken is edible, so there is little waste. Also, each part of a chicken has a unique flavor and texture. More specifically, eating soft chicken meat will lead to a bouillon flavor spreading throughout your mouth. You can also enjoy a chewy, crunchy texture when you eat cartilage or the sand back (backside of stomach). Yakitori is matched with secretly mixed sauces or specially selected salts. We would now like to introduce some of the more popular Yakitori dishes:

Darkmeat, breastmeat (momo, mune)

As dark meat and breast meat are soft, they are the most basic Yakitori dish. Negima or chicken meat with green onion is also popular. Chicken meat appears to be cut at random, however a cook is very careful about the direction of meat fibers and cuts. Dark meat and breast meat are juicy and have a chewy texture.

Skin (kawa)

The skin covering dark meat and the meat around the neck is widely used as Yakitori. In preparing this part for Yakitori, the fat mass is carefully removed with a knife. This delicate preparation provides a unique skin flavor. The taste is light and remains in your mouth for a while. This particular taste is the true worth of the skin.

Chicken meat balls (tsukune)

While dark meat and breast meat are simple and basic, chicken meat balls are a dish that reflects a chef's character. Chicken meat balls are a mixture of minced meat, eggs, starch and seasonings. When you bite into a meat ball, which deliberately retains juices inside, the flavor spreads in your mouth with a blast.

Chicken wings (tebasaki)

A crispy skin covers the juicy meat of the wing. The essence of eating chicken wings is achieved with the perfect match of salt. As the wings include bones, delicate attention is required to place them on skewers and make the serving easy to eat.

Liver (leba)

The ideal way of cooking liver is to grill the surface to a golden brown while leaving the inside soft and juicy. Some people do not like liver due to its strong smell, but high quality liver doesn't have a strong smell. We strongly recommend you try liver Yakitori, as it is highly nutritious, and we think you would love it. It is a vital dish on a Yakitori menu.

Sand bag (sunagimo)

A chicken that is raised in an environment with little restraints and eats natural feed tend to have a big sand bag. The so called sand bag is muscular aggregation which mashes food and helps digestion. It is collection of strong muscles, so the texture is unique. Salt is the most popular seasoning used with sand bags.

Other

The ingredients for Yakitori are not limited to chicken. Aside from green onions for negima, you will find shiitake mushrooms, green pepper, quail eggs, asparagus and petit tomatoes on a plate of ingredients for Yakitori dishes. The recipes and method of serving Yakitori differs form chef to chef. Despite this, a few simple rules we suggest that you follow are, firstly, you heat up any vegetables in advance as they take more time to cook. Secondly, do not over grill the chicken, as it will result in a hard and tasteless meat. These simple guides are particularly applicable when grilling meat and vegetables together.

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