Tsukune (Grilled Chicken Meatballs in Sweet Yakitori Sauce)

Tsukune Don

The children love Japanese Yakitori or grilled meat skewers. This morning, I drove the Teenager to Modena centro for the Middle Years' visit to a Science Museum (they are studying about the human body now) and took the opportunity to shop at the covered market. The chicken stall had freshly minced chicken and that made me think of Tsukune or Grilled Chicken Meatballs in Sweet Yakitori Sauce - so that's the kids' dinner settled for this evening.

with the sauce

Tsukune :

500g minced Chicken

150g Onion, Leek or Spring Onions (chopped)

2 Tsp Sugar

1 Tbsp Shoyu or light soy sauce

1/2 Tsp Sesame Oil

3 Tbsp Sake

5 Tsp Cornstarch or plain flour

Salt and Pepper

1 Egg (beaten)

The Sweet Yakitori Sauce :

100ml Mirin

3 Tbsp Sake

100ml Shoyu

50g Sugar

Marinate the minced chicken with the chopped onions, sugar, sake, shoyu, sesame oil, egg and cornstarch.

Prepare the yakitori sauce by combining the mirin, sake, shoyu and sugar in a saucepan and heating it till the sugar is dissolved and the sauce has thickened.

raw meatballs

Shape the minced meat into balls.

after 10 minutes in the oven

During summer, I would bake the meatballs for 10 minutes in a hot oven, skewer them and then proceed to brush the meatballs with the sweet yakitori sauce as I grill them on a BBQ.

During winter, I bake them for a few minutes in the oven, cover them with the sweet yakitori sauce (that I didn't thicken too much in the saucepan) and return them to the oven for another 10 minutes, turning them over halfway through. Then I skewer them before serving them on steamed Japanese rice drenched in thickened sweet yakitori sauce and covered with chilli flakes and toasted sesame seeds.