Tsukune – Yakitori Style Ground Chicken Skewers

Tsukune Ingredients

• Ground chicken: This protein will be our main ingredient, mixed with and molded around the following great flavors and spices.
• Cloves garlic: Garlic is such an essential cooking vegetable across various cultural cuisines, from Italian to Japanese, because of its rich flavor and aroma. It will be the core staple in this dish that makes the chicken truly stand out.
• Onion: The onion and the garlic in this chicken mixture will be what gives this dish a large part of its delicious flavor without the tare sauce. They both share similar antioxidant properties that are good for you too!
• Ginger: Fresh ginger adds a spicy note to the chicken skewers.
• Asparagus: This nutritious vegetable will go between the flavored chicken meatballs on your skewer—adding color and a refreshing element.
• Vegetable oil: This will be spread along your cooking pan’s tin foil to assist in not only cooking but that it won’t stick to the tray.
• Salt: A little salt can go a long way. You want to make sure not to use too much so it doesn’t overpower the overall taste of the meatballs.
• All-purpose flour: The flour here will help keep the shape of your flavored chicken while also adding to its thick texture.
• Sake: This rich, alcohol-based liquid will assist in tenderizing the chicken.
• Soy sauce: The soy sauce used at this stage will enhance the natural flavor of the chicken so that it’s even more rich in flavor.

Sweet Soy Tare Sauce Ingredients

• Granulated sugar: If you’re new to cooking, you’ll notice that many savory dishes call for even the smallest amount of sugar. This is because sugar brings out the best in flavors like soy sauce, sake, and mirin.
• Mirin: Mirin is a rice wine that’s a common staple in Japanese cooking. When you combine mirin with soy sauce, it often helps balance out the salty taste.
• Sake: Like mirin, sake is an alcoholic-based cooking liquid. A major difference between the two is that sake is a popular drink you can have on it’s own while mirin is strictly for cooking.
• Soy sauce: Soy sauce is a very common ingredient used in Asian cuisine, including Japanese. Its unique savory and umami taste is a fan favorite.

People often confuse tare sauce for a kind of teriyaki sauce but it is its own special concoction and pairs beautifully with chicken or beef skewers. You really can’t go wrong infusing these classic Japanese flavors together!

How to Make Tsukune Yakitori Skewers

1. Gather all of your kitchen tools and ingredients.
2. Preheat the oven to 350ºF so it warms up while you prepare the rest of your ingredients.
3. Cover the cooking tray with aluminum foil and lightly brush it with oil.
4. In a medium pan over medium heat to medium-high heat, add oil, ginger, garlic, and onions. Cook until onions are soft and transfer to a bowl. Let cool to room temperature.
5. When the onion mixture has cooled, add ground chicken, flour, sake, soy, and salt to the small bowl. Mix with your hands until well-blended.
6. Spoon some ground chicken mixture and make a small ball in the palm of your hand. You can make them into small tsukune meatballs, or larger ones, it’s really up to you! Now you’ve got your Japanese chicken meatballs, thread it onto a skewer (bamboo skewers work great) and add a couple of pieces of asparagus. Repeat until the skewer is full and lay it on the tray. You may need to reshape some of the chicken balls as they may fall off the skewer. Do it on the tray when they are lying down; it’s easier that way. Repeat this step until all the mixture has been used.
7. Divide your tare sauce into two separate bowls. Use one bowl to brush the skewers on both sides.
8. Bake in the oven for 8 minutes. Take your Japanese chicken meatball skewers out and brush them one more time with tare sauce, turning them over, and then bake for an additional 10-12 minutes until chicken is cooked through. By the end of cooking, the total time should be roughly 20 minutes!
9. Serve your tender ground chicken skewers with unused tare sauce for dipping.
10. Enjoy your hard-earned spoils!

How to Make Sweet Tare Sauce

Put all your sweet soy tare sauce ingredients into a microwavable bowl and zap for 20 seconds to melt the sugar. You can also make the sauce using a small pan over low heat on the stovetop if don’t have a microwave.

Once it’s done heating, stir gently and then let cool so that it’s at room temperature when time to use.

What is Tsukune?

The name tsukune stands for the Japanese-flavored chicken meatballs that you will be making to go on this skewer. The literal translation means to knead or mold. Yakitori is usually served in yakitori bars and can sometimes be found sold in convenience stores across Japan. Tsukune is one of many options offered on the menu specializing in all things poultry (yakitori literally means grilled chicken).

What is Yakitori?

Yakitori, as mentioned above, means grilled chicken in Japanese. These Yakitori chicken dishes use different chicken parts to make a variety of kebabs such as soft bones (nankotsu), heart, tail, neck, liver, and my favorite, tsukune. The skewered pieces are dipped in a sweet soy tare sauce and then placed on a hot grill and served with a little salt and miso paste. A good yakitori grill restaurant staple menu will have all of these chicken delicacies!

Yakitori restaurants and bars are very popular in Japan; more so than your average sushi bar. They are a quintessential part of Japanese dining and drinking. I fell in love with yakitori, especially tsukune, when I moved to Tokyo in my early 20s. The food is probably some of the best in the world. For example, tofu dengaku and agedashi tofu are two dishes you can make to get a taste!

Is This a Traditional Tsukune Recipe?

This chicken tsukune dish recipe is quite different than what you’d find in yakitori bars. I’ve added ginger and onions to make it healthier—and inter-skewered it with asparagus. The classic is usually made of ground chicken with a little sake and salt (without the asparagus.) Then a sweet soy tare sauce is brushed on top to give the meat a lovely golden brown color and complement the natural taste of the chicken.

Since my kitchen isn’t equipped with a hot grill, I’m cooking my Japanese-style meatballs in the oven using a sheet tray brushed with a little oil to prevent the chicken from burning or sticking to the base.

The result is very delicious; the chicken retains its moisture and tenderness. Dipping the skewers in tare sauce is optional as they come out of the oven already filled with so much flavor.

What Can I Pair With This Tsukune Skewers Recipe?

There are definitely many different ways you can serve Japanese-style chicken meatballs. You can serve them with a little rock salt and miso paste as sides for a very traditional Japanese yakitori presentation. They are rich in protein though so it can also be considered a small, nutritious meal if you are looking for something light.

Some of my favorite side side dishes to pair with tsukune are:

• Gomae (boiled spinach with sesame sauce)
• Hiyayakko (chilled tofu with soy sauce and toppings)
• Kaisou salad (seaweed salad)
• Nasu dengaku (broiled eggplant with miso glaze)

I’d love to hear what you think of these yakitori-style chicken skewers. What are your favorite food recipes that you’d want to pair with it?

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