Negima / grilled chicken with green onion on skewers

A common yakitori grilled chicken variation with negi green onion. Great either with salt or tare sauce.

<Ingredients>

1 chicken breast (250 g in photo)
1 tbsp + 1 tsp shiokoji salted rice malt
4 thick green onions (white sections)

For tare sauce
Option A: (ingredients not in photo)
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp sake
1/2 tbsp brown sugar
1 knob ginger

Option B: (ingredients not in photo)
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin
3 tbsp sake
Chicken bones or skin (if available)


<Directions>
1.

Cut chicken into 2.5-3 cm cubes, and marinate in shiokoji for a few hours.

2.

Soak bamboo skewers in water.

3.
Prepare tare sauce (see Tsukune no teriyaki for Option A, and Yakitori-fu chickin for Option B).

4.

Cut green onions into 3 cm.

5.

Put chicken and green onion in alternate order on skewers, making sure to begin and end with a piece of chicken (if put at the ends, green onion tends to fall off skewers during cooking).

6.

Grill on low heat until done.

For tare sauce flavor, brush tare sauce and return to grill several times.

For salt flavor, sprinkle salt.

<Notes>

• As for the difference in taste of tare sauce options, Option A is not reduced (takes less time to prepare) and tastes light, while Option B is reduced (takes a bit longer to prepare) and tastes stronger (similar to what you find in yakitori restaurants). My personal preference is Option A for chicken breast meat and Option B for chicken thighs.
• Shiokoji tenderizes meat and prevents the chicken breast meat from becoming dry while cooking. Shiokoji is optional when using chicken thighs.
• Shiokoji tends to make ingredients burn, and therefore grilling takes place on low heat (lower than usual) in the recipe above.
• Negima originally meant dishes that use negi green onion (thicker and longer than spring green onions) and maguro tuna, often on skewers. At some point it also came to refer to chicken and green onion on skewers at yakitori shops.