Yakitori Chicken Wings

27Jul08

After I made the yakitori basting sauce, I was eager to do some grilling!

My ancient, 15 year old, cheap, $29, square grill was repaired as long as possible. I loved that old grill! It was square, so you could have a big turkey braising in a pan and vegetables grilling at the same time. I could easily use it as a smoker by arranging the coals on one side and cooking on the other. The old grill had several ways to control the temperature. The grilling rack could be raised and lowered. The bottom vents for air coming in to the coals were controlled with a sliding damper which was right in front. You could see how much the holes were open. Opening or closing the vent on top quickly make the coals burn higher or lower. Mr. Tess replaced the flimsy charcoal pan with heavy steel. That worked for years, but the grill surface was becoming rusty, and the bottom of the grill was rusting out…

We bought a Weber dome grill to replace it. The only good thing about it is it has a built in scraper and bucket to remove the ashes from the bottom. You can control the air coming in to the charcoal, but it’s located underneath so you can’t see what adjustment you have made!! The rack is stuck at one level. There is not top vent. You can use it as a smoker, sort of, but because it’s circular, a rectangular pan causes problems. It burns through a TON of charcoal. It’s either too hot or the coals are dying. Any way.

I was so eager to do some grilling that I forgot about the new grill. I also forgot how important it is to properly soak the skewers and as a result we had some extra burning going on. These are first up because I used a bag of frozen wings to make the yakitori sauce. This recipe uses the other part of the wings joints.

Chicken Wings on Skewers

Yakitori: Tebasaki

page 409

• 8 chicken wings: second joints, the part with 2 bones
• salt
• 1 yuzu or lime cut in wedges

Lay the wing joints flat and slit each of them running your knife along the thin bone and then along the thick bone. I used poultry shears to cut the thin bone from the joints at both ends, then worked it out. Leave the thick bone in. Open out the meat butterfly fashion to make a thin flat piece. Use two wing joints per skewer. Run the skewer between the thick bone and skin. The original recipe has you simply salt the chicken and grill it. Serve with citrus wedges.

But I’d just made the yakitori sauce, so that’s what we used. I put the sauce into a shallow disposable pan intending to heat it on the grill with the chicken. Then it would be easy to dip the skewers in. Seconds thoughts about our unfamiliarity with the grill, made me think it was safer to keep the sauce hot on the stove (only a few feet away) and bring the chicken in, to dip it in the sauce. Grill or broil until golden, turning once. Dip the skewers in the yakitori sauce. Shake off excess sauce and grill until dry, about a minute or two. Repeat the dipping and drying process, and then remove the skewers from the heat and baste them once more.

Cutting the little bones out is a bit tricky, to say the least. And I cooked more than the 8 called for in the recipe, so to be honest, I gave up after a bit. Also, I first skewered the wing joints lengthwise and then realized they should be done crosswise. The wings cooked sans bones and crosswise were better than the others—they cooked quicker, the skin crisped up, and they were easier to eat. But the others were just fine.

More Yakitori Recipes from Tess

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Yakitori Basting Sauce		Yakitori Chicken Dumplings

Filed under: Grilling and Pan-Frying, Japanese Food, Yakimono, chicken   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Japanese Recipes, kushiyaki, tebasaki, Yakitori