Teriyaki Chicken Skewers with Scallions

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This dish is inspired by one of our favorite cuisines, Japanese food. Of all the amazing Japanese dishes (and there a lot), Teriyaki Chicken Skewers with Scallions is up there with one of the best. It’s a classic Japanese dish that is so commonly made at the famous Izakaya bars that are scattered across the cities in Japan

The bars are so small that there is only space for one row of customers, who sidle up to the bar where Beer and Sake are being slung out in copious amounts. The hungry customers need to eat, and with such little room to cook, the most common form of food consumed is called Yakitori

What is Yakitori

Yakitori is the format of cooking basic dishes, typically on skewers, over an open coal fire. The piping hot coals are added to a rectangular style grill then the skewers meat, fish, or vegetables are placed on top. Beautiful sauces such as homemade Teriyaki Sauce are slathered onto the meat as they char

They’re then served up to the hungry customers and consumed almost as quickly as the accompanying alcoholic beverages served alongside them! It’s an amazing dining experience, and one that you can 100% recreate at home with this easy Teriyaki Chicken Skewers recipe

Making a simple Teriyaki Sauce at home is easy

There’s no need to rush out to the supermarket and buy the off-the-shelf Teriyaki Sauce. You can make your own version at home, which we guarantee tastes so much better. You know what’s going into your own sauce at home, and it won’t have all those weird additives and artificial flavors from the store-bought stuff

The ingredients in a Homemade Teriyaki Sauce are a combination of Soy Sauce, Cooking Sake, Mirin, Sesame Oil, Honey, Ginger, Brown Sugar, and Cornstarch. These are all readily available ingredients that you can pick up at a lot of grocery stores, and all of them at specialty Asian Supermarkets

While some of these ingredients you may not necessarily have on-hand, we highly recommend picking them up for this recipe and storing them in your pantry. There is something about having access to a bunch of fun, baseline ingredients that opens up your world of cooking

The sheer number of dishes that contain Mirin for example, is almost endless. If you’re reading this recipe we already know you like Japanese Food. Therefore, we highly recommend grabbing these ingredients. Once you’re done, why not check out some of our other awesome Japanese recipes

Use Chicken Thighs for the best Chicken Teriyaki Skewers

There is simply no substitute for Chicken Thighs when making Chicken Skewers. In fact, any Chicken recipe that’s going to be cooked on a high heat to the point of scorching should be done with Thighs. They are such a forgiving cut of meat, and will stay tender even if you over cook them a bit

Just keep a close eye on the temperature when cooking the Chicken Thighs and they will turn out great. We always recommend using some kind of Thermometer when cooking meat. It will take all the guess work out of cooking and ensure perfectly cooked Chicken every time! Just take the Chicken off the heat at 160F and it will be ready to eat (but also hot!)

If you have an outdoor grill, this is the recipe to use on it

We understand not everyone has a grill, but if you do you’ll be very much rewarded by firing it up when cooking these Teriyaki Chicken Skewers. Anything cooked over an open flame will have a beautiful, smoky, charred quality to its flavor. Especially dishes such as this one where you’re using a glaze that has a high sugar content (care of the Brown Sugar and Honey added to the sauce)

By cooking the Skewers on the grill, you’ll be left with a lovely, charred flavor and texture. The Scallions will also benefit from the open fire as they’ll lightly scorch and some may even crisp up, leaving a beautiful texture

For the recipe below we’ve kept it using a frying pan, which is what we used for the photos in this recipe. You can see we still achieved an amazing result. So, using a Grill, a Frying Pan, or hey, even your own Yakitori hot coals cooker if you’ve got it are going to work amazing for this dish!

If you’ve got a kitchen blowtorch, Teriyaki Chicken Skewers are the perfect time to use it!

A totally optional step in this recipe is to hit the Teriyaki Chicken Skewers with a final glaze of Teriyaki Sauce right before serving. Then, for some added theatrics, hit the Skewers with a quick blow torch to scorch the glaze

Not only is this a super fun thing to do, torching the Teriyaki Glaze will give it a lovely, sugary, almost caramel-type quality to it. It will add some beautiful additional sweetness to the skewers and give the Chicken a beautiful, charred quality. It’s a great technique to make the skewers seem like they were genuinely made over hot coals in a Yakitori bar

Teriyaki Chicken Skewers with Scallions Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 lb. Chicken Thighs, cut into bite size pieces
• 2 ½ tbsp. Soy Sauce
• 2 tbsp. Cooking Sake
• 2 tbsp. Mirin
• ½ tbsp. Honey
• ½ tsp. Grated Ginger
• 1 tbsp. Brown Sugar
• ¼ tsp. Sesame Oil
• ½ tsp. Cornstarch
• 4 Scallions, sliced into 1-inch pieces
• 1 tsp. Vegetable Oil
• Salt and Pepper
  
  

Note: You will require 8 medium skewers or 4 large skewers for this recipe

Instructions

1. Combine the Soy Sauce, Cooking Sake, Mirin, Honey, Grated Ginger, Brown Sugar, and Sesame Oil in a Saucepan. Place over medium heat for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally
2. While the sauce is heating, create a slurry by combining the Corn Starch with ½ tsp. of Water in a bowl. Mix well to combine, then add to the Saucepan
3. Simmer the sauce for 7-8 minutes, stirring occasionally until it begins to thicken slightly. Enough to coat the back of the spoon. Remove pan from heat and set aside as you prepare your Skewers
4. Place the Chicken pieces in a mixing bowl and season well with Salt and Pepper, approximately 1 tsp. of each
5. Assemble the individual skewers by alternating a piece of Chicken with a piece of Scallion. Place both pieces on the skewer lengthways (eg: their narrowest part) so you can fit more onto a skewer
6. Place the skewers out on a flat surface and brush each skewer liberally with the Teriyaki Sauce
7. Heat a large frying pan over medium / high heat along with the Vegetable Oil. Once hot, carefully place the Skewers onto the frying pan with the side you’ve applied the sauce facing the pan
8. Brush the exposed side of each skewer with more Teriyaki Sauce (leave about ¼ of the sauce remaining). Cook for 4-5 minutes, flip, and cook for a further 3-4 minutes. Once the internal temperature of the Chicken is 160F, remove from pan and set aside on a wire rack
9. You can serve the Teriyaki Chicken Skewers immediately. An optional step is to brush more Teriyaki Sauce onto the skewers, then hit them with a kitchen blow torch to lightly char them before serving
   
   

Notes for this Recipe

The final step of adding more Teriyaki Sauce and torching the skewers with a blow torch is optional. However, this step does add a brilliant Japanese BBQ style flavor to the dish. It will taste just like you’re eating skewers that have been pulled straight from a Yakitori BBQ in a Japanese Izakaya bar in Tokyo

So if possible, we highly recommend this step. If you do not own a Kitchen Torch another option is to glaze the Skewers with Teriyaki Sauce and place them under the Broiler set on high for 1 minute. You’ll achieve the same result, however there is a risk the sticks will scorch a little

For the best result, serve with a generous spoonful of yummy Japanese Kewpie Mayonnaise

We hope you’ve enjoyed making our fun Teriyaki Chicken Skewers with Scallions recipe. For more fun recipes like this that you can serve as appetizers, or even as an easy lunch you can check out our Lunching on Leftovers page and Appetizers page. Here are a few of our favorites that you should try:

• Easy Homemade Tuna Tartare
• Bang Bang Chicken
• Creamy Mushroom Toast
• Air Fryer Chicken Nachos
• Fish Croquettes
• Lamb and Tabbouleh Wrap
  
  

Happy Cooking!