These Japanese inspired grilled chicken skewers are made with chicken thighs and zucchini, marinaded with yakitori sauce threaded onto bamboo sticks with green onions.
Grilled Chicken and Zucchini Yakitori
Chicken Yakitori reminds me of my college days in Soho living on a student budget. Me and my girlfriend met after class 3 to 4 times a week in this cute little Japanese restaurant in the Village where paper origami birds hung from the ceiling. I was broke, so I usually ordered the chicken yakitori off the appetizer menu which always came with a bowl of white rice. I recreated that dish, only I added some zucchini as well to add some veggies.
These Japanese-inspired grilled chicken skewers are made with boneless chicken thighs and zucchini. You can serve this as an appetizer or make it a meal with rice, salad or more vegetables.
Personally, I love having this for dinner like I did back in my college days. As for the chicken, I prefer dark meat to white so I use boneless skinless chicken thighs. You could use chicken breast if you prefer white meat instead.
More Chicken Skewer Recipe
Chicken and Zucchini Yakitori
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons mirin sake
- 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce, for GF use low sodium Tamari
- 1 1/2 tablespoons honey
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs, all fat trimmed (Purdue Fit & Easy)
- 5 large green onions, cut 1-inch-long
- 1 medium zucchini, sliced into 1/2-inch thick rings
- 18 10 inch bamboo skewers
Instructions
- Bring mirin, low sodium soy sauce, honey and crushed garlic to a boil in a medium-sized sauce pan, and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes.
- Set aside to cool.
- Cut the chicken into 1-inch pieces and place in a ziplock bag; pour half of the marinade over the chicken.
- Place the zucchini in a second large ziplock bag and pour the remaining marinade over the zucchini.
- Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, soak the skewers in water 30 minutes so they don't burn.
- Thread the chicken onto skewers, alternating with green onion so that each stick has 3 cubes of chicken and two pieced of green onion, discarding the chicken marinade.
- Thread the zucchini onto skewers, alternating with remaining green onion, reserving the marinade for basting.
- Preheat the grill or a grill pan over medium-high heat.
- When hot, spray with oil then reduced heat to medium; grill the zucchini and chicken skewers about 5 to 6 minutes on each side brushing both sides of the skewers with the yakitori sauce during the last few minutes of cooking time.
Last Step:
Please leave a rating and comment letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business to thrive and continue providing free, high-quality recipes for you.Notes
most of it is tossed, I calculated it with 2 tbsp soy sauce and 1 tbsp
mirin, but it would actually be less. Yakitori marinade recipe adapted from Food.com
