… a recent visit over to Lou’s blog Please Do Not Feed The Animals and her entry for last months Random Recipes, reminded me how much I love Chicken Yakitori… its a classic Japanese dish usually served as little strips of grilled chicken with leeks on a skewer… it’s the sweet combination of sugar and soy sauce that gets the back of my mouth watering and the heady scent as it cooks in my kitchen is driving me to the point of insanity…
… of course i’ve given it my own twist and am cooking it Belleau Kitchen style using my beloved chicken thighs, baked on a bed of leeks, spring onions and fine green beans… i’ve also used honey instead of sugar but the essence of the Yakitori is still there… driving me wild with anticipation as it bakes…
Chicken Thigh Yakitori
4 chicken thighs
1 large leek – sliced lengthways and into batons
4 spring onions – chopped into batons
a handful of fine green beans
100ml dark soy sauce
100ml Mirin (or just use regular white wine)
2 teaspoons runny honey
1 teaspoon sesame oil
– mix the liquids and honey in a jug.
– place the vegetables into a baking dish, lay the thighs, skin side up, on top and pour the liquid on top.
– bake in a hot oven for at least an hour, turning the chicken after 30 mins and then back again 10 mins before the end of the cooking time. (the honey will make the chicken skin go a little black but don’t worry, this is how it should look and will add to the incredible taste)
eat and of course, enjoy!
Chicken Yakitori is probably the only Japanese food I would eat — I don't eat any fish, and with Japanese food I always have difficulty with identification, so I seldom take the risk!
@ Mark… taking risks is the way we learn what we like and don't like… ;0)
I like the look and sound of this, but what does “a hot oven” mean? I will only see a reply at scrout1944@msn.com.
Now this is definitely my kind of dish Dom! It looks divine!
I know we always say we have bookmarked a recipe to try late, but I trull have bookmarked this recipe. Lovely with some jasmine rice to soak up the juices.
I have chicken in the fridge right now. This sounds like a winner dish. Thanks, Dom.
Kirsten
What a wonderful meal! I can only imagine the smell of your kitchen: leek, chicken, honey… Perfect! Thanks for the recipe.
ooh i love yakitori, was just looking at the thumbnail of this in my google reader and was thinking to myself “that's unusually large chicken pieces” but I see you've given yakitori the bellau kitchen twist i.e. your trademark chicken thighs 😉
Yakitori is one of our favorite meals! I love your version – the leeks is a great idea. Nothing smells quite as good as yakitori cooking, I'm with you in the driving of ones self wild with anticipation 🙂 Looks delicious!!
Dom: This is one of our favorites! Thanks for posting the recipe. I have all but the chicken–even the “runny honey”.
Best,
Bonnie
Looks lush Dom!
Just a perfect supper for a freezing cold night.
yes please (with a side of sashimi please)
That will do for me chucky – oh yes indeed-y! I LOVE chicken thighs and also Oriental flavours too…..perfect cold weather food.
Karen
Fabulous color on those chicken thighs…must be loaded with flavor too!
That looks damn fine!
Steve has just returned from the shops with a big pack of chicken thighs for our next RR offering!
They look great – I might have to share in spreading the yakitori love – sounds delicious!
Oh this looks good…
I always favour chicken thighs above all other parts of the chicken, so its definitely one for me ;D
Perfect for your freezing weather and I agree with Neesie Natters prefer cooking with thighs, so much more flavour.
I have now looked at this post THREE times since you first posted it. Not that long ago. THREE TIMES. Because it not only uses chicken thighs (I'm TOTALLY a thigh girl) oh no, not just that, but it combines them with delicious yakitori.
This is quite an idea to put in a girl's head, you know…
I followed your recipe and made this for dinner last week. The chicken melted in our mouths and the leeks were an inspired touch. Tasty, filling and ridiculously simple. Will definitely be making this again. Thanks for sharing this recipe 🙂
@ Lynne… thank you so much for the lovely comment… it's always a heart-stopping moment when you read the words.. 'I made this dish and…' but i'm so glad it worked!
My husband cooked this for supper last night and it was truly out of this world. We ate while watching Masterchef. Normally when I do that it makes my meal feel really mediocre in comparison. But not last night! Thanks so much for posting the recipe.
i'm so proud of this simple dish!… so many people have told me they made it and it was a success… so happy, thank you for letting me know xx
Afternoon Dom, Im new to your blog. I often do a Yakitoti style dish with salmon or duck. Tonight however Ive taken your lead & am thighing it all the way.
Cnicken thighs are the future – tasty, fat AND cheap!
Looks delicious. Our oven blew so when it comes back, making this! But, what is a hot oven?
Found this recipe on Pinterest and it came highly recommended by a friend, so we tried it out tonight. It was AMAZING! It was SO SO hard to not go for seconds on this one and I can't wait to have it left over tomorrow. In fact, I think it is one of the BEST chicken recipes I've found on Pinterest or on the web. Period. I cook a lot and pull a lot of recipes from online as well. So great job and thanks! One question though, what do you set your oven to when cooking this?
wow, thank you Gillian, so lovely to have such great feedback over this dish!… my oven is a bit odd, it's new and really is quite hot so I tend to stick to anywhere between 170C and 180C and then just keep going till i've got the desired crispyness, keep turning the chick too to avoid burning bits as the soy and honey do burn! Hope this helps x