A chicken dish from Japan prepared by skewering the meat with kushi and then grilled over a charcoal fire. The meat is typically seasoned with tare sauce or salt during or after cooking leading to a juicy, flavorful treat.
Restaurants also use stationary grills to prepare yakitori while home cooks may use small electrical appliances with heating elements similar to broilers to cook the food on top. Traditionally, charcoal is used and remains the preferred method of cooking because it produces high heat without much or any water vapor. Small cuts of meat in uniform shapes facilitate quick, even cooking with a crunchy texture. Seasonings fall into two primary types: salty or salty-sweet. While salty versions typically use plain salt, the salty-sweet variety uses a long-simmering sauce called tare, which is a thick sweetened soy sauce that incorporates other spices like black pepper, cayenne pepper, shichimi, and wasabi. With a wide variety of cuts and preparation methods, yakitori takes on many forms.
Yakitori is served in a variety of restaurants and is commonly consumed as an appetizer, but it is also a very popular street food due to its easy preparation and portability and is sold from small carts called yatai. Yakitori is often enjoyed with beer and sake.
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