Breadcrumbs

Yakitori ChickenĀ Meatballs

November 16, 2012
4
4 Ratings
  • Serves 4
Author Notes

In NY we have a lot of yakitori restaurants, where you can get anything you want on a skewer. My go-to favorite is always the chicken meatballs. I love the combination or flavors along with the sticky sweet sauce, and so I had to create my own version that I serve with sesame noodles. —Meatballs&Milkshakes

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Ingredients
  • Chicken Meatballs
  • 1 pound ground chicken
  • 1 scallion, minced
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon plus 2 tablespoons Mirin
  • 1 teaspoon plus 3 tablespoons Teriyaki sauce
  • 1 1/2 cups breadcrumbs from day-old bread, not too finely ground
  • 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
  • 1 teaspoon fish sauce
  • 2 tablespoons sesame oil
  • Sesame Noodles
  • 1 package soba or whole wheat spaghetti
  • 1 shallot, minced
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 scallion, minced with extra for garnish
  • 1/4 cup peanut butter
  • 4 tablespoons sesame oil
  • 1 teaspoon fish sauce
  • 1 tablespoon Mirin
  • 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon Teriyaki sauce
  • 1/4 cup sake
  • 1/2 lemon, juiced
  • 1 teaspoon sesame seeds for garnish
Directions
  1. Chicken Meatballs
  2. Combine the chicken, egg, breadcrumbs, scallion, garlic, half the ginger, and teaspoons of mirin and teriyaki sauce in a large bowl. Roll into tablespoon-sized balls and saute in the sesame oil until they brown on all sides. Remove to a baking dish.
  3. Add the remaining ginger, mirin, teriyaki, vinegar, and fish sauce to the pan and cook together 1 minute to deglaze the pan. Pour over the meatballs and bake in the oven at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes or until the meatballs are cooked through.
  4. You can serve them on skewers or on top of Sesame Noodles, below.
  1. Sesame Noodles
  2. Cook the soba or pasta according to package instructions in salted water.
  3. Meanwhile, saute the shallot, garlic, and scallion in half the sesame oil until softened. Add the peanut butter, fish sauce, mirin, vinegar, Teriyaki sauce, and sake. Stir to combine and let cook with about 1/2 cup of pasta water for 5 minutes.
  4. Off the heat, add the pasta along with the rest of the sesame oil and the lemon juice. Serve warm or at room temperature, garnished with sesame seeds and scallions.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

I'm an ex-finance, nonprofit fundraiser by day and a (mostly) Italian cook and blogger by night. I love having friends over for dinner and my favorite evenings are when we spend them at home together cooking dinner and chatting. I'm an avid cooking show fan, and my favorite eating cities are New York, San Francisco, Paris, and Rome.

17 Reviews

plainhomecook October 9, 2017
I love this recipe. I usually have all the ingredients in my pantry and it's quick enough to make for a weeknight dinner if I do my prep and organize my ingredients. Because I'm a geek I rewrote the recipe in a format that helps me make it quickly. If it will encourage you to make this wonderful dish too, you can see my version here - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxXJL6avU43_VzZaZ2NaX0tIQTQ/view?usp=sharing.
Evilyn G. December 4, 2013
hi I'm a new yorker but shamed to say I don't know what mirin is or where to get it. everything else is no problem. can I make a mirin free version?" I live in New Haven no, so some things are harder to find.
Meatballs&Milkshakes December 4, 2013
Mirin is a rice wine similar but lower in alcohol to sake and its primarily used as a sweetener in Japanese food. It's pretty widely available, you should be able to find it in your supermarket near the soy sauce. If not, I would substitute something slightly sweet, maybe half the amount of agave or honey.
Marisa R. April 23, 2013
They were good...a little too salty...but I cook very low sodium...kids loved chicken balls
Marisa R. April 23, 2013
ah thank so much! didn't read it properly. Glad you got back to me so quickly this is dinner...will let you know how they turned out!
Meatballs&Milkshakes April 23, 2013
no problem!! hope you like them!
Marisa R. April 23, 2013
You don't mention which measurements of teriyaki & mirin go into the chicken? is it the tsp or tbsp measurement?
Meatballs&Milkshakes April 23, 2013
Hi, it actually says the teaspoons of teriyaki and mirin go into the chicken in step 1. Hope you enjoy it! "Combine the chicken, egg, breadcrumbs, scallion, garlic, half the ginger, and teaspoons of mirin and teriyaki sauce in a large bowl. "
fiveandspice April 18, 2013
Saved! This looks like an awesome weeknight supper.
Marisa R. April 17, 2013
I must try this never thought of turning ground chicken into Asian meatballs other than Italian meatballs
ktchnninja April 16, 2013
this looks really good! will be making this for dinner sometime this week.
Meatballs&Milkshakes April 16, 2013
hope you like it!
vvvanessa November 17, 2012
I will be making these for sure!
Meatballs&Milkshakes November 17, 2012
hope you like them!
vvvanessa November 27, 2012
I just made the meatballs, and they were great! I cheated and used panko because I had it on hand, and I actually skewered them and cooked them on a grill pan. Next time I'll make the noodles, too. Thanks for the recipe!
healthierkitchen November 16, 2012
Yum! Sounds delicious!
Meatballs&Milkshakes November 16, 2012
thanks!