Name: Japanese Chicken Meatballs
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 15 min
Ingredients: 14 ounces ground chicken, (dark meat/thigh preferred); ½ yellow onion, (finely chopped (½ cup)); One 1-inch piece ginger, (peeled and finely grated); ½ cup panko; 1 ½ teaspoons potato starch or cornstarch; 1 large egg white; 1 teaspoon kosher salt; ¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce (or 2 tablespoons regular soy sauce); 2 tablespoons sake; 2 tablespoons mirin; 2 teaspoons sugar; 2 tablespoons vegetable oil; 1 raw egg yolk (of a quality and freshness you feel comfortable eating raw), ( per person); Japanese Shichimi togarashi or Korean gochugaru

You don't have to go to a yakitori restaurant for these gingery Japanese chicken meatballs. They're called tsukune and are usually presented as perfect orbs on skewers. I thought they were hard to make. Cue the new Gaijin Cookbook by chef/restaurateur/ramen expert Ivan Orkin and Chris Ying. Their book is an easygoing guide to making Japanese food at home.

They write honestly and with a wry sense of humor. For example, Japanese chicken meatballs aren't a home cooking thing since people don't grill at home! They set up little grills in a park in summer but even that's not a ritual, Orkin and Ying say. That's why their cookbook's meatball recipe is done indoors, in a skillet. With regular ingredients (no Asian market needed, unless you want to get fancy ingredients or garnishes). And you can eat them as is, or with rice, while wearing your pajamas. Have as many as you want, too.

I've made this recipe three times now and it's unbelievably simple. Below are a few things I learned along the way about this recipe.

How to source ground chicken

There's plenty of ground turkey around but ground chicken can be hard to find. For these Japanese chicken meatballs, I like freshly ground chicken thigh (dark meat) and my chief sources are Japanese grocery stores and independent health food markets.

Whole Foods sometimes has it but most often, they'll point you to the refrigerated case where the meat has been packaged on trays. Trader Joe's has ground chicken too but it's a bit mushy. Packaged ground chicken is not bad but why not try for the fresh stuff like a yakitori restaurant would use?

If I have time, I'll grind the chicken up myself, using all boneless thigh or mixing it with breast, usually in a 2:1 ratio of dark to white meat. How to grind chicken at home? I cut the boneless skinless meat into pieces that are about ½-inch big, or a tad smaller. Then I refrigerate the chicken until the pieces are firm, say one hour or longer if I've prepped the meat way in advance. In a pinch, I freeze the meat for about 20 minutes.

Then in 6 to 8 ounce batches, I pulse the chicken in a regular size food processor for 20 pulses -- pausing midway to scrape down the sides. I aim for a somewhat coarse texture like the photo on the right below.

If you don't have chicken, by all means, use ground turkey thigh. There's a fair amount of ginger the meatball mixture to counter an overly turkey taste. Use a chubby knob of 1-inch ginger. I'm lazy so I grate the ginger with a microplane right into the bowl with the other ingredients.

Low-Sodium vs. Regular Soy Sauce

These Japanese chicken meatballs can be on the salty side (tsukune are great with drinks) but I often eat them with rice and other dishes so I cut back on the regular soy sauce. The original amount in the recipe is ¼ cup of regular, full-sodium soy sauce. If you like low-sodium soy sauce, use the full ¼ cup. I halved the regular soy sauce quantity. Kikkoman sold at the supermarket works here; I just happen to have the shoyu made in Japan. (More on soy sauce in this mega round-up post.)

The mirin above is a California made by Takara that's very good and without corn syrup. I buy it at Asian markets. You can use mirin from the supermarket and the recipe will be fine. Have some sake while you've got the bottle open!

Roll and Shake the Meatballs

When shaping the meatballs, I found the mixture to be relatively coarse with the panko I was using. For that reason, I wet my hands and re-rolled each one to smooth out the surface so they'd be a bit more handsome.

And while cooking the meatballs, you may gently turn each one with chopsticks or just shake and the pan with a slight tossing motion. You may also do a bit of both!

The chicken meatballs at Japanese yakitori joints are often perfect round orbs. I suspect they steam them in advance or something like that, before grilling and finishing with sauce. This skillet method from the Gaijin Cookbook yields slightly lopsided meatballs, but they taste fabulous and you make them yourself!

I've also tried the teriyaki 2.0 recipe from the book, and the sauce is a wonder to keep in the fridge.

Print Recipe