Recipe Chicken Heart Yakatori

Mountain Cat

Mountain Cat

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yakatori-chicken-heart.jpg

In Japan, you'll find yakatori skewered with just about any edible chicken part, including the heart. Unfortunately, in the US it is usually just the breast meat.

My source recipe: NY Times: Yakatori Chicken with Ginger, Garlic and Soy Sauce In which the intrepid Times correspondent suggests chicken liver, gizzards or pieces of chicken thigh! If you look at the recipe from the Times, I inadvertently mixed up their suggestion for sherry quantities for the mirin quantities. It turned out fine, anyway. Running back and forth from the laptop screen plays a toll! (And no, I’m so not squinting at a minuscule phone screen whilst cooking!)

yakatori-sauce.jpg

Prep Time: Around 2 hours marinating
Cook Time: 15-18 minutes
Rest Time: 5 minutes, especially if using metal skewers
Serves: 1-2 people, or maybe you want to introduce others to the wonders of chicken hearts? More as tasting appetizers.

Chicken Heart Yakatori
  • 0.6 – 1 pound chicken hearts (OR, the suggested livers, gizzards or boneless skinless thigh meat, sliced small and de-fatted). I actually purchased the lower amount suggested, but made the full volume sauce as delineated below.
  • ½ cup low sodium gluten-free tamari, or, ½ cup dark soy sauce — which I haven’t been able to find gluten-free or low sodium, to date. Adapt as you need!
  • 2 tablespoons mirin (Chinese cooking wine)
  • ¼ cup dry sherry (or generic sake)
  • 1 tablespoon organic coconut cane sugar
  • 2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
  • ½ teaspoon grated fresh ginger
  • Optionally, Scallions, thinly sliced, for garnish
  • Serve on a bed of lettuce —
  • or better yet, leaves of long Napa cabbage.
In a small pot, combine soy sauce or tamari, mirin, sherry (sake), sugar, garlic and ginger. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5-8 minutes, until this sauce thickens. Put aside around 2 tablespoons of this sauce for serving, uncontaminated by raw chicken. Pour remaining sauce over chicken (hearts or otherwise), cover, and chill for at least one hour (and up to 4 hours). I marinated this for two hours.

If you use wooden skewers, soak them in water for around one hour. I decided to go hog-wild (er, chicken-wild) and use the metal skewers from my parents’ legacy. Thread the hearts onto the skewers.

Make sure your grill is ready, whether an indoor one or an outdoor one — OR, set your oven to broil. If the latter, you’ll do best to arrange to hang the skewers you are cooking on so they drip into a bottom pan. In this case, I used the George Foreman electric grill, pre-heated. I allowed the hearts to cook about 7-8 minutes a side, before turning them. (I understand thigh meat takes about 6 minutes a side, and gizzards about ten?)

In the last minute or so, slather on that reserved sauce! (You can also use some as a dipping sauce after the hearts (or whatever chicken part) is served.)

NOTE: Please use finger-caution when removing food from metal skewers. Burns are no fun.
 
FowlersFreeTime said:
Nice! I remember they had gizzards and even chicken skin on skewers when I was experiencing street food in the land of the rising sun. I love Japan!
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I lived in Okinawa for 3 years when I was a kid during the tail end of the Vietnam War.

Mountain Cat, the flavors look great, I might try that with "regular" chicken meat.

Oh yeah, and I do like skin. That's an organ, most people don't think of it like that but it is. The heart is both a muscle and an organ. I just don't care for the texture. And FORGET about liver!!!!! :banghead:
 
JAS_OH1 said:
I lived in Okinawa for 3 years when I was a kid during the tail end of the Vietnam War.

Mountain Cat, the flavors look great, I might try that with "regular" chicken meat.

Oh yeah, and I do like skin. That's an organ, most people don't think of it like that but it is. The heart is both a muscle and an organ. I just don't care for the texture. And FORGET about liver!!!!! :banghead:
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If you're talking "regular meat" then Thigh meat should work well with Mountain Cat 's recipe 😎
 
JAS_OH1 said:
I lived in Okinawa for 3 years when I was a kid during the tail end of the Vietnam War.

Mountain Cat, the flavors look great, I might try that with "regular" chicken meat.

Oh yeah, and I do like skin. That's an organ, most people don't think of it like that but it is. The heart is both a muscle and an organ. I just don't care for the texture. And FORGET about liver!!!!! :banghead:
Click to expand...

Not particularly fond of liver, myself.

Do feel free to try this with chunks of chicken thigh or what you choose. Let me know if you enjoy!

I love good crispy chicken skin!
 
Yes! I do this frequently. The other night I made chicken tostados topped with crispy chicken skin. It was heavenly!
 
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