Yakitori Negima
from http://www.food.com/

Yakitori are grilled chicken skewers popular in Japan. Yakitori restaurants serve all kinds of chickens skewers. Chicken thigh meat with green onion, chicken liver, hearts, gizzards, and chicken skin can be prepared this way.

It tastes best cooked over charcoal. In yakitori restaurants, yakitori is cooked over a special fixed cooking grate, sized for the skewer, and there is no wire grid so Yakitori will not stick to the grate and is easy to baste and turn.

This is one of the most popular yakitori dishes called "negima", chicken thigh and scallion skewer. It is translated from Shinkatei Hyakkajiten Vol. 1, Kodan-sha, 1967, with adaptations. The garlic is from a suggestion from a person selling this by the side of the street. Use a roomy saucepan for the sauce, as it has a tendency to boil over. Watch both sauce preparation and meat grilling carefully.

Mirin is a sweet Japanese sake (rice wine). Ordinary sake or sherry may be substituted for the mirin, with a little additional sugar.

1 1⁄2 cups mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine) - can substitute sherry
3⁄4 cup soy sauce
4 tablespoons sugar
1 garlic clove, pressed (optional)
1 lb boneless chicken thighs
1 -2 green onion, in inch-long pieces (optional)
8 bamboo skewers

Put mirin, soy sauce, sugar and garlic, if using, into a medium-sized sauce pan, and cook over medium heat until there is only half as much sauce remaining. Let cool slightly while you are preparing the chicken.

Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces; keeping the skin on is usual in Japan. Thread chicken onto skewers, alternating with green onion.

Begin grilling the chicken skewers on both sides without the sauce, when the meat starts changing color, brush the sauce on both sides, and continue grilling, brushing on sauce about 3 times total, and turning until done. Heat extra sauce to serve with the yakitori.

Yield: 8 skewers