The definitive yakitori cut: chicken thigh alternated with segments of Japanese long onion (negi), grilled over binchotan charcoal and finished either with tare glaze or just salt (shio). The onion steams sweet inside while the thigh crisps, making it the benchmark by which yakitori shops are judged.
Also known as: negima, negima yakitori, chicken and scallion skewers, negima skewer, yakitori negima
Watch it made
Ingredients
- 600 g boneless chicken thigh
- 3 negi (Japanese long onions) or the fattest spring onions you can find, white and pale-green parts
- Coarse sea salt (shio style)
- Half a lemon
- Shichimi togarashi
- 12 bamboo skewers, soaked
- Charcoal, ideally binchotan
How to make it
- 1
Cut the thigh into 2.5 cm pieces and the negi into 2 cm logs.
- 2
Thread meat and negi alternately, piercing the onion crosswise through its layers so it cannot telescope apart.
- 3
Salt evenly from 30 cm above the skewers; height gives an even fall.
- 4
Grill over hot coals, turning every 40 seconds or so, 8-10 minutes, until the chicken is burnished and the negi edges blacken sweetly.
- 5
Serve with a small squeeze of lemon and shichimi on the side.
Pro tip: Skewer the negi across its rings, not down the core: pierced crosswise it grips the stick and steams sweet inside its own layers, while a core-threaded piece spins loose and falls into the fire at the first turn.
