Tsukune (Japanese Chicken Meatballs)

Step 1

Add all the Sauce ingredients to a pot and bring it to the boil. Turn down the heat to medium or medium low and simmer for about 4-5 minutes to reduce the quantity by about a third (note 2).

Step 2

Add chicken mince, chicken fat and salt in a bowl and mix well until the chicken mince becomes sticky.

Step 3

Add the remaining ingredients, except 1 tablespoon of sake, to the bowl and mix well.

Step 4

Add the remaining sake to the bowl gradually while mixing. The mixture is quite soft but do not add all of the sake specified if the mixture is too soft to grab by hand and form a ball.

Step 5

Boil water in a pot. Coat a cutlery spoon with oil (not in ingredients).

Step 6

Grab chicken mince with the left hand (I am a right hander) and squeeze out mince through the thumb and the index finger. The mince will come out forming a round shape (note 3).

Step 7

Take the meatball with the spoon and drop it into the pot. Repeat this for the rest of the mince (see the step-by-step photo in post).

Step 8

Boil meatballs for 5-7 minutes until cooked through (note 4). Take the meatballs out and put aside. Cook them in batches so that the surface of the boiling water is filled with no more than one layer of the meatballs.

Step 9

Heat griller, griddle or BBQ (note 6). Oil the rack/grill where you place the meatballs.

Step 10

Thread 3 Tsukune onto flat skewers (note 7).

Step 11

Baste tsukune with the sauce using a brush and cook under the griller or on the griddle/BBQ for 1-2 minutes until the meatballs are slightly burnt.

Step 12

Turn over the skewers and cook further 1-2 minutes. Then baste with the sauce, cook 30 seconds on both sides.

Step 13

Serve immediately.