Japanese Happy Mouth Yakitori Sauce

Name: Japanese Happy Mouth Yakitori Sauce
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 8
Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients: ¼ cup Granulated Sugar (¼ cup sugar); ¼ cup Ginger (¼ cup fresh grated ginger (plus all the liquid that comes out when you are grating)); 5 cloves Garlic (5 cloves garlic (crushed)); ½ cup Soy Sauce (½ cup soy sauce (preferably low sodium)); ½ cup Sake (½ cup sake (or dry white wine)); ½ cup Orange Juice (½ cup orange juice); 3 tbsp Honey (3 tablespoons honey); 2 tbsp Sesame Oil (2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil); 1 tbsp Hot Sauce (1 tablespoon your favorite hot pepper sauce (more or less to taste)); 1 ½ tsp Cornstarch (1 ½ teaspoons corn starch)

Japanese Happy Mouth Yakitori Sauce - Sauces And Condiments (Japanese)

50 minJapanese

Servings8

Add to grocery list

Plan it in the app to put it on your week.

Dairy Free
Pescatarian
Egg Free

Steps

1Cook. In a 2 quart non-reactive saucepan, mix all the ingredients except the corn starch and gently simmer on medium-low for about 30 minutes.
2Strain. Strain the sauce through a fine-mesh strainer into another sauce pan. The chunky stuff has given its all for us and it is now time to discard it like old love letters. Gently press the mush that is left in the strainer against the mesh with a ladle or a spoon to get out all those good juices. Taste the sauce and adjust the honey or hot sauce if you wish. Put it back on a burner on medium-low.
3Thicken. Put the cornstarch into a coffee cup and add an ounce or two of cold water per 1 1/2 teaspoons. With a fork, whisk it so it is thoroughly dissolved and, before it has a chance to separate, dump it into the sauce. The sauce will get milky, thicken considerably, and when it warms up start burbling like lava. Simmer about 10 to 15 minutes or until it gets like motor oil and clarifies a bit.
4How to use: To replicate the yakitori-ya experience, don’t put meat and veggies on the same skewer because they cook at different rates. Keep everything on the skewer the same and similar in size. To make sure they all turn together and don't spin, use two skewers rather than one.Cook the meat or veggies over direct heat, but not extremely hot. One layer of charcoal or medium heat on a gas grill should do it. Leave the lid open and turn the meat often. When the meat is almost done, paint the sauce on. No more than 2 coats are needed. Watch carefully so that the sugar doesn't burn.If you don't want to do skewers, you can do chicken or turkey parts, salmon filets or steaks, pork chops, or even ribs.