tsukune

ingredients

• 500 grams ground chicken
• 150 grams ground pork
• 1 tablespoons fresh ginger, grated
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoons soy sauce, for the mix
• 1 tablespoons sake, for the mix
• 1 teaspoons sesame oil
• 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 0.5 teaspoons salt
• 0.3 teaspoons black pepper
• 4 tablespoons soy sauce, for the glaze
• 4 tablespoons mirin
• 2 tablespoons sake, for the glaze
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoons sesame seeds

steps

1. Mix hard: Combine 500 grams ground chicken, 150 grams ground pork, 1 tablespoons fresh ginger, grated, 2 garlic cloves, minced, 1 tablespoons soy sauce, for the mix, 1 tablespoons sake, for the mix, 1 teaspoons sesame oil, 3 tablespoons all purpose flour, 0.5 teaspoons salt and 0.3 teaspoons black pepper. Mix vigorously in one direction for a full minute until the texture turns tacky and pale. Unlike the albondigas, you want this overworked, it's what makes them bouncy.
2. Chill: Cover and refrigerate 20 minutes. The mix is soft and cold makes it shapeable.
3. Shape: Wet your hands. Form into ovals about 2.5 inches long and slightly flattened, not spheres. Flat shapes glaze better and cook evenly. You should get 16 or so.
4. Reduce the glaze: Simmer 4 tablespoons soy sauce, for the glaze, 4 tablespoons mirin, 2 tablespoons sake, for the glaze and 2 tablespoons sugar in a small saucepan over medium for 5 to 6 minutes until it coats the back of a spoon. It should still pour. Off the heat.
5. Grill: Preheat the Ninja grill to medium high. Cook the meatballs 4 minutes on the first side without touching them, flip, 3 minutes more. They should read 165F and have real char marks.
6. Glaze and set: Brush glaze on both sides and give them 30 to 60 seconds more per side so it tacks up and caramelizes. Watch it, the sugar goes from glossy to burnt fast.
7. Finish: Pile them up, spoon over any remaining glaze, scatter 1 tablespoons sesame seeds. Rice and something green alongside.

notes

Chicken alone goes dry and grainy on a grill. The pork is roughly a quarter of the mix and it's doing the fat work, so don't cut it.

The glaze is a tare, which means it's four parts salt and sweet reduced until it coats. Take it too far and it turns to candy in the pan, so pull it at the syrup stage and remember it thickens more off heat.

Negi or scallion in the mix is standard and you don't have it. Onion is not a good substitute here, it wets the mix. Skip rather than sub.

Traditionally these are on skewers with a raw egg yolk to dip. Skip the yolk with the toddler at the table.

The two meatball mixes in this kitchen want opposite handling. Albondigas: barely combine, or they go rubbery. Tsukune: mix hard in one direction until tacky, because the bounce is the texture you're after.

Garlic math, since it comes up: two medium cloves minced is about 2 teaspoons, two thirds of a tablespoon. One clove is roughly 1 teaspoon minced or half a teaspoon of garlic powder; three cloves make a tablespoon. Big cloves run 1.5 teaspoons each, so weigh by feel more than by count.

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