Allergy-friendly Chicken Meatball Tsukune

This is one of those meals where you THINK something is going wrong as you make it, but then everything turns out fine in the end. The chicken mixture is quite soft and quite sticky in its raw state, and this presents some challenges in terms of forming the skewers. While this is true of a lot of chicken meatballs, it's further complicated here by the lack of breadcrumbs. Here are my tips for getting this to work without any trouble (with the biggest, most life-hackish tip shown in bold):

1. Oil your hands. The chicken will stick to you less if you rub your bare hands with a little vegetable oil.
2. If you can find flat Japanese-style skewers, use them.  There's more surface area for the chicken to stick too, and it will keep the skewer from rotating inside of it when you go to flip them.
3. Line up all of your finished skewers on a baking tray (NOT a cutting board - it has to be heat-proof). When you're ready to cook, quickly turn the tray over onto the grill and give it a few taps to get the skewers to release. This not only gets everything cooking at the same time, it avoids the major hassle of trying to move the skewers without having them fall apart. HOWEVER - if you're going to do this, make sure you plan out the orientation of your skewers before they go on the grill. You want them to land perpendicular to the bars on your grill, not parallel. Plan accordingly, and make sure to have some tongs and oven/bbq mitts handy so you can work over a hot grill safely.
4. Don't touch or try to flip the skewers until after they've cooked for at least 3-4 minutes on one side.  You want them to be holding together before they get flipped.
5. Use barbecue tongs AND a spatula to flip the skewers the first time to decrease the chances that they'll fall apart on you.

If you don't want to try tip number 3 (and don't say I didn't warn you), try to transfer the skewers to the grill carefully with a spatula and perhaps some sort of arcane incantation.

This is my go-to simple tare sauce, and I use it often. It's easy to make and ingredients are easy to come by. I used tamari here because I like the taste and to emphasize the wheat-free nature of the recipe, but you can substitute a good all-purpose (and preferably Japanese) soy sauce instead.

The recipe makes at least three times as much as you need, so feel free to cut it down. I personally prefer to make more and use it on multiple dishes. To make this go as smoothly as possible, either start it immediately before you begin the chicken or make it ahead of time. For more detail on making the tare, including tips and variations, check out the recipe notes on my bacon-wrapped shimeji mushroom kushiyaki page. Actually, just make that one too. Seriously, it's incredible.

I strongly recommend that you use ground chicken thighs rather than breasts here, as they're more flavourful and they won't dry out easily. If you can only find chicken breast meat, add a little oil to the mixture to make up for the lost fat.

As I mentioned above, aquafaba is simply the liquid that comes out of a can of chickpeas (technically any number of legumes could work, but chickpeas are the gold standard so far). You don't buy it separately - just buy a can of chickpeas and drain all of the liquid out of it. That's aquafaba. Save the chickpeas themselves for another recipe.

As for the miso, I like using aka (red) miso here, but you could get away with all sorts of different varieties.  Awase (mixed red and white) miso would work great, and I would hazard a guess that mugi and genmai miso would both lend an earthy and distinctive flavour too.  A good white miso would also be great, but I'd personally recommend sticking with a less-sweet variety.  I think hatcho miso might be a little too strong, but perhaps if you used a little less of it.  If you try it, let me know!  And if you're new to using miso, don't be intimidated - it's easy, delicious, and I have a craaaaazy-detailed guide to it on the site.  There are a lot of so-so miso guides out there that rehash the same half-truths and bad translations.  This is not one of those.

The rest of the ingredients are pretty straightforward, especially if you have experience with Japanese cooking. If you're fairly new to it or you're looking for a detailed primer, be sure to check out the Pantry Pages on Mirin, Tamari, and Rice Vinegar. I particularly recommend reading up on mirin, as there's a BIG difference between the good stuff and the cheap/corn-syrupy stuff. If you're unfamiliar with Shichimi Togarashi, I've got you covered there too (and you're about to have your world rocked, because that stuff is awesome).

As a final note, make sure to familiarize yourself with the ingredients you buy if you're trying to keep things wheat/gluten-free.  Contrary to common belief, some tamari does contain wheat, as do some (but not most) miso pastes.

If you've stumbled upon this recipe without the need for (or interest in) an allergy-friendly aquafaba version, a few simple tweaks turn it into a more conventional (and still very delicious) chicken tsukune recipe.

If you want to use both egg and panko, eliminate the aquafaba and add EITHER one whole egg (large) or two egg whites, plus about 1/4 cup of panko (or dry, flaky breadcrumbs). If you want to use bread but not eggs, use 1/4 cup of panko/breadcrumbs and reduce the aquafaba by about 1 tbsp.

That delicious, incredible, oh-so good corn is another barbecued delight with a distinct Japanese twist (and another amazing wonder-ingredient). Chicken tsukune and Japanese grilled meats are delicious, but they really call for some vegetables and other sides. So check it out, grill it up, and serve it alongside the meat.

If you do make extra tare sauce, you can use it with the bacon-wrapped mushrooms I mentioned before. You can also use it on basically any chicken that you want to grill, and you could adapt it for use (in place of ponzu) with a Japanese-style Hamburger.