Japanese Tsukune (Chicken Meatballs) Recipe
Tsukune is a Japanese chicken meatball often cooked on a skewer and grilled. In this recipe, I show how to cook tsukune at home on a stove top. I highly recommend trying tsukune because they are absolutely delicious! I created three types of tsukune, plain, one with edamame, and one with corn. Please try all three and let me know which one is your favorite!
Ingredients
Meatball Ingredients
- 1 onion
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 200 grams ground chicken (~1/2 pound)
- 0.25 tsp salt
- 40 grams edamame (1/4 cup)
- 30 grams corn (~1/8 cup)
Tsukune (Japanese Chicken Meatball) Sauce
- 1 tsp grated garlic (I used garlic and ginger from squeeze tube)
- 1 tsp grated ginger
- 1 tbsp cooking alcohol
- 1 tbsp mirin
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp sesame oil
Bringing it together
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
Instructions
Making the meatball (tsukune)
- Peel and dice an onion
- Add 2 tbsp of corn starch and the diced onion into a small mixing bowl
- Add the chicken into a larger mixing bowl with 0.25 tsp of salt and mix together
- Add the diced onions and corn starch into the larger mixing bowl with the ground chicken
- Mix well and divide into three separate piles within the mixing bowl
- Make meatball patties from one of the piles
- Add the edamame to one of the two remaining piles and form into meatball patties
- Finally, add the corn to the final pile and form into meatball patties
Making the Tsukune (Chicken Meatball) Sauce
- Add the grated garlic, grated ginger, cooking alcohol, mirin, soy sauce, sugar and sesame oil into a small mixing bowl and mix well
Cooking the Chicken Meatballs
- Add 1/4 tbsp of vegetable oil into a frying pan
- Add all the chicken meatballs into the frying pan and fry on medium heat until the bottom is browned
- Flip the meatballs and fry on the other side until browned
- Add the tsukune sauce into the frying pan and flip the meatballs to season both sides
- Reduce the sauce until the water content is low
- Plate, serve, and enjoy!