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Japanese Tsukune Recipe

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!
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Total Time 40 minutes
Course: Appetizer, Main Course, Side Dish
Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients Method Video

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

Method
 

Making the meatball (tsukune)
  1. Peel and dice an onion
  2. Add 2 tbsp of corn starch and the diced onion into a small mixing bowl
  3. Add the chicken into a larger mixing bowl with 0.25 tsp of salt and mix together
  4. Add the diced onions and corn starch into the larger mixing bowl with the ground chicken
    Diced onions and ground chicken
  5. Mix well and divide into three separate piles within the mixing bowl
  6. Make meatball patties from one of the piles
  7. Add the edamame to one of the two remaining piles and form into meatball patties
  8. Finally, add the corn to the final pile and form into meatball patties
    Corn patties
Making the Tsukune (Chicken Meatball) Sauce
  1. 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
  1. Add 1/4 tbsp of vegetable oil into a frying pan
  2. Add all the chicken meatballs into the frying pan and fry on medium heat until the bottom is browned
  3. Flip the meatballs and fry on the other side until browned
  4. Add the tsukune sauce into the frying pan and flip the meatballs to season both sides
  5. Reduce the sauce until the water content is low
  6. Plate, serve, and enjoy!

Video