Japanese grilled chicken skewers, typically seasoned with tare (a sweet soy-based sauce) or salt, cooked over charcoal and served as a popular street food or bar snack.
From Japanese 'yakitori,' literally meaning 'grilled bird,' from 'yaki' (grilled/roasted) and 'tori' (bird/chicken). The term emerged in the Meiji period when chicken became more widely available to common people.
Traditional yakitori uses every part of the chicken, from thigh meat to heart, liver, and even the cartilage—it was originally a way to use scraps economically! The charcoal grilling technique, called 'binchōtan,' burns at extremely high temperatures without smoke, giving yakitori its distinctive clean, smoky flavor that can't be replicated on gas grills.
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