This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy for details. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
One of my husband’s favorite Japanese meals that he always requests to eat when we are in Japan is Yakitori. Yakitori means “grill (yaki) chicken (tori)” in Japanese and Yakitori restaurants typically serves their delicacies on a wooden skewers.
With “chicken” in the name, you guessed right, the main ingredients are mostly from chickens. Typical chicken parts served on skewer include thighs, meatball, skin, hearts, wings, cartilage, and gizzards. Based on your preference and chicken parts, you pick seasonings – either shio (salt) or tare (yakitori sauce) – for each skewer. Other popular skewers besides chicken parts are bacon asparagus, shiitake mushrooms, fried tofu, bacon quail egg, and pork cheek meat.
When a Japanese Yakitori restaurant Kokko opened close to our home a few years ago, my husband requested to go on nearly every special occasion. One of our family’s favorite items on the menu is their Nagoya style chicken wings. These are sooooo good! One order is not really enough for our family.
These chicken wings are deep fried to perfection and then coated with sweet soy sauce. This style of deep fried chicken (we call it Karaage) with the sweet sauce is referred to as Nagoya style because they were originated from there (Nagoya is located in central part of Japan). Every time when these chicken wings are served, our family would need to divide the pieces into equal shares so our children wouldn’t fight over who had more or less pieces. Since my family loves this dish so much, I knew I had to come up with something similar, and finally I was able to come close to duplicating the flavor.
I hope you enjoy these finger-licking chicken wings. Have a great weekend!
Similar Recipes:
Don’t want to miss a recipe? Sign up for the FREE Just One Cookbook newsletter delivered to your inbox! And stay in touch on Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, and Instagram for all the latest updates. Thank you so much for reading, and till next time!
Yakitori means "grill (yaki) chicken (tori)" in Japanese and Yakitori restaurants typically serves their delicacies on a wooden skewers.
- 2 lb chicken wings (flats/drumettes) (we only used 5 wings/1 lb today)
- potato starch/cornstarch
- neutral-flavored oil (vegetable, canola, etc) (for deep frying)
- toasted white sesame seeds
- In a small saucepan, heat all the ingredients for Sauce to a boil. Then reduce the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the sauce thickens and reduced (the sauce will get thicker as the temperature cools down)
- Meanwhile, cut the wings at the joint. Rinse in cold water and pat dry with paper towel.
- Dredge the chicken wings in potato starch and remove the excess.
- Deep fry the wings at 320F (160C) until 80% cooked, about 10 minutes. Drain oil on wire rack or paper towel for 3-5 minutes.
- For the 2nd time, deep fry at 350F (180C) until the wings are crispy, about 5 minutes. The wings should be golden brown.
- Using a tong, coat the chicken wings in the sauce or serve the wings on a plate and pour the sauce over. Sprinkle white sesame seeds and serve immediately.
Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe in your own words and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.
I made these before and the family looooooooved them. Making them today.
Hi Michelle! I hope you enjoyed these wings! Thank you for writing! 🙂
Recently discovered this recipe site. Last night I tried this recipe for my family. Everyone loved it! Especially my picky 3 yr old! I chose to use potato starch, it came out really delicious. I think the double frying is a must… it really makes the outside crunchy… without so much oil taste since you are draining it after the initial fry. love it, can’t wait to try more of your recipes. thank you so much for sharing.
Hi Shawna! Thank you for trying this recipe and I am so happy you and your family liked it! Thank you so much for hour feedback! I love potato starch for deep frying! Hope you find some recipes you like to try from my site! 🙂
Tried making these today… It was a hit with both adults and children! Thanks so much for sharing this recipe Nami!
Hi Alana! So happy everyone liked this recipe! Thank you for trying this recipe, Alana! 🙂
Nami, thank you so much for this recipe! First, I was drawn in by the mouthwatering photo and then when I tried the recipe last night it was a huge hit! The wings were crispy and the sauce with a hint of ginger (I put extra) and garlic was amazing! My son put his chicken over a bowl of rice and drizzled some of the sauce over it – he must have eaten about 9 wings! I love your recipes!
Hi Eileen! I’m so happy to hear you and your family enjoyed this dish. Thank you so much for writing the kind review/feedback! Thank you for trying this recipe, and following my blog! 🙂
yall food is really goog
Thank you! 🙂
I tried this the other day: it was delicious, as expected!
But that’s not all! We had a lot of sauce left over, and may I share that it’s the Best. Marinade. Ever. I used it on grilled beef chuck for Valentine’s Day and on chicken and rice bake just yesterday. A little goes a long way, and it’s amazing! Thanks so much for sharing the recipe.
Hi Wendy! I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for trying this recipe! Yeah the sauce is pretty addicting. I love having extra sauce around and dip my chicken… 🙂 Thanks so much for your kind feedback!
Made them many times over and soooo sooo good!
Hi Azusa! Yay! So happy to hear you like the recipe! Thank you for your kind response!
Hi, may I know if the fried chicken wings will stay crispy for long? Planning to bring this dish (2kg) to a beach party. Thanks and appreciate your response.
Hi Teo! Just like any other deep fried food, there will not be as crispy as right after you deep fried. It’s just impossible with the humid in the air and how you keep the deep fried foods after you cook. So it really depends… As you go to the beach, with moist in the air, I think it’s probably harder to keep it crispy. But that’s the nature of deep fried food on picnic or beach etc… If you can reheat it over fire, you can remove the moist and make it crispy again at the beach, but… I’d say it’s best to eat right after deep frying, especially you seem like you want to keep it crispy. 😉
So delicious! I think next time I’d skip the salt though. I think the reduced soy sauce is salty enough and that adding the salt before reducing makes it too salty. It’s definitely a matter of preference so if you don’t like super salty food, remember to salt late, not early. Even so, I think I don’t regret it at all, it’s the best chicken wing I’ve ever made in my life — and I make really good, crispy chicken wing in both American and Japanese style.
I ground the sesame seeds to let more of their flavor out and it was worth the tired arm muscles.
I think that this recipe could work well with very firm tofu pieces also, or seitan if you like that (I don’t).
Hi M! Thank you so much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback. I’m glad you liked the recipe. 🙂