Japanese BBQ at Home: 7 Dishes Beyond Yakitori You Need to Try

Most people who get into hibachi grilling start with yakitori. Chicken thigh on a bamboo skewer, tare glaze, done. It's an incredible introduction — but it's also just the beginning.

Japanese charcoal BBQ culture — both yakitori (skewered chicken) and yakiniku (Japanese BBQ, typically short-cut beef and offal) — is built on a philosophy of simplicity: the best possible ingredients, minimal seasoning, cooked quickly over live charcoal. If you've got a hibachi grill and a decent butcher nearby, there are seven dishes here you should be cooking.

This isn't a restaurant recreation guide. These are things that are genuinely easy to execute at home, with accessible ingredients from an Aussie supermarket or Asian grocer.

What You Need Before You Start

All of these dishes benefit from:

Binchotan charcoal (if you can find it): Japanese white charcoal — burns longer, burns cleaner, and produces almost no smoke. It's the professional standard for yakitori restaurants. Bunnings won't stock it, but Japanese and Korean grocers in most capital cities carry it. The trade-off: it takes longer to light (15–20 min in a chimney) and costs more. For special occasions, worth it. For everyday hibachi cooking, quality Australian lump hardwood charcoal is absolutely fine.

Bamboo skewers (soaked 30 min before use): The standard for yakitori and most Japanese BBQ. Soak in cold water so they don't char before the food is cooked.

A long, narrow hibachi: Japanese BBQ is optimised for skewer cooking — food resting on the grill walls over a trough of coals. The WillBBQ 100cm × 18cm hibachi was built exactly for this. Long and narrow means the skewers can rest on the grill rails, suspended over the coals, rather than just lying flat on the grates.

Basic Japanese pantry items: Soy sauce (use Japanese Kikkoman or similar, not dark Chinese soy), mirin, sake, sugar. These four things are the foundation of almost every Japanese BBQ marinade and sauce. Asian grocers have all of them for a few dollars each.

7 Japanese BBQ Dishes to Cook at Home

1. Negima (Chicken and Spring Onion Skewers)

Probably the most-ordered yakitori variety after plain thigh, and honestly one of the better ones. Alternating pieces of chicken thigh and folded spring onion on a skewer — the onion chars and sweetens at the edges, and the fat from the thigh bastes everything as it cooks.

Prep: Cut chicken thigh into 3–4cm pieces. Cut spring onion (white and pale green parts only) into 3–4cm lengths, fold in half for skewering. Alternate: chicken, onion, chicken, onion. Aim for 4–5 pieces per skewer.

Seasoning: Salt and pepper (shio style) or brush with tare sauce (see note below) during the last minute of cooking.

Cook: 2–3 minutes per side over high direct heat. The spring onion should be slightly charred at the edges.

2. Tsukune (Chicken Meatball Skewers)

Ground chicken mixed with ginger, garlic, and a touch of soy, formed around a skewer and grilled over charcoal. One of the only yakitori varieties that's almost always served with tare glaze and a raw egg yolk for dipping. It's a showstopper.

Prep: Combine 500g chicken mince with 1 tsp grated ginger, 1 clove minced garlic, 1 tbsp soy, 1 tsp sesame oil, 1 tbsp fine breadcrumbs (binder). Mix thoroughly, then form 3–4 egg-sized ovals per skewer, pressing firmly so they hold together.

Cook: 3–4 minutes per side. These are delicate — don't move them too early or they'll fall apart. Wait for a visible crust to form before turning. Glaze with tare sauce in the last minute.

Serving: Arrange on a board with a small ramekin of raw egg yolk per person for dipping.

3. Tan (Beef Tongue)

Thinly sliced beef tongue, slightly thicker than you'd see at a yakiniku restaurant (say, 4–5mm), cooked over high charcoal heat with just salt, pepper, and lemon. Beef tongue is one of the most underrated cuts available in Australia — it's cheap, intensely flavourful, and genuinely transforms over charcoal.

You can buy pre-sliced beef tongue at most Japanese and Korean grocers in Australia. Alternatively, a good butcher will slice a whole tongue to order.

Prep: Lay flat slices on a board. Season with salt and cracked black pepper on both sides. A squeeze of lemon juice (or a small sprig of thyme) is traditional but optional.

Cook: 60–90 seconds per side over high direct heat. These are thin — don't walk away.

Serving: A wedge of lemon on the side. That's it. The cut does the work.

4. Kalbi (Korean-Style Short Ribs on the Hibachi)

Technically Korean BBQ (galbi), not Japanese — but the hibachi is where these have always been cooked, and the flavour profile is so complementary that it fits perfectly alongside a Japanese spread. Flanken-cut beef short ribs — cross-cut through the bone to produce thin, bone-striped strips — marinated in a mix of soy, sugar, garlic, sesame, and Asian pear.

Marinade (for 500g flanken ribs): 3 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tbsp sesame oil, 3 cloves garlic (grated), 1/2 Asian pear or kiwi fruit (grated — this tenderises). Marinate at least 2 hours, overnight if possible.

Cook: High direct heat, 2 minutes per side. The sugar in the marinade caramelises fast — watch for burning.

Where to buy: Korean and Asian grocers stock flanken-cut short ribs ready to go. Ask a butcher to cross-cut beef short ribs 5mm thick if you can't find them pre-cut.

5. Whole Prawn Grilled in Shell

In Japan: ebi, cooked head-on in shell over charcoal. The shell chars and imparts a smoky flavour while protecting the flesh. The head is where all the interesting flavour is — don't remove it.

Prep: Leave shell and head on. Butterfly the prawn from the back — cut through the shell down the spine with scissors, devein, and press flat. Season with salt only.

Cook: Shell-side down over high heat for 2 minutes. Flip onto flesh side for 1 minute. Done when flesh turns opaque through the shell.

Serving: A small bowl of ponzu (citrus soy) or just a wedge of lime. The charcoal flavour that penetrates through the shell is the whole point — don't mask it.

6. Atsu-Age (Thick-Fried Tofu on the Grill)

Not a joke — grilling tofu over charcoal is one of the most overlooked hibachi dishes and the one that surprises people most when they try it. Atsu-age is thick-cut deep-fried tofu (available at Japanese and Korean grocers) — it has a crisped exterior that handles direct heat without falling apart, and the charcoal flavour penetrates.

Prep: Slice atsu-age into 2cm thick slabs. Pat dry. Brush lightly with soy sauce.

Cook: 2 minutes per side over medium-high heat. You want grill marks and a firmed-up, slightly smoky exterior.

Serving: A drizzle of tare or ponzu, some finely grated ginger, and a few spring onion rings. Non-meat eaters at your BBQ will not feel like an afterthought.

7. Shiitake and Corn with Soy Butter

The simplest one on the list, and the one that disappears first. Whole shiitake mushrooms (stem removed) placed cap-side down on the grill collect a small pool of rendered juice in the cap as they cook — splash in a drop of soy sauce and a tiny cube of butter when they're almost done. Corn is cut into rounds, oiled lightly, and gets 10 minutes of total rotating time over the coals.

Shiitake: 3–4 minutes cap-side down, 1 minute flip. Add soy + butter at the end.

Corn: Cut into 4–5cm rounds. Oil and season. Rotate every 2–3 minutes for 10 minutes total until charred and cooked through.

These are the dishes you start while the skewers are resting. They use the dying coals rather than requiring peak heat.

The Tare Sauce Recipe (For Everything)

Tare is the sweet-savoury glaze used on most yakitori. Make a batch, it keeps in the fridge for a month.

Ingredients: - 100ml soy sauce (Japanese, Kikkoman or similar) - 100ml mirin - 50ml sake - 2 tsp caster sugar

Method: Combine all in a small saucepan. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Simmer 5–8 minutes until slightly reduced and glossy. Cool and store in a jar.

Brush onto skewers in the last minute of cooking. The sugar caramelises over the coals — don't apply too early or it'll burn.

Grill Setup for Japanese BBQ

For a proper spread of Japanese-style skewers, the ideal setup is a long narrow hibachi with the skewer ends resting on the grill rails — not the grates — so the food hovers above the coals rather than sitting flat. The WillBBQ 100cm × 18cm and 80cm × 18cm models are designed exactly for this style of cooking.

For a bigger group spread — running skewers, beef tongue, and whole prawns at the same time — the 100cm × 26cm hibachi gives you the width to run two parallel rows of skewers.

One Final Note

Japanese BBQ is a social format. You don't pre-cook everything and bring it to the table plated. People stand around the grill, things come off in batches, conversation happens over the coals. The hibachi is the centrepiece of the table — not something hidden on a back deck while a host sweats alone.

That format — small bites, varied cuts, continuous cooking — is why the hibachi was built the way it is. And once you've done it a few times, you'll understand why the rest of the world has been doing it for 300 years.

Shop WillBBQ hibachi grills — designed for Japanese-style charcoal cooking, available in lengths from 30cm to 150cm. Browse the full range with free Australia-wide delivery (for orders over $50).