Japanese BBQ Marinade Selection
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Mix quintessential Japanese flavours such as rich soy sauce, nutty sesame seeds, sweet mirin and fresh yuzu citrus with succulent steak, juicy pork chops and tender chicken thighs to create East-West fusion cooking at your next barbecue!

Choose from a traditional, savoury soy-based Yakiniku Marinade found in restaurants all over Japan, to a sweeter Honey & Soy Glaze that will get everyone’s tastebuds tingling. Japan Centre has selected our favourite barbecue marinade recipes, including our tried and tested Yuzu & Cumin Marinade combination; a sweet, sticky, earthy and ever so slightly hot marriage of flavours that’s not to be missed!

If you don’t have enough time to marinade overnight, Japan Centre recommends a minimum of 2 hours marinade time.

2 people 120 minutes 5 minutes save

Ingredients

Please see each individual marinade below for ingredients.

How to prepare

Yakiniku Marinade
• 230g Ribeye Steak
• 3 tbsp Soy Sauce
• 1 1/2 tbsp Sugar
• 1 tbsp Sesame Oil
• 2 tbsp White Sesame Seeds
• 50g Fresh Ginger
• 4 Garlic Cloves
• 1 small Spring Onion
• Kimuchi (to garnish)

Let’s start with a classic Japanese Yakiniku Marinade! Prepare the meat by cutting it into yakiniku pieces of approx. 7cm long by 4cm wide (preferably the meat needs to be no thicker than 0.5 cm). Add all of the marinade ingredients to a blender except for the sesame seeds and mix well, adding the sesame seeds near the end. If you don’t have a blender finely chop the ingredients and mix well in a bowl. Lay all of your pieces of meat in a tray, cover evenly with the marinade and leave covered in cling film in the fridge overnight.
Honey & Soy Glaze
• 300g Pork Chops
• 2 tbsp Soy Sauce
• 2 tbsp Mirin Sweet Cooking Sake
• 2 tbsp Cooking Sake
• 2 tsp Ground Garlic
• A few drops Honey

The Honey & Soy Glaze marinade is sweeter than the classic Yakiniku Marinade and just as easy. Simply combine all of your marinade ingredients in a bowl and mix well before drizzling over the pork chops on a tray. Cover this with cling film and also leave overnight if possible.
Yuzu & Cumin Marinade
• 2 Chicken Thighs
• 75ml Soy Sauce
• 25ml Mirin Sweet Cooking Sake
• 1/4 tbsp Brown Sugar
• 1/2 Small Red Chilli finely chopped OR 1 tsp Dried Chilli Flakes
• 1/2 Garlic Clove
• 1 tbsp Yuzu Citrus Juice
• 2 tsp Cumin Seeds

Finally, our exotic Yuzu & Cumin Marinade. Once again this marinade requires little effort and is made simply by mixing all of the marinade ingredients together in a bowl before coating the scored chicken thighs and leaving on a tray covered in cling film in the fridge overnight.

On the big day, cook your meat on the barbecue on medium heat until well done. The yakiniku marinaded beef should be done a little differently and cooked for approx. 1 minute on each side before being garnished with kimuchi for a Korean spicy kick.

We would also strongly recommend a Japanese cold beer for everyone to make a Japanese barbecue toast!

Tips and information

• These Japanese pickles make an excellent side to barbecue meat.
• Make sure that the marinade is spread well on the meat when you place it in the fridge. You can also use a plastic bag instead of the tray to help spread it more evenly.