Grilled Recipes

Prep 25min Cook 20min 2 servings

Com Tam Suon Nuong (Broken Rice with Grilled Pork)

Com tam means broken rice: grains that cracked during milling and were once thrown away as unsellable. Today it is the base of a classic Ho Chi Minh City breakfast, and its small pieces take up the meat's marinade well. Instead of a bone-in chop over charcoal, this version uses thin slices of pork shoulder marinated with lemongrass and seared in a pan.

Prep 10min Cook 12min 2 servings

Korean Beoteo Ojingeo Gui (Butter Grilled Squid)

Semi-dried squid browns fast in a buttered pan and stays chewy. Shallow scores on the inside of the body give the soy and syrup glaze somewhere to sink in. Once done, the pieces go onto skewers or into paper cups.

Desserts Easy

Jeolpyeon Gui (Grilled Korean Rice Cake with Soy Honey Glaze)

Flat slices of jeolpyeon, a plain Korean rice cake, are pan-fried in sesame oil until a thin skin forms, then a soy, honey, and sugar sauce goes in and the heat drops to low for just two or three minutes of turning until they shine. The glaze burns quickly, so the heat goes off as soon as almost no syrup is left in the pan, and sesame seeds and pine nuts go on top.

Prep 10min Cook 12min 2 servings

Grilled Hard

Ago Chikuwa Grilled Flying Fish Cake

Flying fish, called ago in Tottori, gives these bamboo-core fish cakes a darker color than ordinary chikuwa made mostly from pollock, and a skin that grills firm enough to make a sound under a knife. Tear them by hand as a drinking snack with soy sauce, or slice them into soups and simmered dishes.

🍺 Bar Snacks

Prep 45min Cook 18min 6 servings

Noodles Medium

Hanoi Bun Cha (Grilled Pork Patties with Rice Noodles)

At midday the alleys of Hanoi's Old Quarter fill with smoke from pork grilling over charcoal, and the grilled meat goes into a bowl of sweet, sour fish sauce, eaten with rice vermicelli and herbs. That sauce is thinner than a dip, closer to a light broth sipped between bites. This version grills both small ground-pork patties and pieces of pork neck, and soaks thin slices of carrot in the sauce.

Prep 30min Cook 20min 4 servings

Prep 15min Cook 15min 2 servings

Grilled Beef Large Intestine Rice Bowl

Fatty beef large intestine is glazed in a sweet, spicy soy sauce and set over rice with onion that has soaked in cold water, a raw egg yolk and fresh wasabi. The wasabi stays on the side, unmixed, and goes on a little at a time with each bite.

Prep 20min Cook 15min 2 servings

Korean Grilled Chicken Skewers

Breast or thigh both work, but thigh, with more fat, is the one that stays juicy over direct heat. The gochujang, soy and honey glaze goes on thin, two or three times, building up a sticky shine, and the skewers keep turning over medium heat because honey scorches fast.

Desserts Easy

Mitarashi Dango (Grilled Rice Dumplings in Sweet Soy Glaze)

Boiled rice-flour dumplings go onto skewers and roll around a dry pan until they pick up pale brown spots, then get a glossy coat of soy sauce and sugar thickened with cornstarch. Sweet and salty arrive in the same bite, and under the toasted surface the dumplings stay springy. They firm up as they cool, so the glaze goes on just before serving, while they are still warm.

Prep 20min Cook 10min 4 servings

Prep 25min Cook 30min 4 servings

Miso-Stuffed Grilled Akebi

Scooped of its white pulp and seeds, the thick, faintly bitter rind of akebi becomes a shell for maitake and shimeji cooked down with miso and myoga ginger. The filling has to be cooked until almost dry and fully cooled, or the rind will not close neatly around it when tied with string.

Noodles Medium

Vietnamese Grilled Pork Vermicelli

Pork marinated in fish sauce, sugar, and garlic and seared over high heat develops a caramelized brown edge while the inside stays juicy. In this southern Vietnamese bowl it goes, still warm, over chilled rice vermicelli and raw greens, and that hot-cold contrast is much of the pleasure. A sweet-sour dressing of lime juice and fish sauce ties meat, noodles, and vegetables together with no broth at all.

Prep 20min Cook 15min 2 servings

Prep 15min Cook 20min 2 servings

Grilled Mackerel Rice Bowl

The mackerel has its pin bones pulled before grilling, so you can break it up with a spoon and stir it straight into the rice and onion soy sauce. A little minced ginger in the sauce keeps the oily fish tasting clean.

Street food Medium

Korean Spicy Chicken Skewers

Part of the gochujang sauce is set aside the moment it is mixed. The rest marinates the chicken thigh, while the reserved portion never touches raw meat and goes on as a final glaze near the end of grilling. Each skewer holds two or three pieces of chicken for every piece of green onion, and they cook until the edges just char.

Prep 20min Cook 15min 4 servings

Desserts Hard

Yaki Manju Grilled Miso Buns

Four steamed buns go onto each bamboo skewer and are grilled under a sweet red miso glaze until they shine dark with small charred edges. Gunma traces the snack to miso-zuke manju made by Harashima Ruizo in Maebashi at the end of the Edo period; the glaze turned sweeter once kuromitsu syrup arrived. The rice-koji starter ferments for a day or two and the glaze rests in the fridge for 2 days, so the work begins well before grilling day.

Prep 480min Cook 90min 5 servings

Prep 25min Cook 10min 2 servings

Korean Garlic-Grilled Skirt Steak

Inner skirt has coarse muscle fibers with tough sinew running between them, so the first job is snipping that sinew out with scissors and slicing across the grain. Its beefy flavor is strong enough that the soy marinade gets only 20 minutes. Halved garlic cloves cook slowly in the pan first, then the same pan goes to high heat for a quick sear of the beef, and the garlic is plated alongside.

Prep 45min Cook 35min 4 servings

Gohei-Mochi (Grilled Rice Cake with Walnut Miso)

Freshly cooked rice is pounded just until it holds together with some grains still whole, pressed thin onto a flat skewer, and ridged across the top with a fingertip. Those shallow ridges are what keep the sweet red miso sauce, ground with walnuts and sesame, from sliding off. In the mountains of central Japan, woodcutters and hunters made it the day before Yama no Ko, a gathering to pray for safety in mountain work; today it is a snack sold at sightseeing spots.

Street food Medium

Korean Grilled Chicken Heart Skewers

Chicken hearts are springy to bite and taste nuttier the longer you chew. Trimming off the vessels and soaking them in milk takes care of the organ smell. Three or four go on each skewer with a soy and gochujang glaze, and they come off the heat as soon as the cut center turns from pink to grey, before they toughen.

Prep 30min Cook 15min 2 servings

Prep 145min Cook 15min 4 servings

Anticuchos de Corazon

Beef heart is marinated in aji panca, a Peruvian dried chili paste, with vinegar, dark beer and cumin, then threaded on skewers and grilled. Aji panca is more fruity and smoky than hot. Heart is not a cut you cook to your preferred doneness like steak: even the thickest pieces are cooked all the way through.

Prep 10min Cook 15min 1 serving

Korean Grilled Eel Rice Bowl

This bowl starts from a 200 g raw, cleaned freshwater eel fillet rather than a packet of cooked kabayaki, and that changes how it has to be handled. The sugary glaze darkens well before the center is done. The signal is the thickest part reaching 63°C/145°F, not the shine.

Prep 15min Cook 12min 4 servings

Korean Grilled Fish Cake Skewers

The skewered fish cakes start in a dry pan with no oil. Driving off their surface moisture is what lets the soy and gochujang glaze stay put instead of running off. After brushing, a short second spell over the heat melts the sugar into a shine, and sliced green onion and sesame seeds go on top.

Prep 18min Cook 14min 2 servings

Korean Grilled Pork Belly Asparagus Rolls

Thin pork belly is wrapped tightly around each asparagus spear, and the rolls go into the pan seam side down. While the fat renders and crisps the outside, the asparagus steams inside and keeps some snap. Wipe the rendered fat out of the pan before adding the sauce, or the soy and syrup glaze will slide around instead of clinging.

Prep 25min Cook 35min 4 servings

Shingoro (Grilled Rice Skewers with Egoma Miso)

Freshly cooked rice pounded only halfway, rather than all the way into mochi, gives these grilled skewers a toasted outside and an inside with distinct grains. The topping is junen miso: egoma (perilla seed, called junen in Fukushima) toasted, ground until slightly oily, and mixed with sugar, miso, and sake. Pull them from the heat at light char marks, since the sugar in the paste turns bitter once it blackens.

Prep 10min Cook 10min 2 servings

Korean Grilled Garaetteok

Rolled around a pan, garaetteok develops a thin, dried-out skin while the inside turns even softer. The soy, gochujang and honey glaze waits until the rice cake has browned, then goes on in two thin coats over low heat.

⚡ 20-Minute Recipes