Quick and Easy Takoyaki Recipe (2024)

Enjoy this quick and easy takoyaki recipe you can cook in minutes with just one chopstick. Made with a takoyaki pan and topped with homemade takoyaki sauce, kewpie mayonnaise, aonori and katsuobushi.

Why We Love This Takoyaki Recipe

Crispy golden takoyaki taste amazing when prepared with traditional ingredients and toppings. But they’re also super easy to tweak to your preferences. If you don’t like octopus, you can substitute with your favourite proteins, or experiment with sweet ingredients for something completely different!

It’s also a fun way it’s a great way to get creative in the kitchen and try your hand at mastering the takoyaki cooking technique.

What is Takoyaki?

Takoyaki is one ofthe most popular street snacksin Japan, aside from yakisoba noodles and onigiri rice balls. Little roadside stalls can be found everywhere, ready to serve up a batch of takoyaki when you need it most.But for the freshest, tastiest takoyaki, the best thing to do is to make it yourself.

Where We Learned This Recipe

We learntthisQuick and EasyTakoyaki recipe while staying in a coolsurfie-style guesthousein Hyuga, Japan. (It’s also where we first discovered Chicken Nanban too!) Our wonderfulhost Masa-san and his lovely wife were keen to share their recipe. Even better, they showed us their handytechnique to make takoyaki using just one chopstick.

What are the main Takoyaki Ingredients?

• Batter: It’s is a surprisingly simple mix of plain flour with a hint of dashi stock. But according to Masa-san, the secret to that golden crispy crunch is to add cornstarch to the mixture.
• Fillings: Traditional takoyaki ingredients include octopus (the ‘tako’ in takoyaki), spring onion, red pickled ginger (beni shoga) and tenkasu (crispy fried tempura batter)..

How to Make Takoyaki

• Slice the octopus (or chicken, if substituting) into bite-size pieces then pop aside.
• Combine the plain flour and cornflour in a bowl, then in a separate bowl whisk the egg. Add the egg to the dry mixture, then slowly pour in the dashi stock or water and whisk it all together. You’re aiming for a thin, runny consistency here, so if it’s too thick just add more water or dashi.
• Now, heat the takoyaki pan over a medium high heat and brush oil over the entire surface. Pour the batter into the centre of the pan and keep pouring until all the wells are full and the batter covers the entire plate.

• Place one piece of octopus or chicken into each well, then scatter the spring onion, ginger and tempura crumbs across the lot. When the bottom of the batter starts turning crispy, use a chopstick to cut out a square shape around each takoyaki well.
• Next comes Masa’s fancy technique. Move your chopstick in an ‘L’ shape around the each well, then immediately push down into the well to flip the batter, forming a rough ball shape as you go. It might take a few tries, but keep going and you’ll quickly get the hang of it.
• Continue flipping each ball occasionally as the batter becomes crispy and golden brown on all sides. The easiest way to do this is to pierce the takoyaki ball with the chopstick and pull upwards to flip. A few more rotations and your batch of takoyaki will be glorious, crispy and golden.
• Pop your cooked takoyaki onto serving platters and top with your favourite topping combinations (see topping inpso in the next section). Feel free to experiment and let us know how you go!

Takoyaki Recipe Topping Combinations

• Traditional: Japanese BBQ sauce, or takoyaki sauce+Kewpie mayonnaise+aonori seaweed flakes+bonito flakes
• Intriguing: Japanese curry powder+Kewpie mayonnaise +parmesan cheese
• Hyuga Style:Kewpie mayonnaise+aonori seaweed flakes+ salt
• Wandercooks Style:Japanese Matcha Green Tea Salt
• Cheesy Goodness: Yep – cheese! Sprinkle on top and broil for a couple of minutes until melty and delicious.

Which takoyaki ingredients do you love? What’s your favourite combo?

Wandercooks’ Tips

• For a crunchier texture and deep golden colour, add extra oil while flipping the takoyaki.
• Japanese ingredients such as dashi stock, aonori flakes, bonito flakes, tenkasu and takoyaki sauce can be found at your local Asian grocery store or online via Amazon.
• You can easily make tenkasu (crispy tempura crumbs) at home, simply splatter some tempura batter in hot oil and cook until crispy. Remove from the oil and allow to drain on paper towel.

FAQs

Variations & Substitutions

• If you don’t like octopus, feel free to substitute your own favourite fillings. How about crispy fried bacon pieces, prawns, chicken, tofu or cheese?
• If you don’t have takoyaki pan, why not make this into a giant takoyaki pancake with a regular frying pan.
• For something completely different, ditch the savoury ingredients and go for a sweet version! Why not try adding chocolate for ‘chokoyaki’! Jams or other sweet ingredients would also work well. You might like to replace the dashi in the batter with water. Our favourite dessert is making poffertjes in the takoyaki pan afterwards!

Have you made these popular Japanese recipes?

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