Chicken Satay

I have been meaning to make this recipe forever; seriously, years. I don’t know why it took me this long because it’s a pretty easy recipe, but for some reason I kept putting it off. And boy do I regret that. It’s so tasty! Honestly, what isn’t better with some peanut butter?

Chicken Satay is skewered chicken marinated in a peanut sauce that is typically eaten as an appetizer or street food. By adding a side of brown rice, this turns into an easy dinner!

This recipe actually has you ground your own peanuts with some other ingredients to make a sauce rather than starting with peanut butter. The result is really tasty!

Ingredients:

Note: this recipe has to marinate for an hour so plan accordingly.

Lightly toast your cumin seeds over medium heat until fragrant (1-2 minutes). Add the peanuts, cumin seeds, lime juice, sesame oil, ground coriander, garlic cloves, and shallot to a food processor and process until smooth.

Add the coconut milk, brown sugar, peeled fresh ginger, turmeric and serrano chile and process until smooth. (Smooth here is relative. Mine still had some bits in it. Too bad.)

Add the peanut mixture to a large bowl and add the chicken, tossing to coat. Seal with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour, tossing ingredients after 30 minutes. (You can also do all of the above steps the morning of and just toss ingredients when you get home).

Thirty minutes prior to eating, add 8 6-inch skewers to a cookie sheet with sides filled with water. When ready to cook, preheat your grill to medium-high. (I used a grill pan).

Remove the chicken from the bag and discard the marinade. Remove the skewers from the cookie sheet and discard the water. Thread the chicken onto the soaked skewers and sprinkle evenly with salt.

Grill for 6 minutes on each side or until chicken is cooked through.

Serve with a side of brown rice.

Yum! The serrano chile didn’t add nearly as much heat as I expected so it was more of a boost of flavor than spiciness. I loved the peanut sauce flavor that came in and grilling it adds another level of flavor!