Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce

Homemade Chicken Satay With Peanut Sauce

I’ve been making this particular chicken satay recipe and serving it with my homemade Thai peanut sauce for a loooong time. Full of flavors like ginger, coconut, turmeric and garlic, chicken satay with peanut sauce is so scrumptious as an appetizer or light main dish. Serve it up with other light, summery Asian dishes, like a crisp cucumber salad, fresh rolls, and steamed rice.

Grilled chicken satay skewers are quite possibly the perfect company food. It’s important to marinate them ahead of time (at least two hours, or overnight) and so when your guests arrive, all you need to do is pop the marinated chicken on the grill. You can make the peanut sauce ahead, too. 

How to Make Chicken Satay With Peanut Sauce

• Make the peanut sauce. Homemade peanut sauce will keep at least a week in the fridge. 
• Mix your marinade. Add coconut milk, garlic cloves, turmeric, cilantro, brown sugar, fish sauce and salt to a bowl and stir to combine. 
• Press the chicken breast pieces between two pieces of wax paper or plastic wrap, and pound them with a mallet until they’re nice and thin. 
• Drizzle the marinade over your chicken, and let time do the rest! 
• Make the skewers. Two hours later (or the next day), it’s time to skewer your chicken! You can use wood, bamboo or metal skewers. One commenter skipped the skewers all together, and it worked out fine. 
• Grill!  About two minutes on each side.

Tips For Marinating Satay Meat

Balanced flavors are the key to a great marinade, as is allowing the meat enough time to soak up all of those lovely flavors and colors! 

• Turmeric gives chicken satay its gorgeous bright golden color, so that it looks exactly the way it would at a Thai restaurant. 
• The satay marinade’s coconut milk base means that the chicken stays moist and juicy, even though we’re using boneless, skinless chicken breast. 
• If you have time to let the chicken marinate overnight, that’s ideal. But give it at least two full hours marinating in the fridge.  

Homemade Peanut Sauce Ingredients

This peanut sauce recipe has no dairy in it, yet is incredibly rich and creamy because it's made with coconut milk. It's also gluten free, and has that perfect balance of just slightly spicy and savory.

• Full fat coconut milk: The light coconut milk is just too watery, I really recommend using the full fat variety.
• Thai red curry paste: We love the Mae Ploy brand, but any red curry paste you love will work fine. If you’re not sure what to do with the leftover red curry paste, we’ve got a lot of red curry recipes for you!
• Unsweetened natural peanut butter: Use the most bare-bones peanut butter you can find. It’s best if the ingredient list consists of one thing: Peanuts.
• Salt & Sugar
• Cider vinegar

Chicken Satay Variations and Tips

• Use a different protein: Thinly-sliced beef, pork, or even firm tofu would all work instead of chicken.
• Make it spicy: You can make the satay spicier by adding more curry paste.
• No grill? No problem: You can make the chicken satay in a grill pan or even a skillet in a pinch. If you do cook it in a pan, pour in a little neutral oil (like vegetable oil) before you add the chicken, and skip the skewers. Cook the chicken over medium heat until it is cooked through. 
• Store any leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Reheat the chicken gently in the on the stove top. Sadly, the leftovers don’t freeze very well. 

More Deliciousness Ahead

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