Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce
Dancing with flavors like ginger, coconut, turmeric and garlic, chicken satay with peanut sauce turns out out beautifully tender, and extraordinarily scrumptious.
Easy Chicken Satay With Homemade Peanut Sauce
Our succulent, turmeric-marinated chicken satay skewers with rich, creamy homemade peanut sauce puts even the best Thai restaurant chicken satay to shame.
Homemade peanut sauce is something that everyone should master. It comes together quick and it makes everything taste delicious. Pro-tip: a bowl of peanut sauce for dipping is like pixie dust for picky eaters. Serve it with veggies and watch them magically disappear. Oh, and it’s especially good when paired with classic chicken satay! Marinated, then skewered and grilled, chicken satay makes for a fun weeknight supper or an out-of-the-ordinary appetizer for company. Dancing with flavors like ginger, coconut, turmeric and garlic, skewers of chicken satay with peanut sauce are so tender, and so extraordinarily scrumptious. What are you waiting for?
How to Make Chicken Satay:
Grilled chicken skewers are quite possibly the perfect company food. You 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. Here’s the step-by-step:
- Mix your marinade. Add coconut milk, garlic cloves, turmeric, cilantro, brown sugar, fish sauce and salt to a bowl and stir to combine.
- Place your chicken breast pieces between two pieces of wax paper or plastic wrap, and pound them until they’re nice and thin.
- Drizzle the marinade over your chicken, and let time do the rest!
- Two hours later (or the next day), it’s time to skewer your chicken! If your kids are big enough, this is a fun job for them to help with (just be sure there’s some thorough hand-washing afterward.)
- Grill! About two minutes on each side, depending on how hot your grill is. **You can also use an indoor grill for this step.
How to Make Homemade Peanut Sauce:
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 completely gluten free. Win, win. Incredibly versatile, flavor packed, it has that perfect balance of just slightly spicy and so, so rich and savory. Make it, put it on everything, love it as much as we do.
Here’s how to make our chicken satay sauce! In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine:
- full-fat coconut milk
- Thai red curry paste
- unsweetened natural peanut butter
- salt
- sugar
- apple cider vinegar
- water
Bring the ingredients to a low simmer and cook for five minutes, stirring continually so the peanut sauce doesn’t burn. Remove from heat and allow to sit for 10 minutes before serving. The sauce can be stored for up to a week. If it gets too thick, just warm it on the stove with a few drops of water.
How to Make the Best Chicken Satay Even Better:
Serve it with a cooling cucumber salad! Grilled chicken skewers, a big bowl of peanut sauce for dipping and a tangy cucumber salad is our idea of the ideal summer dinner. Big, bold flavors and no oven required! Our favorite cucumber salad is a simple one. Just combine:
- Cucumber (seeded and sliced)
- Rice vinegar
- Sugar
- Sea salt
- Red pepper flakes
- Sesame oil
- Green onion
Tools You’ll Need:
This is a fairly simple meal. You’ll just need:
- Skewers! Metal are nice, because you can reuse them and they’re nice and sturdy, but bamboo skewers work, too.
- Sharp knife.
- Saucepan.
- Mallet.
Peanut Sauce on Everything:
It’s not just a sauce, it’s a lifestyle.
- This hearty vegan tofu stir-fry with peanut sauce is perfect for meatless Mondays!
- Thai chicken pizza is another excellent peanut sauce vehicle.
- OK, so our no-noodle pad Thai actually features an almond sauce, but it’s very similar to peanut sauce and so we’re including it.
How’d It Turn Out?
Did you make this chicken satay with peanut sauce? Be sure to post a pic to Instagram and tag @themodernproper and #themodernproper. We’d love to see how it turned out and fully expect to hear how much you loved it!
Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce
Serves 4
Chicken Satay
| 2 lbs | boneless skinless chicken tenders, pounded to be extra thin |
| 1/3 cup | coconut milk |
| 4 | garlic cloves |
| 1 tbsp | tumeric |
| 2 tbsp | freshly chopped cilantro (plus more for garnishing) |
| 2 tbsp | brown sugar |
| 2 tbsp | fish sauce |
| 1/2 tsp | sea salt |
| 1/4 cup | crushed peanuts |
Peanut Sauce
| 13.5 oz | can of full fat coconut milk |
| 2 oz | thai red curry paste |
| 3/4 cup | unsweetened natural cream peanut butter |
| 1/2 tbsp | salt |
| 3/4 cup | sugar |
| 2 tbsp | apple cider vinegar or white vinegar |
| 1/2 cup | water |
Cucumber Salad
| 1 | large cucumber, peeled, seeded and sliced |
| 1/4 cup | rice vinegar |
| 3 tbsp | sugar |
| pinch of sea salt | |
| 1 tsp | red pepper flakes |
| 1 tbsp | sesame oil |
| 2 | green onion, thinly sliced |
Method
- In a small bowl combine coconut milk, garlic cloves, turmeric, cilantro, brown sugar, fish sauce and salt.
- Arrange the chicken in a single layer and pour the marinade over the top. Cover and allow to marinate for 2 hours or overnight. Alternatively, place the chicken and marinate in a ziplock back and seal tight, removing excess air.
- While the chicken is marinating, prepare the peanut sauce. In a small sauce pan, add all the ingredients. Whisking to combine, bring the sauce to a low simmer.
- Allow to cook 5 minutes, stirring continually to make sure that the sauce doesn't burn on the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat and allow to sit for 10 minutes before serving. Can be stored for up to a week. If it gets too thick, just warm up over the stove with a few drops of water.
- To make the cucumber salad, simply combine ingredients together in a small bowl and allow to rest for 10 minutes before serving.
- Preheat grill on medium heat for 10 minutes. Using bamboo or metal skewers, weave through the meat lengthwise. Place chicken on the prepared grill and allow to cook without moving for 3-5 minutes. Turn the meat and grill just until chicken is cooked through, about 2 more minutes.
- Remove from grill and garnish with cilantro and fresh peanuts. Serve with peanut sauce and cucumber salad. Enjoy!
*Recipe for this peanut sauce was developed by shesimmers.
