this is a blog post on making chicken satay homemade at home. Satay is a Malay word for a barbecue or rather meat on skewers cooked over charcoal. Even in the tropics where the weather is hot and humid all year round we do like to eat satay. As satay is no ordinary barbecue, it comes with a lovely peanut sauce that many love to it.
That peanut sauce is what makes satay unique. Satay is mainly made from chicken although you do find beef versions. Chicken is the best meat to make satay. this is due it’s the fat from the chicken skin that produces the oil that makes it lovely. Of course, it is possible to just supermarket-ready cut chicken breast. Which is much healthier but talk to any Malaysian we like the skin, thighs from the skin. I suppose this is what we are used to and grown up with.
Chicken satay homemade
There are many recipes for chicken satay and mine is going to be one of them. I made this over the summer season last year and cooked it over the barbecue and it’s lovely. Yes, I do use meat from a whole chicken. It’s the spices and marinade of the chicken that makes it taste uniquely Malay.
Recipe
- 1kg chicken thighs, off bone with a bit of skin left on and cut into bite-sized or skewer ready pieces
Satay spice marinade
- 1 lemon grass white bottom half only
- 1 large onion peeled
- 4-5 garlic cloves peeled
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- One teaspooon chilli powder
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 1/2 tsp fennel seeds grounded
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 100g of palm sugar, or dark brown sugar
- 1 tsp fish sauce
PEANUT SAUCE
- 180g of dry roasted peanuts, ground using a food processor to a fine crumb
- 200g of light coconut milk
- 60g of palm sugar, or dark brown sugar
- 2 1/2 tbsp of tamarind paste
- 1 pinch of chilli powder
- 150ml of water
- 1/2 tsp salt
Have some skewers ready to skewer the meat.
A barbecue grill is ready to cook when the meat is ready to go.
TO SERVE
- 1 large red onion, diced
- half of a small cucmber diced
Method
First of all, prepare the chicken, debone and remove some skin and dice it. Then blend all the ingredients for the marinade together. Add the marinade ingredients to the chicken, marinade as long as possible. shortens time about 1/2 hour.
Then Skewer the meat on barbecue sticks. How much meat it depends on the sticks and grill. Cook on the grill till the meat is well cooked thru.
In the meantime prepare the satay sauce. Add all the ingredients in a pot and cook till it well mix together. Serve with chicken satay, along with onion and cucumber. Also, it can be served with compressed rice known as lemang or ketupat. Thank you for reading an ddropping by. Do have a look at my other blog posts like making nasi lemak and baked cassava cake.
