Sate Ayam (Indonesian Chicken Satay)

Cut the chicken into pieces about the size of the top joint of your thumb — roughly 2 cm. Keep them even.

💡 Satay is grilled fast and hot. Pieces bigger than this are still raw in the middle when the outside is already black; uneven pieces guarantee that half the skewer is overcooked.

Mix 2 tablespoons of the kecap manis with the turmeric, coriander, crushed garlic, oil and a good pinch of salt. Turn the chicken through it until every piece is coated.

Leave it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes — up to overnight. Meanwhile, soak the skewers in water.

💡 Thirty minutes is genuinely enough for pieces this small. The marinade only has to reach 2 cm into the meat, not a whole chicken.

Make the sauce: fry the shallots and chilies in a little oil until soft and sweet-smelling, then blend them with the peanuts, palm sugar, tamarind water and about 200 ml of water until you have a pourable paste.

💡 Leave it slightly coarse. A completely smooth sauce tastes like peanut butter; the little fragments of nut are what tell you it was made from whole peanuts.

Warm the sauce in a small pan over low heat for 5 minutes, stirring. Taste and balance it: it should read sweet first, then salty, then sour, all at once. Loosen with water if it stiffens.

Thread 3 or 4 pieces of chicken onto each skewer, pushed together but not squashed.

Grill over hot charcoal — or on a ridged pan or under a very hot grill — for about 3 minutes a side, brushing with the remaining kecap manis each time you turn them.

💡 Brush the sweet soy on in thin layers late in the cooking, not at the start. Sugar burns bitter long before chicken cooks — early basting gives you black skewers and raw centres.

The skewers are done when the outside is glossy with dark patches and the chicken springs back when pressed.

Pile them on a plate, spoon the warm peanut sauce over generously, scatter sliced raw shallot on top and squeeze lime over everything.