Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce

Name: Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Malaysian (Malay)
Ingredients: 700 g Chicken thigh, cut into thumb-sized cubes; 2 stalks Lemongrass, finely chopped; 5 Shallots; 3 cloves Garlic; 2 tsp Turmeric powder; 2 tsp Coriander seeds, ground; 1 tsp Cumin, ground; 1 tsp Fennel seeds, ground; 2 tbsp Sugar; 4 tbsp Coconut oil; 24 Bamboo skewers; 200 g Roasted peanuts, coarsely ground; 6 Dried chillies, soaked; 1 tbsp Tamarind paste; 3 tbsp Gula melaka or palm sugar; 1 plate Cucumber, red onion, ketupat rice cakes

Turmeric-yellow chicken threaded onto bamboo, basted with lemongrass dipped in coconut oil and grilled over coals until the edges char — with a thick, sweet-hot peanut gravy for dipping.

Fonte

Ricetta di Malay home kitchens · 🏺 Tradizionale · Malay household cooking, Peninsular Malaysia

Malay grilled street food · Sate Kajang style — A traditional dish with no individual creator; the reference describes it as emerging from blended influences — Middle Eastern kebabs via Muslim traders, South Asian technique, and Chinese bamboo skewering — in the port cities of Java, Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. It confirms thumb-sized cubes on skewers, charcoal grilling, turmeric colouring, the peanut gravy, ketupat, and Sate Kajang's larger cuts with a chilli-paste side. Note: the lemongrass basting brush described here is standard practice observed at satay stalls, but the cited page mentions lemongrass only as an alternative skewer — treat that detail as this book's own guidance.

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Passaggi

Pound or blend the lemongrass, shallots, garlic and ground spices into a paste. Mix it with the sugar and 2 tbsp of the coconut oil, then rub it thoroughly into the chicken.
Cover and marinate in the fridge for at least an hour, up to overnight.
💡 Beyond about 12 hours the turmeric and salt start to firm the meat rather than season it. Overnight is the sweet spot.
Make the sauce: fry the soaked chillies with a little oil and blend them, then simmer with the ground peanuts, tamarind, palm sugar and 300 ml water for 15 minutes until thick enough to coat a spoon. Salt to taste.
💡 It thickens further as it cools, so pull it off while it still looks slightly loose.
Thread 4 or 5 cubes onto each soaked skewer, pushed together but not squashed, leaving a bare handle at the bottom.
Grill over hot coals or a ridged pan, 3 to 4 minutes a side. Bruise a lemongrass stalk into a brush, dip it in the remaining coconut oil and baste the skewers each time you turn them.
💡 The lemongrass brush is not decoration — the oil keeps the meat from drying while the bruised stalk leaves its scent on every pass.
Serve hot with the peanut sauce, cucumber, raw red onion and ketupat.

💡 Consigli

Sate Kajang, from a town in Selangor, is the famous Malaysian style: larger chunks of meat and a side of fried chilli paste alongside the peanut sauce.
Contains peanuts. Worth saying out loud when you serve it — this is the dish where an allergy actually matters.