As promised from my last post, Pecel, that I will post Chicken Satay recipe where I made the marinade sauce from scratch. This version of Chicken Satay is more Indonesian-Malaysian version of Chicken Satay.
Growing up in Medan, Chicken satay with peanut sauce is a pretty common food for our dinner. I remembered my mom would buy a bag of Chicken Satay when she picked me up from school, and served the satay as part of appetiser for our dinner. Back then, I never really appreciate Chicken Satay as it is a common satay, and I didn’t find anything special about it. I would just have one or two sticks maximum of satay whenever my mom bought it. I never really eat more than 2 sticks.
Coming to Sydney and settling here, I would remember Chicken Satay whenever I see the menu in Malaysian or Indonesian restaurant. Dydy and I will always order Chicken Satay and try it in every Malaysian or Indonesian restaurant we visited here in Sydney. Dydy find the satay pretty good in the restaurant here, but I think because I get accustomed with the taste of Medanese Chicken Satay, I find the quality of satay here is pretty terrible.
There is this popular Malaysian restaurant here in Sydney, Mamak. They serve really nice curry and roti. We love going there in the winter for their chicken and lamb curry. There is always a long queue especially in the weekend. Well, I expect they make a pretty decent satay as well, as their curry is amazing. Unfortunately, it is not the case. We tried their satay once, and that’s the end of it, we never order satay anymore there. I find that it is lacking in seasonings, and they are just too stingy with the peanut sauce.
For me, the main point with chicken satay is the generous amount of peanut sauce, that you could keep dipping and enjoy the flavour combination of the chicken satay and the peanut sauce. Or, might be I’m just overly choosy with the way I’m eating. We ordered one plate of the satay, and Dydy didn’t even touch the sauce at all. I’m monopolizing the little cup of sauce by myself, and I didn’t even have enough.
After 2 years of trying different Chicken Satay from different store, I finally decided to make my own Chicken Satay. Well, it takes me 2 years to finally make my own because I thought making Chicken Satay is just too bothersome and overly too much work. I remembered seeing my grandma making Chicken Satay when I was young, and she would just spend the whole day making it, sitting in the grilling place. That time, I told myself that I won’t have that much patient like my grandma just for a sake of Chicken Satay, my time is much more important.
I couldn’t believe that now I’m making it by myself. This is the disadvantage of living abroad, where all of the asian flavour that you remember back home, you could never find it here, except you make it by yourself. Anyways, I’m so glad that technology in the kitchen has evolved so much compare to 10 years ago when my grandma made Chicken Satay.
With the oven, I don’t have to spend my whole day grilling the Chicken satay. Moreover, out of my expectation, it is pretty simple and quick to make at home. Once the meat has been marinating for 1 days, I just pop it in the oven, and let it do its magic. What I love to do is preparing a big batch of chicken marinate at one time, and freeze the marinated chicken in smaller portions. Then, when I feel like having satay, I would just defrost it, skew it in the stick and grill it in oven. I also found out that the freezed marinated chicken would have more flavour than the chicken I marinated for 1 day.
Let’s get to the cooking part, Here’s the ingredients to make Chicken satay:
- 4 shallots
- 2 cloves garlic
- 3 cashews
- 1 stalk lemongrass
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1/2 teaspoon minced ginger
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 tablespoon coriander powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
- 1 tablespoon palm sugar
- 1 tablespoon olive oil (extra olive oil for brushing)
- 500g chicken thigh
- 15 – 20 bamboo skewers
- Generous amount of peanut sauce
Blend together all ingredients besides chicken and skewers until it becomes a smooth paste. If necessarily, add a little of water.
Cut the chicken thigh into strips of about 1/2 inch in width.
Add the blended spice to chicken strip. Mix until all combine and let it marinated in the fridge for at least 1 day. In this stage, I divided the marinated chicken into 2 portion. Half for grilling tomorrow, and another half for freezing. For 2 people, we usually eat around 250g of chicken satay. I also find that the freezed marinated chicken has more flavour than the one I marinated for 1 day.
The next day, soak the bamboo skewers 2 hours prior to use to prevent burning.
Pre-heat oven to 200C degree. Skew the chicken strips neatly into the bamboo skewers.
Lightly brush with the chicken skewers with olive oil on both sides before grilling.
Grill in the oven for 20 – 30 minutes on each sides or until chicken is cooked through, and there is a slight charred on the chicken.
Served with peanut sauce.
- 4 shallots
- 2 cloves garlic
- 3 cashews
- 1 stalk lemongrass
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ½ teaspoon minced ginger
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- ½ tablespoon coriander powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon chilli powder
- 1 tablespoon palm sugar
- 1 tablespoon olive oil (extra olive oil for brushing)
- 500g chicken thigh
- 15 - 20 bamboo skewers
- Generous amount of peanut sauce
- Blend together all ingredients besides chicken and skewers until it becomes a smooth paste. If necessarily, add a little of water.
- Cut the chicken thigh into strips of about ½ inch in width.
- Add the blended spice to chicken strip. Mix until all combine and let it marinated in the fridge for at least 1 day. In this stage, I divided the marinated chicken into 2 portion. Half for grilling tomorrow, and another half for freezing. For 2 people, we usually eat around 250g of chicken satay. I also find that the freezed marinated chicken has more flavour than the one I marinated for 1 day.
- The next day, soak the bamboo skewers 2 hours prior to use to prevent burning.
- Pre-heat oven to 200C degree. Skew the chicken strips neatly into the bamboo skewers.
- Lightly brush with the chicken skewers with olive oil on both sides before grilling.
- Grill in the oven for 20 - 30 minutes on each sides or until chicken is cooked through, and there is a slight charred on the chicken.
- Served with peanut sauce.