Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce

Ingredients

Chicken and marinade

• 800 g boneless chicken thighs, cut into 2 cm (3/4 in) pieces
• 3 shallots, peeled
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 2 stalks lemongrass, white part only, sliced
• 2.5 cm (1 in) piece galangal or ginger, peeled
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground fennel
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 50 g (1/4 cup) sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp cooking oil, plus extra for basting
• 24 bamboo skewers, soaked in water for 30 minutes

Peanut sauce

• 200 g (1 1/3 cups) roasted unsalted peanuts
• 8 dried chillies, soaked in hot water for 15 minutes and deseeded
• 4 shallots, peeled
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 stalk lemongrass, white part only, sliced
• 3 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 tbsp tamarind pulp, mixed with 120 ml (1/2 cup) warm water and strained
• 300 ml (1 1/4 cups) water
• 50 g (1/4 cup) palm sugar (gula melaka), grated
• 1 tsp salt

To serve

• 1 cucumber, cut into chunks
• 1 red onion, cut into chunks
• Compressed rice cubes (nasi impit), optional

Method

1. Blend the shallots, garlic, lemongrass and galangal with 1 tbsp of the oil to a paste. In a bowl, mix the paste with the coriander, cumin, fennel, turmeric, sugar, salt and the remaining 2 tbsp oil. Add the chicken and mix well, then cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
2. For the sauce, pulse the peanuts to a coarse crumb with some small pieces left for texture. Blend the chillies, shallots, garlic and lemongrass to a smooth paste.
3. Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium-low heat and fry the chilli paste for 8 minutes, stirring, until it darkens and smells sweet. Add the tamarind water, the 300 ml water, the peanuts, palm sugar and salt. Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring often, until thick enough to coat a spoon. Add a splash of water if it gets too thick.
4. Thread 4–5 pieces of chicken onto each skewer, packing them close together and leaving the bottom 5 cm (2 in) of the skewer bare to hold.
5. Grill over hot charcoal, on a griddle pan or under a hot oven grill for 8–10 minutes, turning every 2 minutes and brushing with oil, until charred at the edges and no longer pink in the middle. Cook in batches so the skewers are not crowded.
6. Serve the satay hot with a bowl of peanut sauce, the cucumber, onion and rice cubes.

Tips

• Thigh, not breast: thigh stays juicy over high heat. If you use breast, cut it slightly bigger and grill for 1–2 minutes less.
• Basting brush: bruise the end of a lemongrass stalk and use it to brush the oil on, the way satay stalls do.
• Peanut butter shortcut: use 200 g natural crunchy peanut butter instead of the ground peanuts and cut the palm sugar to 30 g.
• Storage: the sauce keeps for 1 week in the refrigerator and freezes well. Grilled satay keeps for 2 days; reheat under the grill.