Thai Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce & Cucumber Relish
Author: 
Recipe type: Appetizer
Cuisine: Thai
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4 servings
 
Ingredients
For chicken satay:
  • Chicken thigh – 500 gms, boneless & skinless
  • Curry powder – 1 tbsp
  • Salt – 1 tsp
  • Vegetable oil – 1 tbsp
Peanut sauce:
  • Roasted peanut – ¾ cup
  • Thai red curry paste – 2 tbsp
  • Coconut milk – 200 ml (1 cup)
  • Vegetable oil – 2 tbsp
  • Fish sauce – 1 tsp
  • Sugar – 2 tsp
For cucumber relish:
  • Cucumber – 1
  • Red onion – 1, small
  • Fresh red chili – 1
  • White vinegar – ½ cup
  • Sugar – ½ cup
  • Salt – 1 tsp
Instructions
Marinating chicken:
  1. Wash and pat dry the chicken thighs. Cut each chicken thigh into 1-inch cubes. Take them in a large bowl.
  2. Add curry powder, salt and vegetable oil to the chicken. Mix everything well to coat each chicken piece and let them rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
  3. Soak about 10 bamboo skewers in water and let them rest inside until you are ready to grill.
Cucumber relish:
  1. Slice the cucumber into thin rounds and then cut each round into quarters. Slice the onion thinly. Slice the red chili thinly. Take everything in a bowl big enough to soak.
  2. Heat half cup of white vinegar, half cup of sugar and salt in a saucepan and let the sugar melt completely which would take about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat and let it cool completely.
  3. Once the vinegar mixture is cooled down, pour it over cucumber, onion & chili mix. Let them soak while you prepare the remaining items.
Peanut sauce:
  1. Peanut sauce requires peanut butter; but I didn’t have it handy. That doesn’t stop me from making a delicious peanut sauce to accompany my chicken satay. To make peanut butter at home, follow the below instructions.
  2. If using raw peanut, peel and toast them until golden brown. Transfer the toasted peanut to a food chopper or food processor. Using the chopping blade, process them until finely chopped. Keep processing the peanuts until you see the peanuts have started releasing their oil. This will take a while, about 5 minutes or more depending on the power of your food processor. To help process the peanuts, you can drizzle about a teaspoon of vegetable oil while operating the processor [if your peanuts are very oily, you can skip the oil]. Once the peanuts are all chopped up and becomes a thick & smooth paste, your peanut butter is ready. Set it aside until needed. If you have readymade peanut butter at home, skip this step and use half a cup of peanut butter when needed as instructed below.
  3. Heat the vegetable oil in a saucepan and once the oil is hot, add Thai red curry paste to it. Cook the curry paste for couple of minutes until it breaks down and becomes fragrant.
  4. Now add the coconut milk and stir to mix it well with curry paste ensuring there is no lump of the curry paste. Keep the heat on low to avoid burning of spice paste.
  5. Next add all the remaining ingredients to the saucepan – prepared peanut butter, fish sauce and sugar. Whisk well to make a uniform sauce. Taste for the balance of sweetness and saltiness and adjust with fish sauce or sugar as per your liking. If your sauce seems to be too thick, you may add few teaspoons of water to loosen it a little.
  6. Once you get your perfect balance of the sauce and the desired consistency, switch off the flame and let it rest in the saucepan. You may reheat the peanut sauce before serving.
Making chicken satay:
  1. Take out the soaked bamboo sticks from water. Skewer 4 to 5 pieces of chicken in each skewer depending on the length of your bamboo sticks.
  2. Heat a grill pan and brush it with some vegetable oil. Once the grill pan is very hot, place the chicken satay sticks on the pan in a single layer. Do not put one stick on top of another as it will prevent uniform cooking; you may have to cook them in batches.
  3. Cook the chicken satay for 5 minutes each side on medium flame until the chicken is browned all over and no trace of pink is left. The chicken cubes will firm up as they are cooked.
  4. Once the chicken cubes are completely cooked, take them out of the pan and your chicken satay is ready. Serve the delicious Thai chicken satay warm with peanut sauce and cucumber relish. Enjoy!
Recipe by Flavor Quotient at http://www.flavorquotient.com/2019/05/thai-chicken-satay-with-peanut-sauce-ajat/