Thai Peanut Sauced Chicken Satay

The pinnacle of authentic Thai cuisine is satay skewers, which are made with deeply marinated chicken and peanut sauce so delicious that everyone will be vying for the recipe. Serve them with coconut rice or steamed jasmine, or throw a lavish Thai restaurant banquet that includes Thai Fried Rice, Pad See Ew, and Thai Chilli Basil Stir Fry.

Thai skewers of chicken satay

At the risk of coming across as completely annoying, this recipe for Thai peanut sauce and chicken satay skewers is on par with your favourite Thai eatery. You can tell they’re going to taste fantastic just by the fragrance as it touches the stove.

After that, you sample the peanut dipping sauce. and you’ll simply scratch your head, wondering how something so basic could taste so delicious! Or perhaps you’re thinking, “OMG, I’ve finally figured it out! This tastes just like the real Chicken Satay I had in Thailand!” Oh, I see. Perhaps I’m dreaming.

Thai peanut sauce and chicken satay ingredients

It might surprise you how few ingredients go in Chicken Satay and the peanut sauce! Here’s what you need:

The Greatest Paste for Thai Red Curry

A “secret ingredient” in the marinade and sauce is Thai Red Curry paste. Although it might not seem like much you only need around 2.5 tablespoons we don’t want this to taste like red curry. It is merely being used as a taste enhancer. Although I prefer making my own curry paste for Thai Red Curry and Green Curry, I use store-bought curry paste for recipes like this one that call for less.

The best, in my opinion, is Maesri Thai Red Curry Paste, which is what I use. For easy midweek curries, I also use the same brand for Red Curry and Green Curry. At about $1.30 per can at big-box stores like Coles, Woollies, and Harris Farms, it’s also the least expensive.

Thai Peanut Sauce Recipe

Making Thai Peanut Sauce is surprisingly easy. It literally only takes five minutes to plop and simmer:

• coconut milk.
• Curry paste in red
• White vinegar or cider (not lime juice!)
• peanut butter that is pure (For more information, see below.)
• Soy sauce
• Sugar
• If you just have table salt, which is finer, cut the amount in half. Cooking salt or kosher salt. Thus, 1/2 tsp table salt is equal to 1 tsp cooking salt divided by kosher salt.

Natural peanut butter is the best option for Thai peanut sauce.

Although commercial peanut butter spread is acceptable, use pure peanut butter if you want an excellent authentic Thai peanut sauce that rivals that of your favourite Thai restaurant. These days, it may be found in the health food department of most supermarkets.

Pure peanut butter has a richer peanut flavour because it is created with JUST peanuts, no sugar, oil, or other ingredients.

Additionally, natural peanut butter is thinner than commercial peanut butter spreads (see below), thus Thai peanut sauce will have a better peanut flavour with less water needed to dilute it.

Prior to releasing this recipe, I verified this by comparing the Thai Peanut Sauce made with natural, pure peanut butter to commercial peanut butter (Kraft, now Bega).

Peanut sauce elevates chicken satay skewers, which I firmly believe should be delicious enough to eat on their own. To make the chicken even more delicious, I prefer to marinate it.

Marination for Chicken Satay

The ingredients for the Thai Chicken Satay Marinade are as follows:

1. Pieces of chicken: tenderloin or breast are good, but thighs make the juiciest skewers.
2. Red curry paste: my suggested brand is shown above. Maesri
3. Curry powder is acceptable here.
4. Coconut milk
5. sugar
6. If you just have table salt, which is finer, cut the amount of cooking or kosher salt in half. Thus, 1/2 tsp table salt is equal to 1 tsp cooking salt divided by kosher salt.

It’s best to marinade for at least 3 hours but even 20 minutes is long enough.

Making the Skewers of Chicken

A favourite summertime BBQ dish is chicken satay. However, for simplicity, I normally cook it on the stove.Cook the chicken satay over charcoal, just like they do in Thailand, for a truly authentic Thai experience!

Along with Thai Fish Cakes, Thai Chicken Satay is a common appetiser on Thai restaurant menus. However, it’s also perfect as a main course. Serve it over fluffy Asian coconut rice (it’s fantastic!) or steaming jasmine rice. Or indulge on some pineapple or Thai fried rice! Use this Asian Sesame Dressing for a fresh salad or steamed vegetables, or try this Asian Slaw for a light side salad.

Serve this Chicken Satay as an appetiser, followed by Thai Chilli Basil Stir Fry, a curry (such as Massaman Curry, Green Curry, or Red Curry), and Coconut Rice for the main course if you want to go all out with a homemade Thai banquet. Or Pad See Ew!

Dish source: Although this dish was created from scratch, its foundations may be found in a number of Thai cookbooks and well-known Thai food specialists, including Sujet Saenkham (owner of the well-known Spice I Am restaurants) and David Thompson. However, I made this recipe so that regular chefs could make it.

Notes on the Recipe:

• Compared to Western skewers,Asian chicken satay skewers are often shorter.They fit in skillets, which is why I like them! Feel free to use longer skewers to construct huge ones.
• Thigh is the greatest option for the juiciest chicken, but breast or tenderloin can also be used. You may also use beef or pork instead; just make sure to select a quality, marbled cut that cooks quickly.
• Any curry powder will work here. I use Keens or Clives.
• Red curry paste: Maesri, which is the least expensive and comes in little cans, is, in my view, the greatest Thai red curry paste. available at Asian retailers and big-box stores like Coles, Woollies, and Harris. However, since it’s an enhancer rather than a primary flavouring, any brand will work.Since homemade Thai red curry paste lacks the ingredients that jar paste provides, double the curry paste, add 1 tsp fish sauce and 1 tsp sugar to the chicken marinade, and add 2 tsp fish sauce and 2 tsp sugar to the peanut sauce.
• Compared to conventional peanut butter, which contains sugar and other additives, natural peanut butter is made entirely of peanuts and has a richer peanut flavour. Additionally, because it is thinner, less water is needed to get the proper consistency. Quite common these days in supermarkets’ health food sections.You can use regular peanut butter spread, but the sauce will be thicker and the peanut flavour will be weaker. Avoid diluting with too much water as this will weaken the flavour.Substitute: 1/2 cup of the coconut milk that is called for in the peanut sauce is used to blitz 1 cup of raw, unsalted peanuts until they are smooth.
• Dark soy sauce enhances the sauce’s colour and adds spice. Light or all-purpose soy sauce can be substituted, however the colour of the sauce will be lighter.
• You can use ordinary white vinegar instead of cider vinegar. While rice vinegar, lime juice, and other clear vinegars can be used as a substitute, they are not entirely genuine.
• Make more peanut sauce than you’ll need; you’ll probably only need one-third of it. This dish requires an entire can of coconut milk and is difficult to cut down on. Keeps for a week in the refrigerator or frozenUtilise leftovers for:
  
  • Sauce for raw or steaming vegetables, rice, and noodles
  • Prepare a basic Gado Gado with rice, hard-boiled eggs, and steam vegetables.
  • Dip for veggies and prawn crackers
  • As the dressing for this sesame noodles, peanut noodle salad, satay noodle salad, or Chinese chicken salad

   

• Nutrition is greatly exaggerated. It makes the assumption that all of the peanut sauce is eaten, but in practice, that is probably just about one-third.