Thai Chicken Satay

During my trips to Thailand, my favorite pastime was to try out all the delicious street food. Among them, my favorite ( and also for my kids !!!) was Chicken Satay ~ which is charcoal grilled succulent meat served with a peanut sauce. Since my kids love this dish very much, I picked up the recipe from the cook book I received on my birthday from my dearest sister-in-law ( just goes to prove, the foodies that exists in our family!) . This is a really simple recipe and it tasted just like the ones I remember having in the streets of Bangkok. Enjoy 🙂  ~ Kamakshi

Prep Time : 4-5 hrs ( for marination)               Cook Time : 25 mins
Serves : 4

INGREDIENTS

  • 500 gms, Chicken Breast cut into bite size cubes
  • 4 tsp Oil for pan frying
  • 8-10 Satay Wooden Skewers

For the marination :

  • 1 Medium Onion
  • 1 tsp Red Chilli Powder
  • 2 tsp Brown Sugar
  • 2 fresh Red/Chillies
  • 4 tbsp Coconut Milk or Yogurt
  • 1″ Ginger
  • 1 tsp Soya Sauce
  • 1 tbsp Lemon juice
  • 6-7 cloves garlic
  • 1 1/2 tsp Cumin (Zeera) Powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp Coriander (Dhania) Powder
  • 1/2 tsp Turmeric (Haldi)
  • 1 tsp Sesame Oil
  • 1 tsp Salt

METHOD 

  1. Mix all the ingredients required for the marination into a blender and make it into a paste.
  2. Pour the marination paste over the chicken cubes and mix well into the meat. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for 4-5 hours ( preferable overnight).
  3. Soak the wooden skewers for atleast 30 mins so that they do not burn during cooking. After marination, thread the chicken pieces into the wooden skewers. Do not leave any space between the chicken pieces.
  4. Ideally, the chicken satay is grilled over charcoal but at home, you can pan fry them over a non-stick pan.
  5. Heat the non-stick pan, grease it with 1 tsp of Oil and place the skewered chicken, few at a time. Cook on medium heat until both sides are lightly browned about 2-3 minutes on each side. The chicken is very soft therefore it does not take a long time to cook.
  6. Cook them in batches. Between each batch wipe the pan clean as the sugar in the marinade caramelizes in the pan and add a tsp of oil.
  7. Serve hot as is or with Peanut sauce.