Chicken Satay
This is an original satay mix for chicken provided by a good friend. Her and her husband follow no recipes when they cook, so they had to endure two days in a row of this tasty sounding satay in order to write the rough measurements down so I can share her 'recipe' here. From the author of this, "this is a guide, feel free to increase, decrease amounts of items, tailor it to make it your own." And as I like to say, a recipe is not set in stone.
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup coconut milk
- 5 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon lime juice
- 1/2 teaspoon lime zest
- 1 teaspoon sugar, or to taste
- 500 grams chicken breast, boneless, skinless, (1 lb)
- wood skewers, as needed
- vegetable oil, as needed
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, add the coconut milk and peanut butter and mix together. If it is too stiff, add bit more coconut milk, and if too thin, you guessed it, add a bit more peanut butter.
- Now add the cumin, cayenne, lime juice, and zest and mix together. Taste and add mix in the sugar to counter the lime if the lime is too strong.
- Slice the chicken breasts lengthwise into 1/2 inch thick strips.
- Add the chicken strips to satay mix, and mix together until all the chicken is coated. Cover the bowl and place in the fridge to marinate for at least 1 hour, and over night is highly recommended.
- When you are ready to cook, light your grill (charcoal or gas), you will be direct cooking over medium heat, about 350-450 F. Soak the wood skewers in water for about 30 minutes.
- Remove the chicken from the satay mix and brush off excess satay mix. Thread the strips onto skewers. Brush the chicken with vegetable oil.
- Grill the skewers for about 8-10 minutes, turning once, with the lid closed.
- Serve with sides of your choice.
Notes
Chicken is low cost.
Variants: 1. Use half of the mix (marinade) mixed with the chicken, and the other half heated in a small saucepan for a dipping sauce, OR, what I will do, is make one batch for the marinade, and another batch for the dipping sauce, problem solved). 2. This marinade works well on pork, shrimp/prawn, and even rabbit. 3. This works well on very dense/firm fish, on salmon it is excellent. This does NOT work well with average white fish and is NOT recommended. 4. For shrimp/prawn, clean as you would, remove shell, tail, devein, marinate in the mix.
Like your friends, although I use recipes for a guide, I am moving toward “Intuitive Cooking”, cooking based on tastes and experiences from the past…I know what I and my wife like and cook in a way that is tailored to our tastes…As my wife is Thai and I am not I cook to the medium and we both adjust based on our personal tastes…
That is perfect, Brian! I look at soups as being universal, nearly ever culture has soups. When I made a tailored Russian soup, meatball soup, I added straw mushroom and seasonings I liked, the family thought it was a Thai soup.