The other day I was at the zoo with some friends and mentioned that I was stopping at Ikea on the way home to pick up a bookcase we needed. My friend Kim looked at my two kids that I had with me (a baby and a 4 year old) and said, “How are you going to carry it all?” It’s incredible to me that I’ve been a mom for 10 years now and I still don’t think this stuff through. How WAS I going to load the heavy bookcase by myself and manage the kids? But I decided to try it anyway, because I’m the kind of person who often thinks to myself, “I’m gonna let future Karen deal with that problem.” So off we went. We found the bookshelf. I loaded it onto the trolly. I made the 4 year old push the baby in his stroller, all the way through the store and checkout, all the way out to the car. These are good life experiences for preschoolers, right? Gotta teach these kids some responsibility! It turns out getting from the store to the car was the least of my worries. Now I had to figure out how to put all the seats down in the back of the van, develop some super human strength to lift the giant boxes all by myself, and make sure that the kids didn’t get run over in the process. Just as I was staring into the back of my car trying to envision how I was going to get this done, a man and his son walked by. They saw me and said, Hey, do you want some help loading this in? It was amazing you guys. I almost cried. They took care of the whole thing, shushing me while I thanked them profusely, the dad telling me about how he would have wanted someone to do this for his wife when the kids were little. People are the best. Next time a human does something stupid and you want to punch them in the face, think of this story. Faith in humanity! We can totally have it!
You’ll love this Thai Chicken Satay Recipe
If I knew where those guys lived I would reward them with a porch drop-off of these Chicken Satay Skewers. Sure, Chocolate chip cookies might be more traditional for doorbell ditching, but I’m telling you, no one is going to be able to resist this. (You are welcome to drop Thai food off on my porch ANY DAY.) Over the holidays, my extended family and I spent all day on Christmas Eve making an epic Thai meal for dinner. (We pick a different country ever year, it’s the best tradition ever!) The Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce was my favorite of all the dishes we made. Here is our Christmas Eve spread: The platter in the middle is our Satay (that we did not skewer because there were 30 people and we were lazy), and the giant pot in the back is full of peanut sauce. We put that stuff on everything for days afterward.
What is Chicken Satay
Authentic chicken satay is basically just chicken – the fattier the better, I like chicken thighs – chopped into chunks, marinated in traditional Thai flavors, threaded onto skewers, and grilled to perfection. It is a traditional street food in Thailand. The fatty, greasy, flavorful chicken is conveniently chopped and easy to eat right off the stick, no utensils required. Dip it in the (required) Peanut Sauce, and cleanse your palate with vinegary bites of this Thai Cucumber Salad. Top it off with some toasty white bread, and you are on your way to food vendor heaven. Of course, I’ve never seen authentic Thai Chicken Satay sold on the streets in US. Have you? We need to make this a thing, guys. Bangkok knows where it’s at. It turns out that eating chicken satay (authentically) is kind of like eating a deconstructed sandwich. You’ve got your delicious grilled chicken satay, crunchy Thai cucumber salad as a relish, all of it slathered with peanut sauce, un-sandwiched together with grilled buttered bread. It’s honestly one of the best meals I’ve ever had.
Chicken Satay Recipe (Thai), Ingredients
Here’s a quick shopping list to help you gather your ingredients. See the recipe card below for the full ingredients and instructions!
For the chicken skewers:
For the Thai peanut sauce (not optional!):
Chicken Satay Ingredient Notes
Lemongrass can be tough to find. I actually use Gourmet Gardens Lemongrass that comes in a tube. Fresh is always best, of course, but use what you can find. If you use real lemongrass, you will need to crush it with a meat mallet or hammer before chopping. This releases all the flavor! Shallot is very classic for Thai cooking. It has the perfect mild flavor you want. Red onion can be substituted in a pinch. Red chili. In Thailand they use Birds Eye chiles, which are tiny, red, and flaming hot. I couldn’t find any; I used a red Fresno pepper in it’s place. A jalapeno will do. Ginger: don’t use too much. If we were in Thailand, we would be using galangal, which is similar to ginger but more mild. So just use a little bit. Fish Sauce is basically blended up fermented anchovies. Yum, right? Don’t be deterred. Fish sauce is an AMAZING powerhouse of flavor. It’s essential in Thai cooking. I mean, I wouldn’t drink the stuff, but it does amazing umami-things to your satay marinade. Don’t skip it. You should be able to find it on the Asian aisle of your grocery store. Brown sugar: in Thailand, they use palm sugar a lot of the time. Brown sugar is a decent substitute. White sugar will work fine too.
How to make Chicken Satay Skewers
Here’s a brief overview of how to make chicken satay skewers, with photos below. Scroll down to the recipe card below for complete instructions! First we start out by chopping up the chicken. You don’t want the pieces to be too big. They should be pleasantly bite sized, so that you don’t have to do any gnawing. (Satay is meant to be eaten directly from the stick.) I like to start with partially frozen chicken thighs; it’s so much easier to slice when it’s firm. Chicken breasts will of course work, but your result will be much less flavorful. Chicken thighs are full of fat, and fat = flavor. Place all the chicken pieces in a ziplock bag with all the other marinade ingredients: lemongrass, shallot, garlic, red chili, ginger, turmeric, coriander, cumin, soy sauce, fish sauce, brown sugar, and oil. Once you have all the ingredients in the ziplock, seal it and place in a bowl. Marinate for several hours, turning occasionally. I like to marinate for 24 hours, but even 4 hours is going to taste amazing.
How to skewer Thai Chicken Satay
Now, about this skewering situation. This is SATAY, not a chicken kebab. Chicken satay features small bites of chicken that are all bunched together on one end of the stick, not spaced out. The stick is meant to act as an eating utensil (it is a street food after all; who has an extra hand for forks?) Leela Punyaratabandhu is a blogger, cookbook author, and all-around authority on Thai cooking. She blogs at She Simmers. I learned what I know about satay and how to thread it from this post about Mu Ping (Thai Grilled Pork on Skewers) (which I am definitely making soon!) She even has pictures of how NOT to skewer the meat, and explains that a lot of vendors even in Thailand do it wrong, resulting in tough, dry meat. I’ve applied her skewering technique to this Chicken Satay and I love how it turned out. When the chicken is compacted together on one end of the stick, it cooks a bit more like a whole piece of chicken, giving you that juicy, tender center, while still being easy to bite off the stick easily. If you separate tiny chicken pieces all across the skewer, it’s easy to end up with dry, overcooked chicken. Also, when the meat is pressed together, it’s harder to burn the wooden skewer itself. When you are grilling the skewers, it’s important to have the chicken portion of the skewer over direct heat, and the bare end of the skewer over indirect heat. That burner on the far right of my grill is turned off. I turned it on when preheating the grill, but then turned it off right before putting the chicken on. If you leave the heat on, those sticks are going to burn right off. It’s also really important to soak your wooden skewers before threading the chicken on.
More Thai recipes you are going to love!
To complete this meal, you need to make this Thai Peanut Sauce to dip the Chicken Satay in. It is rich and creamy, sweet and salty, and absolutely essential for satay! Thai Cucumber Salad is the other side dish you are going to want to make. It provides the perfect vinegary bite to break up all that fatty chicken-peanut goodness. Grilled or toasted white bread completes the meal. Dip it in the peanut sauce! Absolute perfection!
More international flavors you will like:
Easy Sesame Noodles with Spring Veggies « This would make a great side, and is SO easy! Slow Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala (and Naan!) « Indian food never gets old. Cheater Chicken Biryani « 30 minutes tops! Greek Gyro Recipe « my favorite food truck situation! Banh Mi Sandwich « I am obsessed with these Vietnamese flavors! Asian Seared Chicken with Stir Fried Green Beans « the chicken gets sooo crispy using this method.
More grilled chicken recipes to try:
Slow Grilled Mustard Chicken « this is my favorite method for grilling whole chicken pieces. Simply Amazing Grilled Chicken Marinade « this is my go-to marinade. Chicken, Garlic, and Broccoli Kebabs from Kiss My Smoke Garlic Basil Grilled Shrimp Skewers from Diethood BBQ Hawaiian Chicken Kebabs from Nutmeg Nanny
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