This easy chicken satay recipe packs a punch with a zesty peanut dipping sauce! Serve as an appetizer or over rice noodles for a complete meal.
(This post was first published in October 2017 and has been updated with new and updated content)
This chicken satay with a zesty peanut dipping sauce is quite an explosion of flavors! I love the bold Thai flavors and the unique, zesty, full-bodied peanut dipping sauce that goes over the grilled chicken satay skewers. I serve these grilled chicken satay skewers and dipping sauce over rice noodles, to make it a complete meal, but they are perfectly yummy on their own as well.
Here's a tip: Make double the amount of dipping sauce and refrigerate or freeze the the sauce for later. I guarantee you, this is one sauce that you will not tire of!
List of Ingredients
Here's what you need to make the perfect grilled chicken satay with peanut dipping sauce:
Chicken: Boneless, skinless chicken meat - either breast meat or thigh meat will work well.
Lime juice: Zest and juice of 1 lime. Lime gives it a fresh, zesty flavor and enhances the taste of the dish.
Fresh Coriander: The addition of fresh coriander gives both the marinade and the dipping sauce an added depth of flavor, and that striking color! Don't skimp on the coriander, it really makes a difference to the flavor. For this recipe, we use both the leaves and the stalks.
Peanut Butter: Smooth, creamy peanut butter is used both in the marinade and for the dipping sauce.
Seasonings: This recipe uses turmeric powder, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, fish sauce, and fresh red chili (optional) to add flavor to the dish. As a substitute, you could use red chili powder or paprika as well. Fish sauce is optional, although it does give a nice boost of flavor.
Step-by-step recipe instructions
Start by preparing the marinade. Blend all the ingredients for the marinade together in a food processor or blender. Then, cut your chicken breasts into long strips and in a large mixing bowl, mix the chicken with around 1/3 rd of the marinade until each piece is well-coated with marinade. Reserve the rest of the marinade for the dipping sauce.
How to prep the chicken for grilling - I picked up this genius tip from Jamie Oliver - Lay out the marinated chicken strips on a chopping board, get your skewers (if using bamboo skewers, soak them in water for 15 minutes to prevent them from browning in the oven or grill), and insert the skewers perpendicular to the chicken, such that each skewer goes into all the breast pieces.
Then, slice between the skewers to give you chicken pieces, cut like kababs. Thread any stray pieces on the ends of the skewers. Jamie also advises scoring the chicken pieces gently with a knife to give the chicken maximum surface area - this ensures that it chars up nicely when it is being grilled.
Finally, grill the chicken skewers on a grill (stove top of barbeque) or bake in the oven until the edges start to turn golden brown. Turn the skewers over for even browning.
How to make the perfect peanut dipping sauce
Once the chicken skewers are done, prepare the peanut dipping sauce. For this, we use the reserved marinade from earlier. Add a heaped tablespoon of peanut sauce, salt, and sugar to season and blend in a blender until it forms a smooth sauce as you can see in the image below.
To serve, garnish the grilled chicken skewers with some fresh lime juice, then spoon some of the sauce over the grilled chicken skewers. Serve with more dipping sauce. Optionally, plate the chicken satay over rice noodles to make this a complete meal.
Expert Tips
How to prep the chicken for grilling
Layout the marinated chicken strips on a chopping board, get your skewers (if using bamboo skewers, soak them in water for 15 minutes to prevent them from browning in the oven or grill), and insert the skewers perpendicular to the chicken, such that each skewer goes into all the breast pieces.
Then, slice between the skewers to give you chicken pieces, cut like kababs. Thread any stray pieces on the ends of the skewers. Score the chicken pieces to give it extra surface area - this gives it more char.
Make extra peanut dipping sauce
I highly recommend you make some extra peanut dipping sauce, especially if you are serving chicken satay with rice or noodles as part of the main course. Spoon the dipping sauce over rice or noodles while serving.
More Asian Recipes to try at home
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Easy Chicken Satay
Equipment
- Skewers
- Grill (Stovetop/ Barbeque / Oven)
Ingredients
- 500 grams Chicken breast skinless
For the marinade:
- ¾ cup chopped coriander leaves and stalks
- 3-4 garlic cloves
- 1 inch ginger
- ½ red chili optional
- 1 red onion chopped
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- Juice and zest of 1 lime
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce use a reduced-salt version
- ½ teaspoon fish sauce optional
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- 3 teaspoons smooth peanut butter
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- Salt for seasoning
- 1 teaspoon Sugar for seasoning
For the peanut dipping sauce:
- 1 teaspoon peanut butter
- Marinade left over after marinating the chicken approximately 1/3 of the marinade will be used for the marination
Instructions
- In a food processor or blender, blend all the ingredients listed under 'marinade'.
- Cut the chicken peices into long strips.
- In a large mixing bowl, marinate the chicken strips in around 1/3 of the marinade untillthe chicken pieces are well coated in the marinade. Reserve the rest of the marinade for later.
- Skewer the chicken strips (see notes)
- To grill the skewered chicken, pre-heat a grill pan (if using a stovetop grill). Add olive oil and cook the chicken skewers, flipping the skewers ocassionally for even grilling. Using a marinade brush, brush more marinade on the chicken as they cook. Once the chicken skewers are grilled and the start to turn golden brown, keep the skewers aside.
- If using an oven to grill the chicken, grill them at 200 C (390 F) for 15- 17 minutes, flipping the skewers over once in between.
For the dipping sauce:
- Prepare the dipping sauce by adding the leftover marinade to a mixing bowl along with the peanut butter. Blend to a smooth sauce. Adjust seasoning and add salt and sugar as needed.
- Tip: To make a runny sauce, add more coconut milk and blend.
- To serve, garnish the skewers with more lime juice, drizzle some of the dipping sauce over the skewers and serve.
Notes
- To skewer the chicken easily, lay the marinated chicken pieces parallel to each other, skewer the pieces by inserting the skewers perpendicular to the pieces. Cut the chicken between the skewers to form kababs. (see step-by-step instructions in the blogpost)
- Make extra dipping sauce for serving over rice or noodles
Oh my goodness, what wonderful flavors, so simply! I loved the idea to make extra sauce .... need this on EVERYTHING (except, you know, maybe breakfast cereal lol)! And that was a great suggestion to serve these chicken satay skewers over noodles, even though they're so great on their own, too! Thanks!!
This is the BEST chicken satay recipe I've tried so far. Very flavorful and was a crowd-pleaser! Great for gatherings 🙂
Tasty skewers but let's discuss the dipping sauce - so yummy!! Thank you, this is a new regular meal in my house.
Wow - so many incredible flavors in that awesome dipping sauce!
I LOVE chicken satay and this recipe looks amazing!
Oh wie lecker, muss ich nach machen, danke fürs teilen!
Grüße,
Jesse-Gabriel aus Berlin
Vielen Dank!
This sounds absolutely delicious, thank you for bringing it to FF.
I was just thinking of chicken satay and this showed up! 😀 I was thinking of having it with rice, but rice noodles sound lovely as well. Thanks for sharing and happy Fiesta Friday! This looks so good!
By the way we all appreciate you sharing your chicken satay with Fiesta Friday. I'm sure it will be a favorite...
Lots of ingredients don't deter me at all and even better that I have all of the items in your recipe.