Another installment of food on a stick, thanks to inspiration from buddies Matt & Adam and their book titled…uh…On a Stick…which is always more fun to eat than food on a fork. Plus you get to play sword fight with the sticks after you eat (you do that too, right!???)
Grilled Chicken Satay is super easy to make – 1 bowl, 1 knife and 1 cutting board. Oh, and don’t forget the sticks too.
Instead of making a peanut dipping sauce, I decided to include the sauce flavor in the marinade and top with chopped peanuts. So imagine this: salty (peanut, soy sauce), sweet (brown sugar), garlicky and gingery, crunchy and a hit of tang (rice vinegar). You can also include a spoonful of hot chili sauce if you’d like.
How to make Chicken Satay
The ingredients for the chicken satay marinade are
If you’ve never used rice vinegar before, it’s one of my must-have pantry items for Asian foods. Look for “rice vinegar” on the label – it’s easy to confuse it with “rice wine,” but they are very different products. One is a tangy vinegar, and the other is cooking wine.
There are two kinds of rice vinegar: regular and seasoned (or sweetened). You can use either in this recipe, but I prefer the regular, since we’re using brown sugar in the marinade. You’ll have to read the label carefully or just look for the color differences on the label. Mitsukan (a client of moi) uses BLUE for unsweetened or regular rice vinegar and RED for sweetened or seasoned.
And as for the peanut butter – chunky or smooth, it’s up to you! I’m a chunky gal myself. And I don’t mean the size of my thighs.
Start by slicing your chicken into long, thin strips. You can use either chicken breast or thighs (I prefer dark meat, but it’s totally up to you!). Try to get the chicken strips all similar in thickness (uh, actually thinness) so that they’ll cook evenly. See how thin I like to slice?
If they’re not quite thin enough, smash ’em with your chef’s knife. Lay your chef’s knife flat on the chicken and use the heel of your hand to pound the strip flat.
Mix your marinade and let the chicken marinate from 30 minutes to overnight in the refrigerator.
While the chicken is marinating, soak the bamboo skewers in water to prevent burning. If bamboo sticks burn, they’ll break. Then you’ll have food on a broken stick. 🙂
Just before you’re ready to cook the chicken satay, you’ll thread the strips on bamboo skewers just like this:
The chicken satay grills up really fast, so cook them right before you want to serve.
About 4 minutes each side over hot flames!
Top with chopped peanuts and serve!
Chicken Satay Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless chicken breast or thigh
- 1-2 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar, Mitsukan brand preferred
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon peanut butter
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts, chopped
- bamboo skewers, soaked in water
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the garlic, ginger, rice vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar, peanut butter and sesame oil. Set the marinade aside.
- Slice the chicken breasts into long, thin strips. Add the chicken strips to the marinade and mix well. Refrigerate 1 hour or for up to overnight.
- When ready to cook, preheat the grill - high heat on one side and low heat on the other side. Thread the chicken strips onto the bamboo skewers, keeping the chicken as flat as you can so that they cook evenly. Grill the chicken skewers, starting on the high heat side for 4 minutes each side. The move the skewers to the low heat side, cover and finish cooking, about 1-3 minutes more, depending on the thickness of your chicken.
- Serve with chopped roasted peanuts sprinkled on top.
Did you try this recipe? Please leave a star rating in the recipe card below and leave a review in the comment section! I always appreciate your feedback and I know other readers do, too!
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Can you recommend what other options for cooking besides a grill? Can you bake these in an oven? toaster oven? George Foreman grill? And if so, for how long? It’s about 118 degrees in AZ so we’re not much for grilling outside until it cools down a bit.
You can broil – 4 minutes, then flip and another 4 minutes.
I LOVE SATAY CHICKENNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
delicious chicken satay..in indonesian name is sate ayam.i love eat this food.
My son is allergic to nuts too. He can eat soybutter and it tastes really good in this dish! It adds a nice “nutty” roasted flavor, without the nuts! 🙂
I used almond butter , chili paste and lite coconut milk in marinade and used an immersion blender to blend. This way the chicken can be cut in bigger strips and soaked in batter. We fried it in olive oil and put in our salad
One of my favorite things to make is satays. This recipe was delicious and my family loved the. The only I would do differently is to soak the wooden skewers I cold water for about 10-15minute so they don’t burn.
The flavours in this chicken satay are awesome. Sweet, salty, ginger, garlic and then I added a bit of chilli powder for some spiciness. I served it on a snack platter for my husband and his friends watching the football and it was a winner even if their team wasn’t.
LOL!
Hi Jayden, you should taste the original chicken satay in Indonesia.. It tastes exceptionally delicious!! 🙂
Made these for friends, and their four year old boy consumed a record amount of protein at one sitting (five).
The nuts on top are a great touch, my friend said!
My kids love Chicken Satay, and anything on a stick is so fun to eat. Like how you incorporated the sauce ingredients in the marinade and topped these with chopped peanuts for crunch!
We’re having these with Thai dinner we’re making for our neighbors tonight. I’ll do the book review for you soon, too, Jaden! Thanks for all the good tips and recipes. Loved your driving post – we were just teaching teens to drive a pick-up. ARGGGGGGGH. I can so relate to these heart-stopping moments. LOL.
Would it be possible to cook this in the broiler or oven? Would it be the same cooking time?
Thanks
This is something I’ve been meaning to make for a long time. They look gorgeous and I love the healthy looking tomato salad on the side.
thanks for sharing i cant wait to make these at my next bbq
Can I omit the soy sauce in the marinade? I love asian food but I’m allergic to soy. Love your blog by the way 😀
I love satay. Always have it at hawker center. It always come with peanut sauce, raw cucumber and onions. Of course, also the “rice” called “ketupat”. 🙂
I love chicken satay! I like to serve them with peanut sauce…yum! I am going to make these for dinner tonight. Thanks, Jaden!
Since I just bought rice vinegar and fresh ginger for another recipe….this is perfect timing…on the menu this week…thank you!
Trying this tonight! Thanks!!
This looks soo good! Plus, the photography is just superb! 🙂
Simple, delicious and so kid friendly! I will be making this for dinner tomorrow. Thank you for the inspiration and great photos, as always!
Now this is my type of recipe! However, I don’t know where I put my skewers. I have purchased them twice and because I don’t keep them on hand normally I place them somewhere in my kitchen where I cannot find them. This has happened twice. I haven’t looked real hard for them thinking they’ll turn up eventually, but they don’t. That may give a clue…no matter, I’m hunting them down now. It’s grilling season and I just have to make these! Thanks for the kick in the pants! 🙂
LOL the skewers are probably hiding in the same place as the lost dryer socks 🙂
Satay chicken is the best! I love spicy peanut dipping suace with it and some jasmine rice. Yum!
This looks delicious! Love your photos too 🙂
I was just recently talking with my husband about making some Satay’s ….these look awesome. Thanks for sharing.
Yum! Peanut satays are the best =)
Mmmmm…chicken satay one of my favorites…well, my daughter’s favorite too! I like the ideas of the dipping sauce in the marinade, but then again half the fun of food on a stick is dipping! 😀
I am having an “On a Stick” party in a week! I should make this…I’ll add it to my list. By the way, I love your cutting board.
Thanks! It’s from personalization mall 🙂
Love this. Made something similar a couple of weeks ago. Boys loved it, husband hated it. SIGH…. but if its Thai flavored, its mine!
I love how the sauce is in the glaze. It avoids awkward dipping situations once you’re too far down the stick. Looks great!
These look so delicious, but sigh, my man is allergic to nuts.
He’s also allergic to dairy. Good thing he’s an amazing cook. It (pretty much) makes up for all of my new dietary restrictions.
I do have lots of fun with dairy alternatives though. Coconut milk is my BFF.
I love chicken satay and this looks like a great recipe!
perfect. i love the leftovers of this. throw em in a roll up and top with even more sauce and some cabbage slaw crunch.