Yesterday, whilst I was wandering round the woods trying to find Ernie…again, I needed to take my mind off the fact that he might be stuck down a badger set, so I sat down and caught up with my Twitter stream.
I spotted that James Brewer from ‘Back to the Chopping Board‘ was making chicken satay for an evening barbecue too, so I suggested that we compare recipe notes. Here are mine:
As is my usual habit I noticed that I was missing a major ingredient for my Satay Sauce: Thai red curry paste. I decided to make some of my own as the food processor was out already and all that was missing from my stocks was the lemon grass.
It still tasted good and we have some paste left to make a curry during the week. So James – I did need that lemon grass after all!
First slice up 3-6 chicken breasts across the grain to make flat strips roughly 3cm x 10cm.
Make the marinade by stirring this little lot together:
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1tsp cumin
- 1tsp coriander
- 4 dessertspoons of coconut milk – from the can you will use for the sauce
Stir the chicken into the marinade and put it all in the fridge for an hour or two, or even overnight. I have done this with 2 chicken breasts but it easily stretched to 4 or 6. You should get about 6 skewers per breast if you have good sized ones! All the quantities are approximate, just go with what you have or make it as spicy as you fancy. Soak some wooden skewers in water to stop them burning on the BBQ.
Take your marinated bowl of chicken strips out of the fridge, then put rubber gloves on, to save you from getting yellow hands.
Spear the strips onto the ends of the wooden skewers weaving through the chicken 2-3 times.
The satay sauce
- 100g of peanuts – ground up in the food processor (or use crunchy peanut butter at a pinch)
- a can of coconut milk – minus the 4 spoonfuls used in the marinade
- 2 tsp of red curry paste, or a homemade version or even any other Thai curry paste you have
- 2 dessertspoons brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp lime juice
- Salt
Heat the coconut milk and curry paste in a pan for 5 minutes to melt it together. Add the sugar, peanuts and lime juice and simmer gently for around 30 minutes, stirring regularly.
The sauce will gradually thicken and darken and some of the oil will come to the surface. Add salt to taste. Pour into a bowl and allow to cool a bit.
Barbecue or griddle the chicken quickly and at a high heat until the chicken is slightly blackened on the edges.
Dip in the yummy peanut sauce.
Then go nuts on the bouncy castle provided by Deb from Fabulous Places and David from Square Chilli.
I really, really wanted the next blogpost to be a non foody one. There will soon be a ‘housey’ blogpost when Ed has finished building the bathroom that he is plastering as we speak.
Pascale
April 25, 2010
Claire, the satay looks so yummy. Made me really hungry and it’s only 9am here. (Still stuck in Barbados, you may have seen on Extra-Relish.) I wonder if I can get some Thai curry paste on the island today…I would love to cook some of that chicken later!
Pascale
Deb
April 25, 2010
haha…love the photos! The chicken satays were delicious :o)
Sarah, Maison Cupcake
April 25, 2010
Ah, rubber gloves, always sensible when handling spices, especially for contact lens wearers. I love satay but have never made my own. I recognise that spotty crockery!
sarah
April 26, 2010
beautiful photos! (i have a feeling my comments may get repetitive.)
thingswemake
April 26, 2010
Pascale – I didn’t realise that you were still there! Hope you are managing ok. I am sure the sunshine kind of helps make up for it.
Deb – it was a fab impromptu ‘do’. Hope you are not too achey! My tummy aches from laughing at the videos.
Sarah (Maison Cupcake) – I stab myself a lot with the skewers too, the gloves help soften the blow. The best thing about photos at other peoples houses is you get lovely different crockery in the shots! I am so bored of all my ‘props’.
Sarah – All nice comments always welcomed! Thank you.
Charlotte
April 26, 2010
Hi Claire, this is a fab recipe for gluten-free-ers too. BBQs can be tricky as many sausages/burgers are out of the question, altho there are some GF ones about. But this would be a crowd pleaser all round. Thanks for sharing, definitely one I’m going to try
love Charlotte X