Mmmmm, peanut sauce! Our pal Dan says that chicken satay is ALL about the peanut sauce, and while I largely agree with him, I know that a juicy, flavorful piece of chicken will stand above a dried-out one, even under peanut sauce. So I took pains to make sure the satay would be full of flavor.I had 2 packages of boneless skinless organic chicken breasts in the freezer, and two pounds of Planters "cocktail" peanuts in the cabinet. On Friday morning I moved the chicken into the fridge. I wanted them thawed by Saturday night so they could spend the night marinating before I grilled them on Sunday.
On Saturday, I made the peanut butter in two batches. Using one pound at a time, I emptied the peanuts into the Cuisinart and powered it up. After about 8 to 10 minutes, a warm river of fresh peanut butter goodness swirled around in the work bowl.
For the marinade, I didn't do anything fancy: olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano, paprika, fresh garlic and cilantro. The chicken breasts were washed, dried and cut into 3/4-inch strips. I mixed them in well with the marinade, covered the bowl and put it in the fridge.
On Sunday, I got the charcoal chimney started at 7:30 p.m. and set off to skewer the chicken strips. I used long wooden skewers that had been soaking in water for a couple of hours, and "weaved" two strips of chicken onto each one. Next, using a no-cook "Best Thai Peanut Sauce" recipe from allrecipes.com, I made the sauce:
- 1 1/2 cups peanut butter
- 1/2 cup coconut milk
- 3 tablespoons water
- 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon hot sauce
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger root
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
In a bowl, mix the peanut butter, coconut milk, water, lime juice, soy sauce, fish sauce, hot sauce, ginger and garlic. Mix in the cilantro just before serving.
When the coals were ready, I spread them out in one large even layer, put the grill on, covered the Weber and waited 10 minutes for it to heat up. I laid the skewers out in one layer and covered them for 3 minutes. I then turned each skewer over and covered the chicken for another three minutes.
To serve, I removed the chicken from the skewers, placed the pieces over rice and covered with a generous portion of peanut sauce. It was excellent.