Chicken satay with peanut sauce

Ingredients

• 1kg free range Irish chicken thigh meat, chopped in 1-2 inch chunks

For the marinade:

• 50g white sugar
• 5g salt
• 50g chopped shallot
• 5g coriander powder, ground from whole seeds
• 5g cumin powder, ground from whole seeds
• 10g fresh galangal, chopped
• 2 heads lemongrass, thinly sliced
• 5g turmeric powder

For the satay sauce:

• 100g roasted unsalted peanuts
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 20ml ketjap manis
• 20ml sesame oil
• 35ml light soy sauce.
• ½ teaspoon chilli powder, more if you like
• 40ml coconut milk
• 90g melted palm sugar
• 40ml tamarind concentrate, found in Asian supermarkets

Directions

1. Blitz the marinade ingredients together and coat the chicken (wear gloves), then leave for 24-48 hours.
2. To make the satay sauce, blitz all the ingredients together. Heat gently to serve. Add a little water or more coconut milk if needed. There will be sauce leftover but it keeps for two weeks in the fridge.
3. Leave 10 – 12 satay sticks soaking in water for one hour. Thread the chicken onto the sticks evenly
4. Heat a griddle pan and fry the chicken until cooked through.
5. To serve, spoon the hot satay sauce onto the chicken and leave more for dipping.

Recipe courtesy of Chameleon.
Image by Harry Weir and Brian Clarke

Tips

• Tamarind paste is fine to use instead of concentrate. But if you can’t find either, use lime juice.

• Ketjap manis is an essential ingredient. It’s a sweet sauce soy with an almost treacle-like consistency. You can get it in most Asian supermarkets and I recommend you add it to your store-cupboard ingredients.