Chicken Sate
A recipe for Chicken Sate from the cookbook, Fire Islands: Recipes from Indonesia, written by Eleanor Ford.
Servings 12 Skewers
Ingredients
Chicken Sate:
- 400 grams (14 ounces) skinless chicken breast
- 1 garlic clove roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon kecap manis
- Oil for grilling
- Juice of 1/2 lime to serve
Peanut Sauce:
- 100 grams (2/3 cup) raw peanuts skin on
- 1 tablespoon oil for frying peanuts
- 1 garlic clove crushed
- 1/2 teaspoon shrimp paste toasted, optional
- 1/2 teaspoon dark palm sugar gula jawa, grated
- 3 tablespoons kecap manis
- Juice of 1/2 a lime
Instructions
Chicken Sate:
- Cut the chicken into a 2-3 cm (1 inch) dice. Mix with the garlic, kecap manis, and a pinch of salt. Set aside to marinate for 10 minutes (or if longer, cover and keep in the fridge).
- If using bamboo skewers, soak in water to stop them from burning whilst the meat marinates. Thread the chicken onto the skewers, keeping the pieces tightly packed together.
- The best results are indisputably on a barbecue- add coconut fibres or wood chips for the wonderful smoky notes- but you could also grill or griddle on a high heat. When searing hot, brush your grill with a little oil and cook your sate over a direct heat (keeping the sticks away from the coals). Turn until browned on all sides and cooked through.
- Spritz the lime juice over the sate and douse with the warm peanut sauce.
Peanut Sauce:
- Fry the peanuts to bring out their toasty flavour. Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan over a high heat. When shimmering, add the nuts and stir-fry for a minute. Reduce the heat to medium and continue to fry, stirring often, for about 5 minutes, until the nuts are deep golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towel.
- Tip the nuts into a food processor (keep the skins on) with the garlic, shrimp paste, palm sugar, and a good pinch of salt. Blitz to a sandy rubble, then scrape the sides and process for another minute. Continue scraping and blitzing for a few minutes at a time until you have a smooth purée (it should get there, with some perseverance).
- Transfer the peanut butter to a saucepan, add the kecap manis and a small glassful of water. Cook over a medium-high heat, stirring often, until you have. a sauce that is dark and slightly sticky. Thin with more water if it gets too thick- you want it to thickly coat the sate but be just pourable. Leave to cool and taste for seasoning, adjusting the saltiness and sweetness if you like. A final spritz of lime juice will brighten the flavours.