I love days like today in Seattle. Blue skies, not to cold, but not to hot. You can get away with wearing flip flops and ordering an iced latte all within the rules of acceptability for a living here. Because the weather around here has been so unpredictable I appreciate a nice day like today even more because I know it will not last. I’m not sure what it is about a beautiful sunny day, but they always command a need in me to grill. One of my favorite dishes to bbq is chicken satay. I love the flavors of cardamon, lemongrass, and ginger (to name a few) infusing the meat and transforming the tender grilled chicken into something spectacular. And if that weren’t enough, the coconut peanut sauce is to die for. I really do love this recipe because it is as good, if not better than what you would eat at a Thai restaurant. It can be served as an appetizer or main dish and is a great meal for entertaining. Serve it with a side of cucumber salad and you’ll be thanking me later. Yes, it is that good.
Chicken Satay and Coconut Peanut Sauce Recipe
serves 4-6 people
Ingredients for the marinade:
2 lbs of boneless chicken breasts cubed in 1″ pieces
4 tbs. soy sauce ( use Tamari San-J Brand Soy Sauce for Gluten Free)
2 tbs. oil
3 tbs. brown sugar packed
1 tbs. of finely chopped lemongrass (You can purchase this in a tube in the produce section of your grocery store)
1 slice (coin) of peeled ginger – approx. 1 tsp. finely minced
1/2 tsp cardamon powder
1 tbs. of curry powder
2 cloves of garlic
2 tbs. of fresh lime juice (approx. half a lime)
Wood skewers
Ingredients for the coconut peanut sauce:
1 can (13.5 oz) of coconut milk
3 tbs. of peanut butter
4 tbs. of brown sugar, packed,
2 tsp. of massamam curry paste
2 tbs. of fresh lime juice (approx. half a lime)
Directions for the marinade:
Place cubed chicken in a medium bowl. Combine all the ingredients except for the chicken in a food processor and blend for 30 seconds. Pour the marinade over the cubed chicken and massage the meat with your hands for 1 minute. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and marinade for at least 3 hours. After the meat has had time to marinade, thread 6-8 cubes of chicken on a wooden skewer until all the chicken is gone. Pre-grease (with non stick spray) and pre-heat grill on high heat.
While grill is preheating, heat a medium sauce pan on medium-low heat. Add coconut milk, brown sugar, massamam curry, lime juice, and peanut butter to the sauce pan and continuously stir until all of the ingredients have completely come together. Turn off heat and pour sauce into a serving bowl.
The grill should be nice and hot by now. Grill chicken skewers for 4-5 minutes on front and back side or until fully cooked. Total cooking time will vary but mine were finished in 9-10 minutes. Chicken should be tender and not overcooked. Plate the skewers with the peanut sauce and serve with a side of cucumber salad. Enjoy!
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{ 36 comments… read them below or add one }
A coconut peanut sauce sounds fabulous! I can’t wait to try it! THanks!
I love chicken satay with peanut sauce. I need to try to find the tube of lemongrass that you have pictured… I have seen ginger and cilantro at my store – I hope they have lemongrass, too!
Chicken Satay might be one of my favorite foods!
This looks really great! I always want to have grilled food whenever it’s nice out, too!
Those look amazing! I love peanut sauce, and your sauce seems to have all the right flavors. Your picture is just lovely. I wish I could have some right now!
the sauce looks so creamy and delicious. I love these flavors.
This is always the first thing I order when I go out with friends. Yummy chicken satay!!!
You always have such amazing pictures and fabulous sounding recipes. Yum to coconut+peanut sauce+chicken!
I love this sort of meal… perfect. Coconut Peanut Sauce… I’m afraid I could probably end up drinking the stuff
Glad you guys are having some nice weather (finally!)
Thanks everyone. This recipe has been a work in progress for some time and I finally got it down to fabulous. The marinade is killer as well as the sauce.
And Lori, when we eat this at our house its more like.. would you like some chicken with that sauce?
Wow, I just love it…we had Thai food last night for dinner and I loved the peanut sauce…and here you are. Great timing! The pictures look very yummie!
After so much rain we really learn to appreciate those blue sunny, clear sky, days.
The recipe sound delicious.
I love chicken satays! We haven’t started grilling yet this season, hopefully soon!
I made this tonight. I used fresh lemongrass (minced) and otherwise followed the recipe pretty closely. I started the marinade mid morning and grilled for an early dinner. This came out great. The marinade had a nice balance of garlic/ginger/lemongrass that none over-powered the other. The peanut sauce I thought would be too sweet, and not enough peanut flavor, and I was happily mistaken. Again, nicely balanced. I have a lot of extra peanut sauce, I’m hoping that freezes well, I’d hate to toss it. My 3 year old was pretty happy with it as well(and he didn’t bother with the peanut sauce at all).
Hi Sharon,
Thank you for taking the time to follow up on the site and post your review of the recipe. I agree whole heartily with everything you said. It is an interesting recipe because the marinade has many strong ingredients. I’ve been working on this recipe for 6 months tweaking it until I felt I nailed it. And the amounts for each ingredient does not over power each other.. they all just compliment each other in a way that makes it a fabulous marinade. And although I don’t use much peanut butter in the peanut sauce, I found it was perfect. Thanks again for the follow up. Let me know what happens when you freeze the sauce and use it again. We typically just store the peanut sauce in the fridge and use it up within the week. I could drink the stuff straight.
wow!! this satay look delicious!!
That’s a great tip about the lemongrass in a tube. I always end up having to throw out the extra stalks I don’t use. I’ll have to look for that.
Your satay looks wonderful!
That chicken satay looks perfectly grilled! What a tasty sounding dipping sauce!
Just a follow up, I defrosted the sauce a little more than a month later and poured over some soba noodles and stir fried veggies & shrimp. Very tasty. Kids loved it. I’m back at your blog today as it’s father’s day and my husband wants me to make this again for him
Thank you for sharing this recipe with me. I really appreciate it. I can’t wait to try! Thanks.
Looks great and yummy.
Hi, Alice! I’ve just met your blog, recommended by the Pioneer Woman and I must say I am amazed. What wonderful and delicious food you cook! Gorgeous, gorgeous!
I’m becoming one of your followers right now!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New 2010 from Spain!
I just finished making/ eating this and it was the best meal I have ever made! I started eating the leftover peanut sauce with a spoon it was so good, but made myself stop so I could have enough to make this meal again in a few days! Thank you so much for this recipe–I’ll be using it over and over!
Yum! I love anything with coconut milk. This looks scrumptious! Bookmarking the recipe. Thank you!
Yummy snack for a bbq!
Could you imagine an alternative ingredient for the peanut butter?
Of course the peanut is traditional for satay but …
Thank you for the tasty pictures and the recipe.
Greetings from Germany..
Hi Bobbins Kitchen,
I haven’t tried any different type of sauce. Perhaps ground cashew or macadamia nut would make a nice substitute.
This recipe was the bomb, the best food we have had in a long time and we didn’t even have to go out. Thanks so much from the entire Brown clan.
This recipe was delicious! We didn’t heat up the grill so I used whole boneless/skinless chicken breasts and marinated them and baked them instead – 40 minutes at 350 degrees. The peanut sauce was absolutely perfect. Kudos to Alice!
This is my favorite chicken satay recipe. I was in a frenzy a few moments ago trying to rack my brains on where I found it originally. Normally I keep recipes links in my delicious.com bookmarks, but this one I had stashed in Evernote for some reason, and it’s down right now! Luckily, I was able to read some of the ingredients from the cached thumbnail and throw them into google, and found this page again easily. I just wanted to say thanks, this recipe is definitely worth it!
Thank you that you helped to search for an alternative for peanuts….
to use ground cashew or macadamia is a briliant idea!
So long!
I have been looking for a good satay recipe so will give this a try!
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I have to tell you that I think this is the best thing I’ve ever made! I don’t usually follow recipes very carefully but you convinced me to and the flavour of the marinade and sauce is amazing! And I’m not even a fan of Thai food. I also tried it with tofu, which was nice, but the chicken was divine. I’m a convert – I’ve now shared your site with a bunch of friends. Thanks!
Oh be still my heart!
This recipe looks easy enough to make every week -and I just may do that!!
Let me explain: I am 6 months pregnant and craving Thai nearly by the hour, but we have moved to Kentucky where they do not seem to have any Thai restaurants at ALL, so I am left wanting. My husband and I had a favorite restaurant we used to frequent before the move, and Chicken Satay with the cucumber salad was our very fave!! Thank you, I will be making this! 
Love this, and so did everyone else. Thanks!
Blue skies, not to cold, but not to hot.
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Thank you so much for this recipe. I have made it at least 5 or 6 times and it is ALWAYS a hit! It is one of those rare dinners where every single member of our family just LOVES it and devours it. It is our go-to asian chicken recipe now. MUCH better than my previous soy/brown sugar based teriyaki recipe. WONDERFUL!
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