It never fails, when I have too many stories to write and I’m up against a deadline, I cook something so good which means I now also need to write a recipe. I recently wrote a story about Lilac Hedge Farm in Rutland, and how amazing their chicken is. I got to thinking, with the LHF chicken being so delicious, what are some of my favorite chicken dishes at restaurants? I thought to myself I wonder if I can make chicken satay at home? I’m sure I could, but would it be anywhere near as delicious as from some of my favorite Thai restaurants?
I didn’t have a recipe, but that didn’t stop me. I really only needed to know what to marinade the chicken in. I guess I’m a novice, because I was shocked that even though many recipes suggested coconut milk as the base for the marinade, I could also get away with Greek yogurt, which was handy because that’s what I had.
We do tend to have a selection of oddball kitchen ingredients, so all of these we already had in the house which I appreciate in a recipe. I started by slicing boneless chicken breast the long way and threading them on skewers. It’s recommended that you soak the skewers in water so that they don’t blacken (see photo above) or catch on fire while cooking. I didn’t soak them in water and I cooked them in the oven, and everything worked out fine.
Marinade
As usual, I don’t measure, that’s why I am a cook, not a baker. Mix the marinade ingredients in to a consistency that can be painted onto the chicken with a pastry brush.
Ingredients
0% plain Greek yogurt
Heavy cream or buttermilk
Red curry paste
Curry powder, any kind – – I used hot because that’s what I had
Soy sauce or liquid aminos
Sugar
Salt and pepper
Spread some of the marinade on a large baking sheet and lay the chicken skewers on top of it. Brush the chicken with the marinade until it’s completely covered. Online recipes vary, with suggested marinating time of anywhere between 20 minutes and 4 hours. Since this was sort of a last-minute recipe for me, I gave it an hour. *Is it in poor taste to show raw chicken in a recipe?
I preheated the oven to 425 degrees, and I spritzed the marinated chicken with olive oil and flipped the skewers over half way through baking and spritzed the other side as well. The only thing I’ll do differently next time (other than make a larger batch) is I will NOT use cookie cooling racks to elevate the chicken off of the baking sheet–-that was a nightmare to clean.
For the dipping sauce, I was on a short timeline, so I just made peanut sauce. I had some extra chicken, so I marinated that as well, and put it in the fridge until the next day. The second batch was a little hotter, and I made the other sauce that I typically get when I order chicken sauté at a restaurant, which is more of a vinaigrette, which helped take the heat off because the second day of marinating definitely had an impact on the flavor profile.
Peanut Dipping Sauce
I was a little nervous about combining milk and vinegar, but with constant whisking while bringing the sauce to a simmer, all was good. You’ll notice that the ingredients don’t vary much between the marinade and sauce–mainly adding the peanut butter.
Buttermilk or heavy cream
All natural peanut butter – – best is to just use ground peanuts, I used Teddie All Natural Creamy
Red curry paste
Curry powder, any kind – – I used hot because that’s what I had
Soy sauce or liquid aminos
Sugar
Salt and pepper
Mix and simmer.
I brought my “first time effort chicken satay” to a party last weekend and they disappeared right away, so I’ll be making them again!
