Daring Cooks Challenge – Chicken satay

The January 2010 DC challenge was hosted by Cuppy of Cuppylicious and she chose a delicious Thai-inspired recipe for Pork Satay from the book 1000 Recipes by Martha Day.

I have been wanting to join this challenge for the longest time ever! With the renovations out of the way (kind of), I was excited to start the Daring Cooks Challenge in January 2010. I was excited and pleased to find out that it is a satay challenge. I have not made satay before but a version of the peanut sauce over Christmas for Gado Gado. It was well loved and a few people has been asking me for the recipe. For this challenge, I tweaked it a little to make it creamier and more punchy.

Baste with lemongrass

We are still experiencing a heatwave. It was 43.5C on Monday and was toying on the mid thirties the next day. As time was ticking away, I had to do this challenge whatever the heat is. I must be mad but the show must go on. On the day, I post this, it will be the first day at a new job. It is going to be very challenging and that means that I have less time to blog. It is such a bittersweet feeling though.

Raw groundnuts with skins on

This will be the first time that I will using the Vietnamese BBQ stove. I “won” this by posting my fish otak recipe on Tomato’s blog. Mister had kindly offered to set it up for me. And we were very fortunate that the cool change kicked by the time we were ready to play!

Marinate chicken pieces

Ingredients:

Chicken marinate

• 500gm of chicken pieces (I used thigh fillets)
• 1 stalk of lemongrass
• 2 shallots
• 2cm piece tumeric
• 2tsp of coriander
• 1tsp of cumin
• 1/4 tsp of cinnamon
• 2tbsp of light soya sauce
• 2tbsp of peanut oil

Threaded chicken skewers

Peanut sauce

• 150gm of ground peanuts (skins left on and deep fry until lightly brown)
• 1 clove of garlic
• 2 chillies (more or less depending on your level of tolerance)
• 2cm galangal
• 3tbsp sweet kecap manis
• 10g of palm sugar
• 250ml of water or stock
• 200ml of coconut milk

Peanut sauce

Method – Peanut sauce:

1. Heat the oil and stir fry the paste until it is fragrant. Add to the groundnut and blend it with 100ml of water till it is smooth. You can choose to just blend half and leave other chunky by using the mortar and pestle
2. Place all the mixed ingredients into a pot and add the coconut milk and stock. Stir until the gravy is thick. Add salt according to taste

Basting chicken satay

Method – Preparing the satay:

1. Slice the chicken to small bit size pieces. Marinate with the blended spices for at least 4 hours. Soak the bamboo skewers in water for at least a couple of hours
2. Thread 3 to 4 chicken pieces on each bamboo skewers. Start grilling. Baste with oil by using the bruised leftovers of the lemongrass
3. Serve the satay with sliced cucumber and red onion

Chicken satay with peanut sauce with a side of red onions and cucumber

The chicken pieces were really tender and moist from the marination. To add more flavour to it, Mister suggested that we add chicken skins the next time.  nothing beats the aroma and flavour of charcoal grilled satay. I never thought I would be grilling satay in my backyard. Mister said that the aroma reminded him of Asia. Our neighbours must be jealous

If you do not have a BBQ stove like mine, you can still use the normal BBQ or a grill pan on the stove. But  I have so much fun in this challenge. I love this stove. It is really handy and the whole process of setting it up and grilling the satay took less than 30mins.

What would you use this stove for besides grilling satay?