Hello! Hi everyone, Wesley here. Today we're diving back into our series dedicated to Thai cuisine classics with a shot at a grilled chicken satay skewer. For those unfamiliar, a chicken satay is a diced and marinated chicken thigh that's skewered onto bamboo skewers, then grilled over an open flame (or for our indoor purposes today, seared on a cast iron skillet). Chicken satay here in the states is a fairly popular small bite appetizer, most often iconically paired with a peanut based dipping sauce, which we will absolutely be including in our version today.
Now, right off the bat before folks lose their goddamn minds, I'll first address that satay skewers come from MANY different cultural cuisines (though generally broadly originating from South East Asian culture), so I understand that the elements that we incorporate here may not be exactly how you remember your grandma making satay which, you know. that's cool too. That said, for our version today, we'll be incorporating a handful of ingredients that I do think leans our skewers pretty heavily into Thai cuisine, namely, a bit of lemongrass, palm sugar, and red curry paste to top it all off. As you might imagine, the "grilling" process to our skewers is not too complicated (probably the trickiest part is going to be about figuring out how to grill a skewer, without a grill). Our marinade however, is far from simple, being that it contains, possibly the most number of things that I have ever put into a single marinade, so, we'll be diving into why that is, too. Finally to round this off, we're gonna pair our skewers with a quick brined cucumber salad for a nice crisp side because i mean, you know. You can't just eat sticks of meat for dinner, right? ...right? Hope you try it.
Serves 2-3
INGREDIENTS
4 medium chicken thighs
bamboo skewers
INGREDIENTS (chicken marinade)
4 cloves garlic
1 inch ginger
1 stalk lemongrass
1 shallot
1/4 lime juice
4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp palm sugar
3/4 cup coconut milk
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1 tbsp red curry paste
INGREDIENTS (cucumber salad)
4 cloves garlic
1 shallot
3 Persian cucumbers
1/4 lime juice
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp white sugar
pinch kosher salt
INGREDIENTS (peanut sauce)
1/2 cup reserved chicken marinade
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 lime juice
1/4 cup boiling water
PREP
COMBINE all chicken marinade ingredients, then reserve 1/2 cup in a separate bowl
COMBINE reserved chicken marinade with remaining peanut sauce ingredients, whisk to combine and set aside
LARGE DICE the chicken thighs, then combine with remaining chicken marinade in a zip lock bag, and let marinate for 30 minutes or overnight
CRUSH and mince 4 cloves of garlic, set aside
SLICE the shallots, set aside
SLICE the cucumbers, then combine with all cucumber salad ingredients, toss to combine and let marinate for 30 minutes
ON THE STOVE
ADD the chicken to bamboo skewers, set aside
HEAT a cast iron skillet over medium heat, then add 4 tbsp peanut oil and sear the chicken skewers for 2-4 minutes per side until crispy
SERVE with a side of cucumber salad and peanut sauce