Thai Chicken Satay
My son used to be a picky eater who does not eat normal kid food like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
But he loved Thai Chicken Satay! In fact, I roll out this recipe whenever we have guests who are coming with
their kids because this is a kid favorite. It’s not a hot or spicy dish, and the skewers make it fun for the kids to eat.
It’s one of the first Thai dishes I was able to make
which came close to being as good as at a Thai
restaurant. I often double and triple this recipe so that
the whole family can pick at the leftovers all week. The leftovers are good when microwaved and put in a salad.
Ingredients for the best Thai Chicken Satay recipe I know:
6-8 boneless skinless chicken breasts
½ teaspoon coriander, may omit
½ teaspoon cumin, may omit
½ teaspoon black pepper
1-2 tablespoons turmeric for color
1 tablespoon lemon juice, (bottled is ok)
1½ tablespoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
1 fourteen ounce can coconut milk
6-7 cloves fresh garlic, peeled and chopped fine. There is no substitute for this.
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Bamboo skewers, soaked in a pan of water to prevent their charring on the grill.
BBQ grill for cooking!
You can omit the coriander, cumin and black pepper and get good results. The
main thing is to use quality coconut mile (I like Chef’s Choice and Mae Ploy brands) and the
fresh garlic instead of powdered.
Combine all the ingredients except for the chicken and mix well. Cut the
chicken in strips the long way so that they will fit nicely onto the skewers. I make my strips
between ½ and ¾ inches thick or so. Or you can cut them a little thicker and then pound
them with a kitchen mallet to flatten them a bit.
Add the chicken, stir, and marinate in a big bowl either for a couple of hours or
overnight if you want. Stir the chicken a couple of times during the marinating to evenly
coat the chicken. Soak the bamboo skewers in a pan of water for an hour or so, just before
cooking. This keeps the skewers from burning on the grill. I like the bamboo because metal
skewers are too hot to handle when the dish is ready to serve.
When ready to cook, thread the chicken onto the skewers. These will cook
through in about 8-10 minutes on a hot BBQ grill, turning just once. No basting needed.
Overcooked chicken is no treat, and under-cooking is not safe, so you have to experiment
with the right cooking time on your own grill to get it just right.