You have heard of satay, right? Satay is famous in Southeast Asian countries especially in my home country, Malaysia. It's seasoned meat on skewers that's then grilled on the barbecue and served with peanut sauce.
There're many style and versions of satays and today I'm sharing with you my quicker version of Malaysian satay. This easy chicken satay can be cooked on the stove or outside on the grill.
Let's start!
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Recipe Highlights
Texture and flavour - Crisp and charred, tender and juicy chicken with amazing flavours of spices.
Size - 30 satays of 6 inch (15 cm).
Level - Easy preparation, with some time to kill when you marinade the chicken.
Occasion - Perfect for parties or a small gathering with the family where people can just grab a few satays, sauce and sit wherever they want or mingle about.
Why This Recipe?
Making the traditional chicken satay does need more elaborated ingredients and preparation steps. Don't get me wrong, I totally LOVE it as it's super delicious.
While I do like to go all the way when preparing delicious food, sometimes I do find myself not having the ingredients or the time to make it the traditional way. That's when this recipe came to be, by:
- Simplifying the ingredients - Using easier-to-find ingredients without compromising the essences of a delicious satay.
- Simplifying the method - Less steps in preparing the meat, which makes everything faster and easier.
Lets Talk Ingredients
Chicken - I like to use chicken thigh because it's more flavourful and it doesn't get dry as fast as chicken breast. But of course, chicken breast works also.
Curry powder - I use mild curry powder. Use whatever you have.
Honey - Love the flavour and the sugar helps with the charred look of our satay when we cook them.
SUBSTITUTION: Use any type of sugar. Coconut sugar, brown sugar, white sugar, they all work fine.
Chilli powder - For the heat, adjust or skip to your liking.
Cumin and coriander powder - Although they don't taste exactly the same, they can substitute each other, with a pinch. If you have only one of the two, just use the amount mentioned. Don't double it to compensate the other missing powder, for this recipe.
Coconut milk - Gives flavour and helps in tenderising the chicken.
SUBSTITUTION: You can use the same amount of natural yogurt, of any kind.
Low sodium soy sauce - Helps with the umami flavour. I use this low sodium soy sauce because it's versatile and the fact that it's with less salt enables me to use more amount for the flavour, without worrying the food getting too salty.
SUBSTITUTION: Use half amount of normal soy sauce or fish sauce.
To Marinate Or Not
I would really recommend you to marinade the chicken. Yes, this is a simplified chicken satay recipe but you'd also want the amazing flavours of the spices to be infused into the chicken. And that, requires a bit of loving time.
2 hours should do it, you'd be surprised on how tender and delicious the chicken will be.
If you can, leave overnight in the fridge.
Cooking On Stove
In my home country Malaysia, satay is synonym with outside grilling. Just the thought of it makes me excited!
But yes, not everybody has the equipment, time or the will (haha!) to do that. And that's when this recipe comes in.
You can easily cook this on the stove in your kitchen. The satay will have that amazing charred look, nobody's going to know that you were nowhere the grill *wink!*. Tips for cooking on the stove:
- Use medium heat - Remember sugar from the honey will char the chicken fast so don't use high heat.
- Type of pan - Both cast iron and non-stick pan work great.
- Give space - Don't crowd your pan, make sure there's a bit of space between 1 skewer to another so that they get the heat and char beautifully.
And of course it goes without saying, you can definitely grill them outside also.
How To Serve
These satay are great to be served with some peanut sauce to dip in. My 5-minute peanut satay sauce will blow you away. It's simple, ready in a blink and yep, delicious!
For that fresh taste and texture, serve them with some sliced cucumber and onion. Yum!
How To Keep
Cooked satay last up to 3-4 days in the fridge. You can freeze them up to 2 months. Thaw in the fridge.
To reheat, simple place in the microwave for a few minutes. Or just place in the oven at 400ºC (200ºC) for a few minutes.
You can also freeze raw marinated chicken, up to 8 weeks. Thaw in the fridge and simply cook as the instructions mentioned in the recipe card below.
More Chicken Recipes
- Quick 30-minute chicken massaman curry
- Instant pot BBQ pulled chicken
- Crispy baked lemon pepper chicken wings
- Baked honey sriracha chicken
- Baked chicken curry puff
Recipe Video
📖 Recipe
Easy Chicken Satay
Ingredients
Dry Spices
- 2 teaspoon curry powder
- 2 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 teaspoon chilli powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin powder
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
The Rest
- 2 inch ginger , grated
- 6 garlic cloves , grated
- ¼ cup coconut milk
- 2 tablespoon oil
- 2 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 2 lb boneless skinless chicken thigh , cut into 1 inch (2.5 cm) pieces
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Marinade
- Add all ingredients into a bowl, mix well using a spatula, cover bowl with cling film and chill in the fridge for minimum 2 hours. Overnight works great.
Assembling And Cooking
- Carefully thread the chicken onto skewers. I use 6 inch (15 cm) metal skewers. Place them all on a plate, ready for cooking.
- Heat a pan with some oil, on medium heat. Place several satay in the pan, making sure you don't over crowd it. Flip the satay after a few minutes and continue cooking until fully cooked and you get nice char.
- Serve immediately with some peanut sauce, slices of cucumber and onion. Enjoy!
Lucia says
We loved the satay!!
My husband cooked them on the grill outside and it was a partaaaaayy!
Thank you thank you for sharing!
Bea says
Haha! I wish I was invited! Well, I'm happy to hear that you guys are enjoying the recipe. Thank you for your feedback, Lucia!
Jo says
OMG Bea… I CAN’T BELIEVE that I found you! My mom…who has been deceased since 1998 is from Malaysia and I’m not saying this just because she was my mom but she was an EXCELLENT COOK! She kept a collection of her recipes but we had a house fire back in 2016 & unfortunately lost all her recipes & when I saw that you had recipes for 2 of my most favorite Malaysian dishes…which are satay and curry puffs…I’m bowing down to you as we speak…lol. The first time that I tried satay was at Pasar Malam when we were visiting MY. The first time that I tried curry puffs was also while visiting in MY but they were purchased from a shop. There is a recipe of my mom’s that ppl have asked me about & I tied asking relatives first but no one seems to know. I don’t know if it was the actual name of her recipe but she would refer to it as her hot tuna curry & the base of the curry was red and it had potatoes in it & the dish I was SUPER HOT! Do you happen to know what this dish is and have a recipe for it? I can’t wait to try ALL your FABULOUS recipes!
Bea says
Hi Jo! Super excited to read your comment. Sorry about your mother and the fire, though. You can find classic, simplified Malaysian and other Asian recipes here. I'm into simplifying the ingredients and methods of Asian recipes so that they're more doable for everybody across the world. It's not as easy to find classic Asian ingredients in my town here in Spain 😔. My mother used to make a similar dish that you mentioned and she used canned mackerel. Yes it was spicy, reddish (for the tomato sauce from the canned mackerel), had potatoes, leafy greens, lemongrass. I don't have a specific recipe for it though, sorry! Do let me know when you've tried recipes here. Thank you for your lovely and kind comment!
Maggie says
Cant wait to try it.
Bea says
Yay! Let me know how it goes 😊