About this recipe
Satay exists across Southeast Asia and in many forms within Indonesia alone. This is the Madurese chicken version: small pieces of thigh grilled over charcoal and served with a peanut sauce built on kecap manis, which makes it darker and sweeter than the coconut-based Thai satay sauce earlier in this book. Sate Padang, by contrast, uses a thick yellow spiced gravy and no peanuts at all.
Recipe facts
- Yield
- About 20 skewers, serving 4
- Prep
- 30 minutes (plus 2 hours marinating)
- Cook
- 20 minutes
- Total
- 170 minutes
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Spice
- Mild–Medium
Allergens Contains peanuts, soy/wheat (kecap manis) and tree nuts if candlenuts are used. Not gluten-free unless a wheat-free kecap manis is used.
Development draft. This is an untested development recipe from the cookbook project. It has not been kitchen-tested, and the quantities and timings are the author’s working draft rather than a verified result.
Ingredients
The chicken and marinade
- 1.5 lb (680 g) boneless chicken thigh, cut into 3/4 in (2 cm) cubes
- 3 tbsp (45 ml) kecap manis
- 2 cloves garlic, finely grated
- 1 tbsp (15 ml) neutral oil
- 1/2 tsp (1 g) ground white pepper
- 1/2 tsp (3 g) salt
Bumbu kacang (peanut sauce)
- 1 cup (150 g) raw peanuts, fried and cooled, or 1 cup roasted unsalted peanuts
- 4 shallots
- 3 cloves garlic
- 3 red chillies, or to taste
- 3 candlenuts (kemiri), optional
- 2 tbsp (30 ml) neutral oil
- 3 tbsp (45 ml) kecap manis
- 1 tbsp (15 g) palm sugar
- 1 tbsp (15 ml) tamarind concentrate
- 1 cup (240 ml) water, plus more to loosen
- 1 tsp (6 g) salt
To serve
- Extra kecap manis, for drizzling
- 3 tbsp (15 g) crisp fried shallots
- 2 shallots, thinly sliced raw
- 1 fresh red chilli, sliced
- Lontong (compressed rice cakes) or steamed rice
Equipment
- Charcoal grill or grill pan
- 20 bamboo skewers, soaked 30 minutes
- Mortar and pestle or small processor
- Small saucepan
Method
- Toss the chicken with the kecap manis, garlic, oil, white pepper and salt. Cover and refrigerate 2 hours.
- Make the sauce: grind the peanuts to a coarse meal in a processor and set aside.
- Pound or blend the shallots, garlic, chillies and candlenuts to a paste.
- Heat the oil in a small saucepan over medium heat and fry the paste, stirring, until fragrant and darkened, about 5 minutes.
- Stir in the ground peanuts, kecap manis, palm sugar, tamarind, water and salt. Simmer gently 8–10 minutes, stirring, until thickened and glossy with a little oil separating at the edges. Loosen with water to a thick, spoonable sauce.
- Thread 4–5 chicken pieces onto each skewer, pushed close together.
- Grill over medium-high charcoal or on a hot grill pan, 3–4 minutes a side, turning and brushing with the leftover marinade during the first side only, until charred at the edges and cooked through.
- Arrange the skewers on a platter. Spoon over some of the peanut sauce and serve the rest alongside.
- Drizzle with extra kecap manis and scatter with fried shallots, raw sliced shallot and chilli. Serve with lontong or rice.
From the foundations
The book pairs this recipe with the following, from the sauces, sambals and pastes that open the collection.
The Complete Edition
Sate Ayam Madura sits in the Indonesia chapter
The book carries this recipe in full alongside the rest of the Indonesia chapter, the pastes and dips it is built on, and the twenty-seven pantry studies that open the collection.
In review with Amazon KDP
Both editions have been submitted to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and are currently in review. Submitted prices are $9.99 for the kindle edition and $49.99 for the paperback. Neither is on sale yet, and prices are as submitted rather than final.