Chicken Satay Skewers

Two friends, Simone and Sam came over for dinner the other night. One thing about living by myself that I don't like, is eating dinners alone and so Simone and I try to have at least one dinner together a week. This time I made chicken satay skewers served on rice. My pots are very low quality and therefore rice doesn't cook very well in them (last time was a bit of a disaster) and so Simone brought over her rice cooker. Sam brought his mum's coleslaw which was delicious! Dinner was followed with creme caramel, the recipe is in the post below.

The recipe for the satay sauce is not very accurate as I made it up as I went along and completely forgot to write down the amounts. So if making it, dont be afraid to add more or less of certain ingredients to your liking. I made the satay sauce before dinner and warmed it up on the stove at dinner adding a little water to thin it out a bit.

Chicken Satay Skewers

Ingredients
Marinate
- 500g chicken breast one minute steaks
- 2 large garlic cloves
- 2 tablespoons of fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
- wooden skewers

Satay Sauce
- oil for frying
- 1 clove of crushed garlic
- 2 baby onions or 1 small brown onion or 4 shallots
- 2 tablespoons of brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons of crunchy peanut butter
- 1 small can of light coconut milk (165ml)
- 3 tablespoons of soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon kecap manis
- juice of a 1/4 lemon or 1/2 lime

Method

1. Cut lengthways each chicken steak into three pieces and skewer them onto the wooden sticks.

2. Mix crushed garlic cloves, fish sauce and ginger and rub onto the chicken skewers. Refrigerate for 3-4 hours.

3. For the sauce, cut the onions very finely (you don't want the onion to give any texture to the sauce but rather just flavour). Add the garlic and onion to a pan over medium heat. Stir regularly.

4. Cool till onion is lightly golden and then add the brown sugar. Caramelise the onion for 5 minutes and then add the peanut butter, coconut milk, soy sauce, kecap manis and juice of lemon or lime. Stir until the peanut butter has melted and all the ingredients have been incorporated. Take off heat.

5. To cook the chicken skewers, heat a large heavy based frying pan and olive oil on medium-high heat. Place the skewers on the hot pan and seal the chicken for a minute on each side. Continue to cook for a few more minutes until the chicken is just cooked. (The best way to do so, is ensuring the sides of the skewers, not exposed to the frying pan, is no longer pink. Wait a minute after this moment)

6. Serve the chicken skewers with a generous amount of the satay sauce poured over.