Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce
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Perfectly grilled chicken satay skewers in the most flavorful marinade. Served with THE BEST creamy peanut sauce ever!!!
I’m going to be completely honest with you guys.
These chicken satay skewers could taste like shoe leather. And if they did, that would be okay. Because this peanut-lime sauce will make anything and everything taste so much better.
But don’t worry. It absolutely does not taste like shoe leather. Promise.
Instead, it’s the most perfectly grilled, golden-brown chicken bites with just the right amount of charred, smoky goodness. The marinade takes the chicken to the next level of flavor town with the help of a simple coconut milk marinade and some pantry spices.
And I know I say this all the time, but really, this creamy, zesty peanut-lime sauce is the best peanut sauce of your lives. SO SO SO good.
Tools For This Recipe
Metal skewers or wooden skewers
Cast iron grill pan or large cast iron skillet
Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce: Frequently Asked Questions
Absolutely! But because ground ginger is often more potent/concentrated than freshly grated ginger, you need less when using dry. The correct ratio is 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger to 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger.
Yes, chicken breasts can absolutely be used here but chicken thighs have more dark meat and a higher fat content which will yield juicier, more flavorful chicken when thrown on the grill.
Metal skewers are sturdy and reusable but note that they will retain heat so please be careful when serving. Wooden skewers can also be used but can burn over a hot grill. I recommend soaking them overnight in water (or at least 30 minutes) prior to using.
No grill, no problem. A cast iron grill pan or a large cast iron skillet will work beautifully here, especially during those winter month when it’s too cold to grill out!
Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce
Ingredients
- ¼ cup coconut milk
- 2 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce
- 2 ½ teaspoons yellow curry powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons turmeric
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch chunks
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
For the peanut sauce
- 3 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
- 1 tablespoon reduced sodium soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons chili garlic sauce, or more, to taste
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine coconut milk, soy sauce, curry powder, turmeric, garlic, ginger, brown sugar and fish sauce.
- In a gallon size Ziploc bag or large bowl, combine chicken and coconut milk mixture; marinate for at least 2 hours to overnight, turning the bag occasionally.
- Drain the chicken from the marinade, discarding the marinade.
- Preheat grill to medium high heat. Thread chicken onto skewers. Brush with canola oil; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Add skewers to grill, and cook, turning occasionally, until the chicken is completely cooked through, reaching an internal temperature of 165 degrees F, about 12-15 minutes.
- Serve immediately with peanut sauce.
For the peanut sauce
- Whisk together peanut butter, soy sauce, lime juice, brown sugar, chili garlic sauce and ginger in a small bowl. Whisk in 2-3 tablespoons water until desired consistency is reached.
Video
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Absolutely the best satay i’ve made. My husband is Indonesian and Dutch loved it! Quick easy will be making this again!
So tasty! I grilled the marinated chicken breast filets (vs thighs). The only other change I made was I subbed siracha and 2 minced garlic cloves for the chili garlic sauce. I could eat the peanut sauce on everything. I thinned it slightly with coconut milk and used the rest of the can of coconut milk to make coconut rice as a side.
Delicious! Only change I made was chicken tenderloins instead of thighs. I served with Jasmine Rice and a Thai Cucumber salad. Yum!
Made this for a bbq with cubed boneless breast and boneless thighs. Turned out amazing. Both marinade and sauce were easy to make. Only marinated for 2 hours.
Delicious, was a hit with the family! To save time for weeknight family meal I left the chicken thighs whole when marinating and grilling. Would cut up and skewer for a party though! Also subbed coconut sugar instead of brown sugar and used a peanut free nut butter for the sauce due to allergies.
The parts of chicken chosen are the firs step to success. The second one, to marinate the chicken over night is an excellent advice. Finally the peanut sauce gave the desired taste.
Good and “friendly” recipe.
Winner! Three (picky) children asked for seconds. One asked when I was going to be making it again (with his mouth still full from our current iteration.) Unfortunately, I don’t eat chicken – but the response from my family was overwhelming and completely rare. So, maybe next time, I throw a few shrimp into the marinade and enjoy this flavor party. Thank you for giving me ONE recipe I know will be a hit!
This is my new go-to chicken recipe. Tonight, I am going to try marinating and baking wings instead.
This was my first time ever trying this dish and WOW! Definitely a new favorite. I used a bit more coconut milk and skipped the fish sauce (due to my boyfriends allergies), and I LOVED this chicken and the peanut sauce. We don’t have a grill so I actually air fried the chicken “nuggets” for 10 minutes at 380. UGH. Amazing!!!
After trying out different recipes online (I’ve clocked it at 7 recipes, excluding this one), what we can find outlined here is second to none…yes, this is definitely a challenge to the willing! GO and find a better recipe than this online, and prove me wrong! Simple, easy to procure, and wholesome! If you find yourself on the losing side of a dare to NEVER recreate and consume this again, chances are you’d probably go out of your way to lose repeatedly! I wouldn’t blame you at ALL!
Hahahaha! I love it. Your enthusiasm is contagious, Manuel. I’m going out of town, but I promise you this will be my first new recipe when I return. I have only cooked one recipe from this site but it was great. Thanks for the thunderous applause, it will push this up the list of things to cook!
Hi there. I can’t seem to find directions on the chili garlic sauce? Is it store bought, and if so, which brand? Is it homemade, and if so, how?
Kait, try using sambal oelek! We love to use it, we make this recipe over and over.
This is the best satay recipe I’ve ever found. So good and so easy. I’ve cooked the chicken on the grill, on the stove, and in the air fryer and both have been amazing. I use garam masala instead of curry powder.
I feel like a real chef when I make this recipe. The blend of spices in the marinade is delicious and somewhat standard to any average home cook.
Made this today for the first time, snd it won’t be my last! Very tasty meal!
I made this for dinner last night!! Absolutely delicious!! My husband agrees!!
Easy to make – BBQ was simple! And the marinade was great!! The sauce super!!! Thanks
Made this for the July 4 . Excellent flavors. I did use more chili- garlic sauce then in the recipe but I like more spice than most. A great recipe.
I’ve been searching for a sate recipe for a while and after making this recipe, my search is now over! Absolutely delicious! I made a couple of adjustments that worked out great. I was out of curry powder and subbed red curry paste – I will be doing that from now on. I also added cilantro, lime zest and lime juice to the sauce (based on an earlier review). I marinated the chicken skewkers for an hour and cooked half of them and the second half I made for lunch the next day. I have to say, marinating overnight is the way to go. Both the sauce and the chicken were much more flavorful. Great recipe!!!
I made this sauce a few months ago and it’s really fantastic. I swore I saved but I couldn’t find it anywhere, then I remembered part of the description of being delicious on shoe leather and I found it!! Very excited to make it again, and save it this time!
So so good! Especially the peanut sauce. Best one I’ve ever tried and I’ve tried a lot. I pounded the chicken flat but it’s hard to skewer because chicken thighs do not have many even edges. I was going to do them on single toothpicks and serve them as appetizers to my book group but instead I broiled them on large skewers and then pushed them off the skewers so that people could just use toothpicks to grab and dip.
Great. Only thing I changed was I cooked chicken tenders not skewers.