Recipe: Bangin' Satay

Had a hankering for a Satay Chicken tonight and kinda whipped something up based on a couple different things. This is more of a saucy satay, not a dry skewer-type. This takes a bit of juggling; I had three elements on the stove, and a few stages. Worth it, tho.

I've broken this into stages: the sauce, the veggies, and the noodles. For the benefit of shopping lists (and Whisk!) I've provided an awful monolithic pile of ingredients up-front. Yay.

Ingredients

• 2 large chicken breasts
• 2 Tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tsp ground Cumin seeds
• 2 tsp ground Coriander seeds
• 2 tsp Paprika
• 2 tsp Turmeric
• 3 tsp Curry powder
• 3 small chillies
• 2 onions
• 5 cloves garlic
• 1 thumb ginger
• 2 bay leaves or kaffir lime leaves
• 2 shoots lemongrass
• 1 400g can coconut cream
• 0.5 cup Peanut butter
• 1 capsicum
• 1.5c mung bean sprouts (for optional veggie side)
• 2 spring onions or garlic shoots (for optional veggie side)
• 1 capsicum, any colour (for optional veggie side)
• 2 Tbsp dried shrimp (for optional veggie side)
• 2 Tbsp dried shallots (for optional veggie side)
• 2 Tbsp peanuts, roughly chopped (for optional veggie side)
• Soy sauce
• Sesame oil
• Egg noodles
• Cayenne pepper or other chilli, to taste
• Lime juice, to taste
• Salt, to taste
• Sugar, to taste
• MSG, to taste (substitute chicken stock if you want)
• Chicken stock, to taste
• Vegetable oil

Method

1. Slice your chicken into reasonably chompy pieces. Maybe 1cm thick, and small enough to fit in your mouth.
2. Put the chicken in a bowl, pour in the fish sauce. Give it a stir, and leave it to soak.
3. Dice the onion, and get it in the frypan over medium heat, with only just-enough oil.
4. While the onion cooks, prepare your spices in a small bowl: cumin, coriander, paprika, turmeric, curry powder.
5. The onion is still cooking, so chop up your garlic, ginger, and chillies. Give the lemongrass a good thump too.
6. Get a second frypan onto your hottest element, and get it very hot. Start browning your chicken. Do this in HOT but small batches so it doesn't steam.
7. Take the onion out of the first fry pan, and add another good tablespoon of oil.
8. When the oil is hot, tip in your bowl of spices. These are already ground, so they're gonna burn fast - keep them moving, try not to let them smoke.
9. As soon as the spices are fried off (30~45 seconds), quickly throw your onion back in. Give it a stir, then tip in the garlic, ginger, and chilli. Crank the heat up!
10. Add peanut butter, peanuts, bay leaves, lemongrass, and the juice of half a lime. When the peanut butter is melted, add coconut cream and stir.
11. Start adding your chicken to the sauce whenever it's ready. After all the chicken is added, reduce heat to a simmer. Try to remember to stir it sometimes.
12. Time to give it a taste! It'll be bland - this is tuning time. I added a tablespoon of sugar, a teaspoon of MSG, a few grinds of salt, more lime juice, and a teaspoon of dry chicken stock.
13. Once you've struck the balance of sour/sweet/savoury/salty/spicy that you're looking for, leave it simmer for another 20 minutes or so.
14. Prep some veggies for a side. I used mung beans, garlic shoots, and a capsicum. Chop these up.
15. In yEt AnOtHeR pOt, bring a bunch of water to a rolling boil (say 1.5 litres). Get your egg noodles in, and cook according to the packet (often 6mins).
16. Remember that frypan you fried the chicken in? Get that going again. When hot, throw in your side-veggies, along with some soy sauce and MSG.
17. Strain the water out of your egg noodles, and start them frying with some oil and soy sauce.
18. Toss the fried shrimp, fried shallots, and extra peanuts into your nearly-cooked side veggies. Give it a taste, add salt/lime juice/MSG to make it yummy.
19. QUICK, YOUR NOODLES ARE STICKING TO THE PAN! Turf those out into serving bowls. Spoon the tasty veggies onto half, and your chicken satay onto the other half.
20. Tell someone else they're on kitchen cleanup duty, and sit down to enjoy!