Recipe: Bangin' Satay
Posted on Mon 24 May 2021 in Food
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
- Slice your chicken into reasonably chompy pieces. Maybe 1cm thick, and small enough to fit in your mouth.
- Put the chicken in a bowl, pour in the fish sauce. Give it a stir, and leave it to soak.
- Dice the onion, and get it in the frypan over medium heat, with only just-enough oil.
- While the onion cooks, prepare your spices in a small bowl: cumin, coriander, paprika, turmeric, curry powder.
- The onion is still cooking, so chop up your garlic, ginger, and chillies. Give the lemongrass a good thump too.
- 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.
- Take the onion out of the first fry pan, and add another good tablespoon of oil.
- 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.
- 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!
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Prep some veggies for a side. I used mung beans, garlic shoots, and a capsicum. Chop these up.
- 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).
- 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.
- Strain the water out of your egg noodles, and start them frying with some oil and soy sauce.
- 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.
- 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.
- Tell someone else they're on kitchen cleanup duty, and sit down to enjoy!
![Action shot! My bowl of noodles, showing the fried veggies and satay chicken](https://www.ericlight.com/images/Food/satay.jpg)