Many South East Asian countries have a version of Satay Chicken. This Indonesian version is the easiest, you can get everything you need from the supermarket and it is SO tasty. This peanut sauce is thick and chunky, not a thin dipping sauce. Because I like to DOLLOP the sauce on!
** For the reader favourite THAI Satay chicken skewers, see here!**
Satay Chicken is probably better known as Malaysian and Thai. But actually, it is originally from Indonesia. And as with all popular dishes from cuisines around the world, there are many versions of chicken satay. I’d like to share all the popular ones with you eventually – Thai, Malaysian and even the Singaporean version. But I thought it would be ideal to start with the original and the easiest – the Indonesian version.
When I was comparing the various satay chicken recipes I’ve used in the past, I realised that though they had some similarities, they are actually made very differently. None are too hard, but most required many ingredients. And when I say many, I’m not exaggerating. Malaysian Satay Chicken requires 25+ ingredients (the one I use requires 32). The Thai version doesn’t require quite as many, but not far off, especially if you make it using homemade red curry paste (worth every ounce of effort).
However, the Indonesian version requires far less. Just as tasty as the other versions – just different. As my sister always says – “same, same…but DIFFERENT!”.
The Peanut Sauce I use in this recipe is not a 100% authentic Indonesian recipe, but with good reason. The traditional Indonesian peanut sauce is made simply with peanuts, kecap manis (sweet soy sauce), chillies, shallots and lime. Not cooked, just ground together into a thick paste.
I am convinced that Indonesian peanuts are different to Australian peanuts. Because every single time I have tried the traditional recipe, the ground peanuts come out kind of “gritty”, like desiccated coconut. The sauce does not have the creaminess that you get at Indonesian restaurants and in Indonesia (I think I ate satay every day when I was in Bali!). I tried it numerous ways – using a mortar and pestle (the traditional way – it’s tiring!), food processor and even a blender stick. None worked.
For the purpose of sharing this recipe with you, I tried the original yet again and it still didn’t work. I have a few peanut sauce recipes I use regularly – a Vietnamese one (I shared this in the Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls recipe), a Thai one (I’ll share this one day!), a Malaysian one (which takes time to cook and is the most complex one) and this one which I made up myself. It is a mish mash of all these recipes!
This peanut sauce is made using store bought peanut butter. No, that is not authentic. But don’t be a snob! It’s flavoured with “real” Indonesian flavours so it doesn’t taste “westernised”. And it’s FAST and EASY to make.
I bet that Indonesian restaurants use at least some peanut butter in their satay sauce…..he he! 😉
– Nagi
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Satay Chicken with Restaurant Style Peanut Sauce (Indonesian/Bali style)
Ingredients
Chicken
- 1 lb / 500g chicken thigh fillets (skinless and boneless)
- 2 1/2 tbsp kecap manis (thick sweet soy sauce – see Note 1)
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter , melted
- 12 – 14 small bamboo skewers , soaked in water for at least 30 minutes
Peanut Sauce
- 1 tbsp cooking oil (peanut, canola, vegetable)
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 1 small or 1/2 large onion , diced (red, brown, yellow or white)
- 3 birds eye chillis , sliced (or sub with hot sauce)
- 1/2 cup peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)
- 1 cup coconut milk (full fat is better, but light is ok)
- 2 1/2 tbsp kecap manis (Note 1)
- 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup crushed unsalted roasted peanuts (buy crushed or chop your own)
- 1 – 2 tbsp fresh lime juice
Garnish (optional)
- Crushed peanuts
- Lime wedges
- Sliced shallots/scallions
Instructions
Chicken
- Cut the chicken into 1.5cm/0.5″ cubes. Thread onto skewers – 4 to 5 pieces per skewer.
- Combine kecap manis and butter, then brush onto chicken.
- Cook the skewers on a hot BBQ (outdoor grill) or on the stove in a large non stick fry pan (add a splash of oil, and make sure the skewers will fit in the pan). Grill/broiler would also work.
- Serve, garnished with crushed peanuts, shallots and with lime wedges and Peanut Sauce on the side.
Peanut Sauce
- Heat oil in a small saucepan over medium high heat. Add garlic, onion and chillis and cook for 3 minutes until onion is translucent.
- Turn heat down to medium, then add peanut butter, coconut milk, kecap manis, soy sauce and salt. Simmer for 10 minutes, whisking occasionally.
- Use a handheld stick to puree (so the onion and chilli blends throughout the sauce – this is key). (See Note 2 for blending instructions) Stir through crushed peanuts and lime juice and simmer for 2 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before serving or to room temperature – it will thicken.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition for Peanut Sauce based on my estimate that one batch is sufficient for 3 batches of chicken skewers.
Nutrition Information:
Chicken on sticks is always a good thing!
Chicken Souvlaki (Greek)
Yakitori (Japanese skewers) – on my mother’s Japanese cooking website, RecipeTin Japan!
Hi, how long can you keep the sauce for?
Delicious recipe😍
3 days in the fridge 🙂
Can it be frozen? A shame not to use it , delish 😍
Amazing! Thank you so much. We’re exploring the cultures of the world with our little 4 year old and tonight was Indonesia night. This satay was amazing – all three of us loved it. In fact my husband said the satay sauce was better than any restaurant sauce. Thanks again
Wow what a compliment Anne! Fantastic to hear you enjoyed it, thanks for letting me know! N xx
Oh My Goodness… In the last 6 months, I’ve been branching out and trying new recipes I find on Pinterest. I’ve been wanting to make this for a while but I couldn’t find the kecap manis at either of our large grocery stores. Eventually I made my own and tried your Satay Chicken. Wow!!! This is the best thing I’ve ever made! Not kidding! Thank you for this delicious recipe, I’ll make it again and again!
WOO HOO! So glad you loved it Laura, thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to let me know!! N x❤️
I love any of your recipes I’ve tried so far, but this was probably the best!! The only ingredient I didn’t have on hand was the Kecap Manis… I googled how to make a substitute and found one that used 1/4 cup of soya sauce and 1/4+1/8 cup of brown sugar. The end result of the meal was beyond delicious! Even my husband (who never brings his lunch to work) asked if he could take the leftovers! Thank you once again for a wonderful, easy meal!
Woah! Deana, thank you SO MUCH for the wonderful compliment! And I’m so glad you enjoyed this!!! 🙂
Thank you Indonesian satay is the best
Been looking for a Indonesian satay recipe for a longtime
All I could remember that the marinade was butter and sweet soy sauce
defineately going to try this
Hope you do try this Fay!! It really is super delicious!
Hi Nagi,
Peanut butter sauce is very popular in Holland and of course comes from Indonesia. In Holland companies like Conimex (Baarn The Netherlands) make it ready made. We always make the peanut butter sauce from peanut butter and water or coconut milk indeed, but you need soya sauce like Kejap Manis and if you want to make it spicy you put in trassi (shrimp paste) and a bit of sambal badjak or brandal (not the very hot one). Also you can use Guladjawa which is Indonesian brown sugar.
In Holland they even sell fries wit peanut butter sauce. But the best is it indeed with sate or with Gado Gado as said in one of the e-mails above.
I always forget Indonesian food is popular in Holland! I find that so interesting 🙂 Ooh, I love Gado Gado too! I must share that on my blog some time soon! 🙂
I have just returned from North Bali where the warung at the corner made the sauce that I remember the taste from when I first visited 30 years ago. It was so fantastic that I asked for the recipe which she gladly showed me.
The peanuts in Australia are different. I have found that you have to find an Asian grocer than imports the raw little ones. I then wok fry them in coconut oil to bring out the flavour before grinding them or putting them in a blender.
Here is her recipe
Noeme’s Kadek Arini
1 cup peanuts – roasted and chopped – ground
5- 10 small chillies (to your own spicey level)
1/8 tspn shrimp sauce (udang)
1 garlic clove
1/2 tspn palm sugar
kecap manis – to your tast (1/2) despn)
Salt – pinch
Cut or grind garlic and chilles. Mix all together but the peanuts and fry in a wok till fragrant . Add peanuts.
THAT’S THE SECRET!!! Asian peanuts!!! OMG, how did I not think of that?? I have to try it, thank you so much for this recipe!!!!!
Hi, Nagi and everybody.
Just return from Bali full of impression. Also was wondered with Peanut sauce which we prepared during our cooking class in one of Bali village close to Ubud. First of all, we try to cook Peanut sauce by ourselves based on receipt from internet using peanut butter and coconut milk. Honestly saying the taste was not what we expected, what we like and what we tasted in different Bali restaurants. Sauce receipt what we were presented during cooking class was based on plain peanuts, garlic, onion, chili, shrimps paste roasted in pan for 5 min. Next grind in pounder. Perfect taste.
Hi Nagi
Your recipe for satay sauce sounds fab, just wanted to ask if it also could be used as a cook in sauce? As i prefer my meat served in the sauce as opposed to a dip in sauce on the side,also if it can are there any changes that need to be made. Would really appreciate your thoughts.
Many thanks and kind regards gary
Hi Gary! I plan to share a satay chicken curry soon 🙂 The recipe I use is a bit different to this which is a dressing. But you can definitely use this too! I would simply add it in when the chicken is cooked to warm it up. And add onions when cooking the chicken 🙂
Just found this article when I searched for Balinese Satay. The recipe looks great. I did a cooking course in Ubud, Bali. We fried the peanuts first and their skins stay on. I think that’s why theirs don’t turn into desiccated coconut, just chunky. 🙂
oooh! Isn’t UBUD THE BEST?? I loved it so much, it’s so beautiful!!! Hmm, I must check if I have a peanut sauce recipe made by frying the peanuts first, maybe that’s the difference! I swear I never saw our cook do that!!
Try soaking the peanuts in filtered water for 2-3 hours, drain & then grind them. They are no longer gritty & I think the moisture imparted while soaking makes a big difference….hope this helps as I too love love love satay & I reckon I ate my way around Bali, Singapore & Vietnam trying all the different satays. Delicious recipe, thank you.
Oooh! I must give that a go, thanks for the tip! I could totally do a south east asian satay crawl! Forget pub crawls. Satay is much more up my alley!
I cooked this recipe for my cooking assignment for Asian food. I made 20 skewers for chicken and they all disappeared within 5mins. 10/10 would recommend.
🙂
That’s so great!!! And what a fun assignment 🙂
Nagi, I did this recipe a few months ago and was so delicious and now am doing it for dinner tonight as we were over in Bali a few months ago and went to some really outstanding restaurants while visiting and my fav was Satay Chicken just so delicious so now I can enjoy this recipe here at home , thanks so much for a great recipe and also a great website 🙂
Thanks Kristine! Isn’t Bali just so much fun?? The food is SO GOOD…and the massages…..;)
Try unroasted, raw peanuts. They are sweeter than roasted, but may solve your grittiness issue.
Hmm. I didn’t think of that Laura! I will give it a go, thank you for the tip!
Wow Nagi — this looks amazing! Your photos are stunning! I love chicken satay and I’m excited to try this!
Thanks so much Michelle!! 🙂 Hope you do try it, it really is delicious!
Great recipe! As an Indonesian I always use pestle and mortar to ground the peanuts. If you want a depth of flavour in the sauce, you can toast the peanuts first (and it will easier to ground the peanut in pestle and mortar). Indonesians often fry them first though. But I always toast them for a healthier version. 🙂
Hi Hani! I am thrilled to hear from an Indonesian about this recipe! I have really been struggling to make a peanut sauce – I find that when I grind them, they are still gritty! Even after toasting them. Any tips? After multiple versions of many years, I couldn’t figure it out, hence a version of the sauce using peanut butter!
Hi, Nagi! I’m sorry for the long reply. I want to make sure I’ll give you the best answer. I know several tips for making peanut sauce from satay seller and gado-gado(salad with peanut sauce) seller in my area. They usually use couple tablespoon of mashed potato for thickening and smoothing the sauce. Sometimes they use sweet potato. If you want to know the complete steps you can go to my post about it. Hope that helps. 🙂
Hani!! OMG OMG! I cannot tell you how excited I am to get a REAL recipe from a satay seller!! Do you know how long I have been looking for this? I even bought cookbooks when I was in Indonesia – authentic recipes from locals, translated into English – and I tried all the satay sauces but none of them worked for me!! I was just on your blog reading the recipe. It’s gold. GOLD! The world needs to see your recipe!!
Yeahh…finally you made this Satay recipe, Even I come from Indonesia and ate Chicken Satay many times, I have’nt post any Satay recipe, because took a long time to make this with a lot of ingredients. You’re right, grounding peanuts is a hard work. Normally I used 100% peanut butter that I bought at Asia shop or organic shop. Amazing Satay pictures! 🙂
Thanks Amallia! I couldn’t find 100% peanut butter at the Asian Store so I took the easy way and adjusted flavourings to take into account that it was made with peanut butter. 🙂
This looks absolutely divine! I always go for Jamie Oliver’s recipe when I make Satay, but I might try yours next time!
Hi Mel! I’ve used Jamie’s recipe before too……I’m not saying I’m a better cook, but I prefer this recipe!! 😉 PS I have a huge foodie crush on Jamie, utmost respect, so please don’t take that the wrong way!! 🙂
I have been wanting to make chicken kabobs with peanut sauce for weeks now!! Can’t wait to try this :).
Yay! Love to hear what you think if you do try them! 🙂
Oh my Nagi! This looks so yummy! I am doing my meal planning for the week and adding this to the list. The hubby will enjoy showing it off to all his co-workers.
The hubby will be envied by all his coworkers if you make these for his lunch! Lucky man! 🙂