Satay ayam with spicy peanut sauce

Ingredients

Preparation time: 35 minutes + 1 hour marinating

• 750 g chicken thigh with skin (also called chicken cutlet. Sometimes they still have bone, then use a little more)

Marinade

• 4 cm ginger, peeled and sliced
• 5 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 tbsp Javanese sugar
• juice of ½ lime
• 1½ tbsp Tomasu soy sauce
• 3-4 tbsp kecap manis

Spicy peanut sauce

• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled
• 4 small Thai bird eye chillies (or less, if you don't like it too spicy), coarsely chopped
• 1 red lombok pepper, coarsely chopped
• 200 g roasted peanuts*
• 1 tsp terasi
• 1½ tsp Javanese sugar
• 2 tbsp kecap manis
• 1.5 tbsp tamarind paste
• 6 lime leaves
• 200 ml lukewarm water

*can be replaced with the same amount of peanut butter

Photography - Remko Kraaijeveld

Preperation 

1. Remove the skin from the chicken thigh and cook it in boiling water for a minute – the cooking process makes the skin firmer and easier to skewer. Remove from the cooking liquid and drain. Cut the skin into small pieces.
2. Butterfly the thighs: make them flatter by cutting the thicker parts crosswise. Cut the meat into 3 cm long, not too thick strips.
3. Pound the ginger, garlic and Javanese sugar with a pinch of salt in a mortar. Add the lime juice, soy sauce and kecap manis and mix everything together. Marinate the chicken strips in this for 1 hour (no longer is necessary).
4. In the meantime, make the peanut sauce, the acar and the lontong, if you are serving it with it.
5. Thread the chicken lengthwise on skewers soaked in water, 4 to 5 at a time, and fold them as it were. Start with chicken and end with chicken and alternate with chicken skin.
6. Light the barbecue and wait until the flames die down and the coals glow white. Make a hot and a less hot zone.
7. First grill the satay on the hot zone for a few minutes on each side until it is just cooked through. Turn quickly and keep turning regularly.
8. Pour kecap on a large flat plate and mix with a few tablespoons of peanut sauce. Wipe the skewers through it. Turn over and make sure all sides are well covered with sauce and kecap. Cook again on the less hot zone until the chicken is nicely caramelized.
9. Serve the satay with the peanut sauce, lontong and acar ketimun.

Photography - Remko Kraaijeveld