This recipe offers a quick version of Malaysian chicken satay that can be cooked on the grill or stove. Juicy grilled chicken skewers marinated in amazing spices and dipped in rich peanut sauce. This easy chicken satay is definitely worth trying!

Easy chicken satay stacked on a plate view from top

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Recipe Highlights
Why This Recipe?
Lets Talk Ingredients
To Marinate Or Not
Cooking On Stove
How To Serve
How To Keep
More Chicken Recipes
Recipe Video
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You have heard of satay. It is famous in Southeast Asian countries, especially in my home country, Malaysia. Satay is seasoned meat on skewers, grilled on the barbecue, and served with peanut sauce.

Recipe Highlights

Close up of easy chicken satay on a plate

Texture and flavor—Crisp and charred, tender, and juicy chicken with incredible flavors of spices.

Size—30 satays of 6 inches (15 cm).

Level—Easy preparation, with some time to kill when you marinade the chicken.

Occasion—Perfect for parties or a small gathering with the family, where people can grab a few satays and sauce and sit wherever they want or mingle.

Why This Recipe?

Making traditional chicken satay requires more elaborate ingredients and preparation steps. Don't get me wrong; I love it; it's super delicious.

While I like to go all the way when preparing delicious food, sometimes I do not have the ingredients or the time to make it the traditional way. That's when this recipe came to be:

Simplifying the ingredients—Using easier-to-find ingredients without compromising the essence of a delicious satay, just as I preserve the essence in my easy beef pho and quick Penang asam laksa.
Simplifying the method—There are fewer steps in preparing the meat, which makes everything faster and easier.

Lets Talk Ingredients

Chicken—I like to use chicken thighs because they're more flavourful and don't get dry as fast as chicken breast. But of course, chicken breast also works.

Curry powder—I use mild curry powder. Use whatever you have.

Honey—Love the flavor and the sugar helps with the charred look of our satay when we cook them.

SUBSTITUTION: Use any sugar. Coconut sugar, brown sugar, and white sugar all work fine.

Chilli powder—For the heat, adjust or skip to your liking.

Cumin and coriander powder—Although they don't taste the same, they can be substituted with a pinch. If you have only one of the two, use the amount mentioned. Don't double it to compensate for the other missing powder for this recipe.

Easy chicken satay stacked on a plate view from front

Coconut milk— Gives flavor and helps tenderize the chicken.

SUBSTITUTION: You can use the same amount of natural yogurt.

Low-sodium soy sauce—It helps with the umami flavor. I use this low-sodium soy sauce because it's versatile. The fact that it has less salt enables me to use more of it for the flavor without worrying about the food getting too salty, like in my peanut sauce stir-fried noodles.

SUBSTITUTION: Use half the amount of standard soy sauce or fish sauce.

To Marinate Or Not

I recommend marinating the chicken. Yes, this is a simplified chicken satay recipe, but you'd also want the fantastic flavors of the spices to be infused into the chicken, which requires a bit of loving time.

Two hours should do it, and you'd be surprised at how tender and delicious the chicken will be.

Cooking On Stove

In my home country, Malaysia, satay is synonymous with outdoor grilling. Just the thought of it excites me!

But yes, not everybody has the equipment, time, or the will (haha!) to do that. And that's when this recipe comes in.

You can quickly cook this on the stove in your kitchen. The satay will have that fantastic charred look; nobody will know that you were near the grill *wink!*. Tips for cooking on the stove:

Use medium heat—Remember sugar from the honey will char the chicken fast so don't use high heat.
Type of pan—Both cast iron and non-stick pans work great.
Give space—Don't crowd your pan; make sure there's a bit of space between 1 skewer and another so that they get the heat and char beautifully.

And, of course, you can grill them outside, too.

How To Serve

These satays are great served with peanut sauce to dip in. My 5-minute peanut satay sauce will blow you away. It's simple, ready in a blink, and yep, delicious!

For that fresh taste and texture, serve them with sliced cucumber and onion. Yum!

If you love easy chicken recipes, my mini chicken pot pies are a must-make! They're opposite in flavor and method, but I'm telling you, they're out-of-this-world delicious!

How To Keep

Cooked satay lasts 3-4 days in the fridge. You can freeze it for up to 2 months and thaw it in the fridge.

To reheat, simply place in the microwave for a few minutes or in the oven at 400ºC (200ºC) for a few minutes.

You can also freeze raw marinated chicken for up to 8 weeks. Thaw in the fridge and cook according to the instructions in the recipe card below.