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!
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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
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.
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.
More Chicken Recipes
- Quick 30-minute chicken massaman curry
- Instant pot BBQ pulled chicken
- Crispy baked lemon pepper chicken wings
- Baked honey sriracha chicken
- Baked chicken curry puff
Recipe Video
📖 Recipe
Easy Chicken Satay
Ingredients
Dry Spices
- 2 teaspoon (2 teaspoon) curry powder
- 2 teaspoon (2 teaspoon) turmeric powder
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) chilli powder
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) cumin powder
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) coriander powder
The Rest
- 2 inch (2 inch) ginger , grated
- 6 (6) garlic cloves , grated
- ¼ cup (62.5 ml) coconut milk
- 2 tablespoon (2 tablespoon) oil
- 2 tablespoon (2 tablespoon) low sodium soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon (1 tablespoon) honey
- 2 lb (907.18 g) boneless skinless chicken thigh , cut into 1 inch (2.5 cm) pieces
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Marinade
- Add all ingredients into a bowl, mix well using a spatula, cover bowl with cling film and chill in the fridge for minimum 2 hours. Overnight works great.
Assembling And Cooking
- Carefully thread the chicken onto skewers. I use 6 inch (15 cm) metal skewers. Place them all on a plate, ready for cooking.
- Heat a pan with some oil, on medium heat. Place several satay in the pan, making sure you don't over crowd it. Flip the satay after a few minutes and continue cooking until fully cooked and you get nice char.
- Serve immediately with some peanut sauce, slices of cucumber and onion. Enjoy!
Nutrition Facts
The nutrition facts provided are an estimate per serving. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
Nikki says
Made this tonight for company. My husband said it was epic! Very well received by everyone. Thank you.
Bea & Marco says
That's awesome to know! We're happy that everybody loved it, thank you so much for leaving your feedback, Nikki!
Lucia says
We loved the satay!!
My husband cooked them on the grill outside and it was a partaaaaayy!
Thank you thank you for sharing!
Bea says
Haha! I wish I was invited! Well, I'm happy to hear that you guys are enjoying the recipe. Thank you for your feedback, Lucia!
Jo says
OMG Bea… I CAN’T BELIEVE that I found you! My mom…who has been deceased since 1998 is from Malaysia and I’m not saying this just because she was my mom but she was an EXCELLENT COOK! She kept a collection of her recipes but we had a house fire back in 2016 & unfortunately lost all her recipes & when I saw that you had recipes for 2 of my most favorite Malaysian dishes…which are satay and curry puffs…I’m bowing down to you as we speak…lol. The first time that I tried satay was at Pasar Malam when we were visiting MY. The first time that I tried curry puffs was also while visiting in MY but they were purchased from a shop. There is a recipe of my mom’s that ppl have asked me about & I tied asking relatives first but no one seems to know. I don’t know if it was the actual name of her recipe but she would refer to it as her hot tuna curry & the base of the curry was red and it had potatoes in it & the dish I was SUPER HOT! Do you happen to know what this dish is and have a recipe for it? I can’t wait to try ALL your FABULOUS recipes!
Bea says
Hi Jo! Super excited to read your comment. Sorry about your mother and the fire, though. You can find classic, simplified Malaysian and other Asian recipes here. I'm into simplifying the ingredients and methods of Asian recipes so that they're more doable for everybody across the world. It's not as easy to find classic Asian ingredients in my town here in Spain 😔. My mother used to make a similar dish that you mentioned and she used canned mackerel. Yes it was spicy, reddish (for the tomato sauce from the canned mackerel), had potatoes, leafy greens, lemongrass. I don't have a specific recipe for it though, sorry! Do let me know when you've tried recipes here. Thank you for your lovely and kind comment!
Maggie says
Cant wait to try it.
Bea says
Yay! Let me know how it goes 😊