i love chicken satay. hubby and kids are enjoying them as well. what we love about it is the peanut sauce.
the secret to make a bowl of good peanut sauce is to use fresh ingredients. everytime i make this sauce, there's always one original ingredients that is missed: kencur. its pungent flavour adds so much different taste rather than you are just using coconut milk, ground coriander, or cumin. i can't recall if we use these three ingredients at home to cook peanut sauce. it tastes... non-indonesian.
however, since i don't have kencur, let's just omit it. but, i don't use those three in my peanut sauce.
Coriander Chicken with Peanut Sauce
Chicken
8 chicken pieces
2 Tbs coriander seeds
4 small garlic cloves, peeled and cut up
1 tsp tamarind paste
1 Tbs warm water
salt
oil for shallow frying
Basting sauce
1/4 cup sweet soy sauce
2 Tbs soft butter or margarine
Trim and clean the chicken pieces. Grind coriander seeds with salt coarsely, then add garlic cloves. Mix the tamarind paste with warm water then mix it with the coriander and salt. Mix well. Brush them on the chicken pieces. Set aside for 30 minutes.
Heat the oil. Brown the chicken pieces on all sides.
Basting sauce: Mix the soft butter or margarine with sweet soy sauce until well blended.
Meanwhile, preheat the grill on hot setting. Brush the chicken with the basting sauce, grill until cooked. Baste often. Take care not to burn the skin.
Peanut Sauce
300g roasted peanuts
8 garlic cloves
2 Tbs sweet chilli sauce
1 tsps shrimp paste (optional), toast or fry without oil until dry
1 block palm sugar
1 1/2 tsp tamarind paste mix with 1/2 cup warm water, drain
salt
Process all the ingredients until smooth. Put them in the saucepan, heat gently until the sauce thicken. If the sauce is too thick, thin it with the mixture of tamarind paste and warm water.