Archive for » February 19th, 2008«

Marinated Chicken Kebabs with a Peanut Satay Sauce
I have been making this recipe for years and everytime I make it I get rave reviews. It really is nothing special, I think, it is just that, the falvours all come together so well and the peanut sauce is so yummy. I make my sauce with smooth peanut butter as I am not a fan of crunchy, but I think this would be fine if you prefer to have the peanut chunks in the sauce.

Ingredients

5 Chicken breasts (about 800g in weight.)
8 Long skewers

Marinade

5 Tablespoons soy sauce
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
11/2 Tablespoons brown sugar
4 Cloves garlic, crushed
1 Teaspoon ground coriander
1 Teaspoon ground cumin
2 Teaspoons fresh ginger, grated
Pepper to taste

Peanut Sauce

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Onion, finely chopped
2 Cloves garlic, crushed
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
3 Tablespoons peanut butter
1 Cup water
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
2 Teaspoons curry powder (I use hot curry powder.)
3 Teaspoons sweet chili sauce

Vegetables for Skewers

1 Large onion, chopped into wedges
8-16 Mushrooms (depends on size if they are large chop in half and you will only need 8 if small and using whole mushroom 16.)

I usually use red and yellow peppers as well but as I was serving these over a thai-style salad that already had peppers in it I chose to omit them.

Salad

150 Fresh egg noodles, cooked and chopped roughly
125g Baby asparagus
1 Large carrot, cut into thin strips
1 Red pepper, cut into thin strips
200g Bean sprouts
125g Snow peas, sliced thinly
1/2 Cup roasted cashews

Dressing

2 Red chillies, seeded and finely chopped
1 Cup Lime juice
2/3 Cup brown sugar, firmly packed (I use a cane sugar that is almost powder form otherwise you will end up with the coarse sugar not dissolved.)
2 Tablespoons fish sauce
2 Teaspoons lemon grass, finely chopped
1 Teaspoon fresh ginger, grated

This will make up too much dressing, I made this, as I was making a salad for 10 people. I have listed the amount of vegetables I think will be fine for 4 Servings but I am not sure how halving the ingredients will work with the dressing so feel free to experiment.

Method

1. Combine all the marinade ingredients together in a large bowl or storage container. Chop chicken into about 2cm cubed pieces, add to marinade and marinate for several hours or overnight.

2. Soak skewers in water for about 30 min’s prior to using to prevent them from burning while cooking.

3. Reserve marinade. Thread a piece of chicken follwed by a mushroom, chicken, onion, chicken, mushroom, chicken, onion, chicken. Repeat with remaining chicken and vegtables.

4. Grill or BBQ skewers turning a couple of times and basting with the reserved marinade. Until cooked about 15-20 Min’s.

Sauce

I prefer to make this ahead of time and just re-heat as this allows for the flavours to really come out.

1. Heat oil in a pan, add onions and garlic and cook to soften onion.

2. Add remaining ingredients and stir to combine, leave on a low heat, stirring occasionally until sauce thickens. Sauce can be made a day ahead and just re-heated.

Salad

1. Boil, steam or microwave asparagus until tender.

2. Plunge carrot, pepper and peas into boiling water for about 1 minute, drain.

3. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. Pour dressing over and toss through salad.

4. Salad again can be made ahead of time, but this salad is supposed to be served warm, so just re-heat in the microwave, don’t over do it though as the veg are meant to be crunchy and salad just warm not hot.

Dressing

1. Place all the ingredients in a large jar and shake well, until all the ingredients are thoroughly combined.

To Serve: Place a few spoonfuls of salad on a plate, place skewers on top and serve with peanut sauce in individual dipping bowls on the side.

This is also a great one if your having guests over to do on the BBQ, I have made these skewers, when we have had a party of 35 people over as one of the many other dishes I did, you can up the ingeredients fine.

All photo’s taken by me unless otherwise stated.