Tati Carlin cooked Indonesian chicken satay for her audition in MasterChef Australia 2009. (Photo credit: MasterChef Australia) Source: MasterChef Australia
INGREDIENTS:
For the peanut sauce:
- 1 cup of Veggie or Canola oil
- 250g raw peanuts with skin
- 6 cloves garlic, peeled and slice into 5mm thickness
- 6 long red chilies, slice into 1cm length
- 6 candlenuts, roughly chopped
- 8 red bird's eye chilies, slice into 1cm length
- 6 Kaffir lime leaves
- 50g Palm sugar
- 2-3 tbs kecap manis to taste
- Approx 500ml hot water
- Salt (to taste)
For the chicken skewers:
- 600g chicken thigh, cut into bite size (approx 2 x 2 cm)
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 4 tbs Olive oil
- 3 tbs kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)
- salt & freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
INSTRUCTIONS:
Soak about 12-14 bamboo skewers in a canister of hot water for about 20 minutes (this is to avoid the skewer getting burnt when we cook the satay using a charcoal grill).
For the peanut sauce:
Heat oil in a medium saucepan, cook peanuts in hot oil until golden, about 3-4 minutes. Remove the peanuts from the oil and place onto paper towel and let them cool.
Using the same oil, fry the garlic and candlenuts for about 2 minutes and then add the chilies and cook them for further 4-5 minutes until softened. Remove them from the oil and set aside on paper towel to drain.
Place the cooled peanuts into the bowl of a food processor and process until finely ground. Transfer to a medium size bowl.
Place garlic, chilies and candlenuts into the bowl of the food processor and process until smooth. Transfer the mixture to the bowl with the ground peanuts and mix well.
Place a medium saucepan over a medium high heat, add the peanut mixture, squeeze the Kaffir lime leaves with your hand and put them into the mixture, add palm sugar, pinch of salt and water. Bring to the boil and drizzle with a little kecap manis (sweet soy sauce) to taste.
For the chicken skewers:
Thread the chicken pieces onto the drained skewers, season the skewers with salt & pepper.
Combine the remaining of the ingredients for the marinade in a medium sized shallow dish, add chicken skewers and turn to coat in the marinade. Set aside in the fridge for at least 10 minutes to marinate.
Ideally it's better to grill the satay over a charcoal grill but we can also just use the normal grill pan over medium high heat. Once the pan is hot, cook the skewers in batches until the chicken cooked through and slightly charred, about 8-10 minutes, turning regularly during cooking. Remove from pan and keep warm.
Enjoy the skewers with the sauce. Serve it with some rice, pickled cucumber and crackers or peanut crackers.
*Thank you MasterChef's Tati Carlin for sharing the yummy recipe..!! ;)
