Jimmy's Chicken Satay Skewers
I love the way amazing food can conjure up vivid memories. I first tasted Chicken Satay years ago at my mate Woody's 18th birthday party - his wonderful Malaysian mum had made this for the barbecue. I can remember thinking that it was possibly the most delicious thing I had EVER eaten. Discovering Jimmy's Sate Sauce transported me straight back to that moment, eating chicken satay in Woody's garden - A levels behind us and a world of adventure ahead of us.
There is a huge, global Jimmy's Sate fan club out there and this recipe was found by a foodie mate of mine who popped in the other day to buy two more jars. He described Jimmy's as, 'the best thing I've ever bought in a jar!' Jimmy's is not a finished sauce, it's the key flavour base, with some simple additions it's easy to create outrageously tasty chicken satay.
Servings 4 | Cook Time: 25 mins | Prep Time: 10 mins | Marinating Time: 1 hour to overnight
Ingredients
Serves 4
400g Skinless and Boneless Chicken Thighs, cut into rough ¾inch cubes
3 tbsp Jimmy's Sate Sauce
2 tbsp Crunchy Peanut Butter
10g Fresh Ginger, finely grated
2 Cloves of Garlic, finely grated
1 tbsp Kecap Manis
2 tbsp Plum Sauce or Honey
1 tbsp Sesame Oil
200ml Coconut Milk + 200ml reserved for the dipping sauce
1 tbsp Fresh Coriander, finely chopped
Juice of ½ Lime
Wooden Skewers, soaked in cold water for 1-2 hours
Instructions
1. Soak your wooden skewers in cold water, ideally for at least an hour.
2. Cut the chicken into pieces and put on one side.
3. In a separate bowl, add in all the satay sauce ingredients (except the reserved coconut that you'll use to make the dipping sauce with) and whisk together.
4. Keep 3-4tbsps of the satay sauce you've just made in a separate bowl to use as a dipping sauce later. Add the diced chicken to the rest of the sauce and mix thoroughly.
5. It's good to leave this chicken to marinade for as long as you've got time for, overnight is best but even 20 minutes will still make a difference.
6. Thread the pieces of chicken onto your skewers. I try to flap the chicken pieces over and skewer each one twice. This is a little time consuming but seriously worth it.
7. Add the 200ml reserved coconut milk to your reserved dipping sauce and gentle warm in a pan for a few minutes. This will help to release all those amazing flavours.
8. Cook the skewers on a ridged grill, BBQ or bake them in a hot oven (200°C) for around 25 minutes. If cooking them on a grill pan, I finish them in the oven for 10 minutes once they've nicely caramelised on the outside. If you are cooking them on a BBQ, they will take around 10 minutes to cook through (depending on how hot the BBQ is).
9. Serve your satay with the dipping sauce and some lime wedges....heaven awaits.
Cooking Tips
You can cook these skewers in lots of different ways, I generally grill them on a ridged grill pan and finish them in the oven. If you've got a barbecue going, they are fantastic cooked over coals, just make sure the barbecue isn't too hot when you start cooking. Alternatively, you can just bake them in a hot oven.
Serving Suggestions
In Malaysian and Singapore, chicken satay are often just served with the peanut dipping sauce as a street snack. When making this at home you can either serve them classically like this as a starter or to make them into a home substantial meal, serve them with jasmine rice, a cucumber salad (my Asian Cucumber Salad is great) and an Asian Slaw - or you can follow my recipe for Thai Beef Noodle Salad and omit the beef element.
Variations & Substitutions
If you want to make these vegetarian, you can substitute the chicken for firm tofu, just cut the tofu into the same size chunks and follow the exact same recipe instructions.
Not only does Jimmy's Sate Sauce make great satay, it also makes the base for brilliant stir fries, salad dressings and burgers. See our recipe for Malaysian Gado Gado Salad or Jimmy's Seafood Satay Noodles and Jimmy's Satay Cheeseburger.
Storage & Leftovers
Jimmy's Sate Sauce will keep really well in your fridge for at least a month, but if you try all these recipes, you'll use up a jar in no time. If by some miracle you have any chicken satay leftover, it's fantastic mixed into noodle or rice stir-fries or whacked into a sandwich with Kenko Japanese Mayonnaise and some Shedletsky's Bread & Butter Pickles.
Foodies, don't forget to leave us a review here - or tag us on your social posts if you cook this at home!
3 Comments
Made this this evening. Really delicious recipe. I didn’t have lime and used lemon instead. I also didn’t have time to marinate it, but it was still really lovely.
I used chunks of cauliflower as well as chicken. Divine. Served it with stir-fried brown rice, sugar snap peas, beansprouts, mushrooms and savoy cabbage. 💯
Visited the store for the first time today and had a great time choosing ingredients. Ben is full of friendliness, great advice and tips which my wife and I are putting to good use. But back to the Satay! We are lounging in the garden now post Chicken on Skewers feeling very contented. The recipe is absolutely awesome and I won large amounts of man points for prepping it all while she was resting in a hammock. This is the place I should of known about during lockdown. The place that, in the midst of chaos and despair, can lift your spirits via the provision of ingredients and recipes allowing the creation of something tastier than you imagined in your own home. A meal like this would have made me literally weep 2 years ago. As it is I am quivering my lower lip a bit. Actually a lot… Thank you so much for providing the enthusiastic help and sharing such a passion and knowledge of what works. Dave & Heidi.
This satay sauce is absolutely delicious. Has a good amount of heat and tastes better than any other satay I’ve had before. I used it to marinade 4 chicken thighs overnight and then poured all the contents into an oven proof dish and cooked in the oven for 25mins covered and a further 25 uncovered. They were moist and full of flavour. I will most definitely be making this again.