Indonesian Chicken Satay

Last Year's Post: Hibachi-Style Tuna
Two Years Ago:  Spring Green Pasta

I went to an outdoor art festival a few weeks ago that of course had a bunch of food trucks.  The most interesting one (at least in my opinion) was an Indonesian satay truck run by a Dutch-Indonesian family.  Say what?  Turns out, back in the exploring days the Dutch formed the East Indian Trading Company and the crown jewel of their trading network was Indonesia.  When the trading company went bankrupt, Indonesia became a Dutch colony which is why you'll see a lot of Indonesian food in the Netherlands to this day.  Now, how a Dutch family from Indonesia ended up in Phoenix, I'm not sure.  But I was impressed enough with the food to track a recipe down and re-create it myself.

The only unusual ingredient is kecap manis, which is an Indonesian sweetened soy sauce.  I found it at the local Asian market but if you can't find it or don't want to buy an entire bottle just for this recipe, you can easily make your own with equal parts soy sauce and brown sugar.  (A recipe is included below.)  The chicken becomes very flavorful from the marinade and is delicious on its own, but the peanut dipping sauce really elevates it to something special.  The food truck served their satay skewers with your choice of a salad, mixed veggies, or fried rice.  I served this recipe with white rice with shredded carrots and raisins, which was a nice complement to the slightly spicy peanut sauce.  By the way, the food truck served the same dipping sauce and presumably used the same marinade for their steak and pork skewers, so I'm assuming they would work equally well or you could do a mixed grill.

The sugar in the kecap manis lends a very slight sweetness while helping the chicken char beautifully and is balanced by the spiciness of the dipping sauce (which you can make as spicy as you want). You can grill the skewers outdoors if the weather is nice, or on a grill pan or under the broiler indoors if it's not.  Either way it's a quick, healthy and delicious meal.

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Indonesian Chicken Satay

Serves 4

Note:  kecap manis is an Indonesian sweetened dark soy sauce that can be found in Asian markets or on line.  A recipe for making your own is included below if you can’t find it.

¼ cup kecap manis

2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon peanut or canola oil

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breast, trimmed and cut into 1” cubes

¼ cup smooth natural peanut butter

¼ cup water

2 tablespoons ketchup

1-2 teaspoons hot sauce

Chopped salted peanuts, for garnish

Sliced green onions, for garnish

Combine kecap manis, soy sauce, garlic, oil, vinegar, cumin and coriander in a small bowl.  Reserve 2 tablespoons of the marinade in a medium bowl.  Place chicken in a large ziptop bag and pour the remaining marinade over.  Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or up to overnight.

Add peanut butter, water, ketchup and hot sauce to taste to the reserved marinade and whisk to combine.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

Preheat the broiler or a grill.

Remove chicken from the marinade and thread onto skewers.  (If using wooden skewers, soak them in water for at least 30 minutes in advance.) Broil or grill the skewers until the chicken is cooked through, 3-4 minutes per side.   Garnish with chopped peanuts and green onions and serve with the peanut sauce for dipping.

Homemade Kecap Manis

¼ cup soy sauce

¼ cup brown sugar

In small pot, combine brown sugar and soy sauce.  Bring to a boil, and then lower the heat to medium-low.  Continue to cook the sauce until it thickens slightly, then let cool.