Satay (well really anything with peanuts) is one of my favourite foods and I love trying out new satay recipes. I am never 100% sure what a really satay sauce should look and taste like. A few years ago there was some controversy on MasterChef when one of the contestants was eliminated over her satay sauce; a version of which you can now buy in the supermarkets here in Australia.
What I personally like is a sauce with lots of peanut flavour but cut through with a citrus juice (usually lime) so the peanuts don’t overpower whatever you are serving your satay sauce with. And I am always on the lookout for new satay recipe to try. I have a great one from my Mum that you do in the microwave that I will have to write up one day. In the meantime if you love satay then this recipe for Cilantro Peanut Chicken Satay from Lindsay of Tomato Boots is pretty fabulous and meets my great satay criteria.
The version I made didn’t have the same amount of coriander (cilantro) as Lindsay’s recipe because I had a bit of a shopping failure, forgetting to buy any coriander. I did have lightly dried coriander from Garden Gourmet in the fridge so I replaced the fresh with that, rather than turning the stove off to pop out to the shop. But it is more stronger in flavour than the fresh stuff so I was cautious adding it and probably erred to far on the side of caution so the coriander flavour was barely noticeable.
One of the particularly good things about this recipe is that the chicken is cooked in the oven. I find that when I do this the chicken is always much more tender than when I do a stir-fry.
Lindsay suggests serving with noodles. I went with rice because I had that on hand but either are a good option.
To make this for one I used the following ingredients:
- 130g of skinless boneless chicken breast cut into 1 inch cubes (bite sized pieces)
For the sauce:
- 1 tsp of lightly dried coriander (cilantro)
- 1/3 red chilli, seeds removed
- ¼ tsp of minced garlic
- 1 tbs of peanut butter
- ½ tbs of soy sauce
- 1 tsp of minced ginger
- The juice and zest from one lime
- ½ tbs of water
Simply follow the instructions on Tomato Boots. Preparation time is about 5 – 10 minutes depending on whether you replace the prepared ingredients I use like minced garlic and ginger with the fresh stuff. Cook time is about 20 minutes. Myfitnesspal says there is only 215 calories in this dish but I am not completely convinced by that.
Happy eating!