Sate Ayam khas Madura (Madura Style Chicken Satay)

Chicken Satay is one of popular delicacies that you cannot miss to have when visiting Indonesia. Almost each province has their own style of crafting their own satay unique style. Sate Ayam khas Madura (or known as Madura Style Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce) is one of the famous satay styles that you must have as literally it’s so famous that pretty much you can find it everywhere from street vendor, food stall, to five-star restaurant.

What makes Sate Ayam khas Madura so unique is the peanut sauce and sweet soy sauce that smothered generously onto the chicken skewer and is grilled until a bit charred. Imagine, you got juicy chicken coated with savory peanut sauce and sweet soy sauce, all in a skewer! This Madura style of chicken satay is usually paired with steamed rice or better with lontong/ketupat (rice cake wrapped in banana leaves).

Tip:

1. When frying the peanut, try not to burn them as it will give you a bitter flavor if it’s burnt.
2. You can replace chicken thigh into chicken breast, however, it might not be as juicy, but it will definitely be leaner.
3. Also, do not forget to soak the bamboo skewers at least 1 hour prior to grilling to prevent it from burning.

Ingredients:

Chicken

• 2 lbs chicken thigh – diced into ½ inch
• ½ lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon white pepper powder
• 1 tablespoon garlic paste (or minced garlic)
• 20 bamboo skewers – soak at least 1 hour prior to weaving the chicken

Peanut Sauce

• 200 gr raw peanut
• 4 candlenuts
• 3 cloves garlic
• ½ medium-sized shallot
• 200 ml water
• 200 ml coconut milk
• 4 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon bouillon chicken powder
• 1 cup olive oil to fry

For Basting

• 3 tablespoon sweet soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions:

Marinating

• In a large mixing bowl, add lemon juice, white pepper, and minced garlic. Add chicken and coated well with the marinade. Cover and set aside into the refrigerator for at least 2 hours – overnight is better.

Peanut sauce

• Heat the oil into a wok or a sauce pot under medium heat. Add peanut, candlenut, garlic, and shallot. Once the peanut turns a bit brownish, drain everything from the oil and transfer them to food processor or blender. Grind them – if you would like it to be smoother, grind longer until the peanut is crushed well. I made it a bit chunky.
• Remove the remaining oil from the wok/pot. Then, turn the heat back to low heat to simmer. Add the grinded peanut mixture, water, brown sugar, salt, and chicken powder.
• Cook for about 15 minutes and add coconut milk. Then, continue simmering until the sauce is thickened. Set aside 1/3 of the peanut sauce to be used for grilling.

Grilling

• Take out the marinated chicken and weave it into the soaked skewers.
• In another mixing bowl, mix the 1/3 peanut sauce, sweet soy sauce and 1 tbsp of olive oil and coat each chicken skewer prior to grilling.
• Heat up the grill under low heat. Once heated, grill the chicken skewers for about 5 minutes each side or until it is cooked/slightly charred.
• Serve the chicken satay with the remaining 2/3 of the peanut sauce. You can drizzle the peanut sauce more with sweet soy sauce and fried shallot if you like. Enjoy!