(I Can't Get No) Satay-faction

The other day my brother asked me, "What can you do with this?" I turned to find him holding up a jar of smooth peanut butter.

"I really love peanut butter," he continued, "but I'm sick of eating it with a spoon."
"I could make grilled chicken with a satay sauce," I said.
"Do you even know how to make satay," he queried mockingly.
I stood silent for a moment before my eyes started to flicker uncontrollably. "I do now," I said finally.

Satay Sauce

Much like peanut butter, you first need to decide whether you like your satay chunky or smooth. If you like it chunky you'll need to pick up some unsalted peanuts at your local nut merchant's. If you like it smooth you will not need to handle real nuts for this recipe. Here's the other stuff you might need.

8 tbs of smooth peanut butter

75 ml of chicken broth

1 tb of grated fresh ginger

2 cloves of crushed garlic

1 fresh chili

1 tb of honey

60 ml of soy sauce

3 tbs of rice vinegar

3 tbs sesame oil

Put all the ingredients in a blender and give it a thorough blitzing. The ginger and the chili add some nice heat to the mix, while the peanut butter definitely adds a peanut note to the equation. All those liquid ingredients make this sauce quite a runny mixture though. You can leave it there if you like but I like to thicken the sauce up a bit and I do this by adding about a handful of those unsalted peanuts I mentioned earlier. Give it another whirl in the blender and voila, you've got yourself some chunky satay.

Grilled Chicken

Traditionally you would grill your chicken on skewers and then try not to stab yourself in the mouth while eating. I say, just grill whatever part of the chicken you like most and then dip it in your lovely satay sauce. Before grilling, give your chicken pieces a nice dry rub of ground coriander and cumin. You can add some brown sugar to that coating as well and it will add a nice caramelisation (which is one of my favourite -isations).