Easy Satay Chicken With Rice

Why you’ll love it

Anything ‘satay’ is my food heaven. There’s something about the rich, umami combo of peanuts and Asian flavors.

Like this chicken and butternut squash satay style curry and these baked peanut butter chicken thighs, I find myself making this simple satay chicken on rice often. My version is very loosely Indonesian style (a little like the amazing street food dish known as sate ayam in Indonesia) and spectacularly easy to make!

Here’s what else I think you’ll love.

• You only have to make one simple peanut sauce. Use some to marinate the chicken. Use the rest as a peanut sauce to drizzle over the chicken and rice bowls at the end.
• The recipe uses the fewest amount of ingredients possible for maximum flavor.
• It’s both a great option for a busy weeknight and an impressive but easy meal to serve to guests.
• It’s always fun to eat things off sticks! 😉

About the ingredients

You’ll find a full list of ingredients with amounts in the recipe card below. But here’s a summary of what you need to know.

As already mentioned, what I particularly like about this version of satay sauce is that you mix up one quantity of ingredients and use them as both the marinade for the meat and the peanut sauce for drizzling over the final dish.

I’m sure you can get on board with that.

• Peanut butter (of course!): I only buy a natural chunky peanut butter these days, but use smooth if you prefer. It’s even fine to use another kind of nut butter if peanuts are a problem.
• Garlic and ginger: It’s worth using fresh in this recipe.
• Soy sauce: Light soy sauce works best, but any soy sauce you have in your cupboard is fine.
• Kecap manis: This is an Indonesian sweet soy sauce that adds great depth of flavor. Try not to leave this out! It’s available in the Asian ingredients aisle in most big supermarkets, or you’ll definitely find it in an Asian supermarket. I know it can be annoying to buy a whole bottle of sauce for just one recipe, but you can also use kecap manis in this Thai pork basil stir-fry, and this delicious mee goreng (AKA spicy Indonesian noodles). Both of these recipes are 100% worth trying too!
• Fish sauce: Don’t worry, this doesn’t taste ‘fishy’! It just adds more savory, salty flavor.
• Sweet chilli sauce: An easy-to-find ingredient that adds just the right amount of sweetness and spice to the sauce. If you’re serving the dinner to kids who don’t like spice, you can replace this with honey to get the sweetness without the spice.
• Curry powder: Using curry powder is an easy way to add spice. However, if you don’t have any, add a teaspoon of ground coriander and half a teaspoon of cumin instead. If you have turmeric, ground ginger, ground cinnamon and cayenne pepper, add a large pinch of each of those as well.
• Coconut milk: For a nice rich sauce, I’d go with full fat.
• Lime juice: To add tang to the sauce, and for squeezing over to serve.
• Chicken: I like to use chopped chicken thigh since it stays nice and moist.

Plus, to serve: Rice (I like jasmine rice or coconut rice, but of course any kind of rice is fine), thinly sliced carrot and cucumber as a garnish, more lime wedges for squeezing over, and crushed peanuts if you like.

How to make easy satay chicken with rice

There are surprisingly few steps to this delicious meal.

There’s little more involved than threading the cubes of chicken thigh onto skewers (get the disposable gloves at the ready for this part!) and placing them in a baking dish…

Then whisk together the sauce/marinade ingredients in a food processor – or by hand with a fork if you don’t have one (blend the liquid ingredients into the peanut butter little by little to avoid lumps).

Divide the mixture in half. Use half to marinate the chicken skewers and the other half to heat up later as a dipping / pouring sauce.

Broil (US)/Grill (UK) your marinated skewers for a few minutes on each side, then serve over rice with the rest of the peanut sauce (warmed).

You could also cook them on a BBQ or in a grill pan if you prefer.

How to serve

There are a couple of ways you can serve these amazing satay chicken rice bowls.

1. Arrange 3 chicken skewers per person on top of a bowl of rice. Drizzle over some of the peanut sauce, then add ribbons of raw carrot and cucumber on the side.
2. Put skewers, rice, and ribbons of carrot / cucumber separately on each plate, then add a little dish of peanut sauce on the side.

If I was serving this to guests I’d go with approach number 2 because it looks a little prettier and allows everyone to add as little or as much sauce as they like.

But if I’m making dinner for ‘just us’ I’ll usually put the rice and skewers in a bowl and pour the peanut sauce right on top. I’d suggest adding steamed broccoli, green beans or another simple vegetable on the side as well to make a balanced meal.