Thai Lemongrass Chicken Satay

I rely on quick and easy recipes for everday cooking. But when I cook for a party, I put in extra effort to make amazing food that makes people go wow!. Sometimes, good food takes time. This is one of them.

You will have to marinade it overnight (at least 12 – 24 hours of waiting time) and you will have to thread every piece of chicken into the bamboo skewers.

If you need to bring something to a barbeque party, it’s definitely easier to buy marinated meat from the supermarket or just get good quality steak.

But since there is nothing that pleases me more than having good conversation with good food, I very willingly go the extra mile to make the party memorable for my companions’ belly.

Having said that, though this dish is time consuming, it’s not difficult to make. It’s a matter of pouring sauces and spices on sliced chicken to marinate. How hard can that be?

If that is not enough to convince you to give this a try, this is an improved version of a recipe I gotten when I took a course at Le Cordon Bleu Thailand. So you can bet that it’s good!

TOOLS

• Bamboo skewers
• Blender
• Grill/ Wide pan

RECIPE CARD

SHORT RECIPE

Slice 750 g of boneless chicken thigh into long 1 cm slices. Blend 1/2 bulb of garlic + 9 lemongrass + 3 bunch coriander roots. Combine blended spices with 1 tsp black pepper powder + 1 tsp salt + 1 1/2 tsp cornflour + 1 tbsp sugar + 1 tbsp light soy sauce + 2 tbsp oyster sauce + 6 tbsp coconut milk + 1 Egg white + 2 tbsp vegetable oil

STEP-BY-STEP

1. Prep:
Peel garlic. Chop lemongrass and coriander roots. Slice chicken into long pieces of about 1 cm width.

2. Blend aromatics:
Blend coriander roots, lemongrass, and garlic into a paste. Transfer into a large container for marinating.

3. Make marinade sauce:
Pour the paste, pepper powder, salt, sugar, oyster, soy sauce, corn flour, coconut milk, egg white and cooking oil into a container.

4.Marinade: Add sliced chicken. Mix well and marinate for at least 30 minutes or preferably overnight. Add sliced chicken. Mix well and marinate for at least 30 minutes or preferably overnight.

5. Thread chicken on skewers:
Poke marinated chicken through bamboo skewers.

6. Grill on a wide pan or a barbeque pit
On a wide pan, pour some oil and pan-fry each chicken skewer on high OR grill over a barbeque pit.

COOKING TIPS

1. Marinate it over night. This will make the difference between good and amazing. If you are making this to impress your guest, I suggest that you let it marinate overnight.
2. Use pork if you like This recipe originally use pork. In Thai, it’s called moo-ping (grilled pork). However, as I throw house party with family and friends of different religions, I normally serve chicken.
3. Shorter skewers I have a rather wide pan which I believe is not common in Asian household. If you don’t have one, I suggest buying shorter skewers.
4. Triple the recipe for a large party As this recipes makes only a dozen of chicken skewers, I suggest multiplying the ingredients for a bigger batch. At a party, I will buy 1.5 kg of chicken which means I increase the sauce by three folds.
5. Ask you friends to help you thread the meat. For a potluck party, I sometimes gather my friends to help me thread the satay.

Why not make this at the next BBQ party? I assure you that your family and friends will love you for this, as did mine 🙂