Southeast Asia's kebab descendant, likely adapted from Arab and Indian Muslim traders' kebabs by Javanese street cooks: small pieces of turmeric-marinated chicken, goat, or beef on bamboo sticks, grilled over coconut charcoal and sauced with sweet-spicy ground peanut. Indonesia alone counts dozens of regional sate styles.
Also known as: sate, saté, satai, sate ayam, sate kambing, satay ayam, chicken satay
Watch it made
Ingredients
- 700 g chicken thigh, in 2 cm pieces
- 2 lemongrass stalks (tender cores), plus 1 whole stalk for basting
- 3 shallots and 3 garlic cloves
- 2 tsp ground turmeric and 2 tsp ground coriander
- 25 g palm sugar
- 1 tsp salt and 30 ml oil
- 150 g roasted peanuts, ground (sauce)
- 200 ml coconut milk, 1 tbsp chili paste, 1 tbsp tamarind water (sauce)
- 16 bamboo skewers, soaked 30 min
- Cucumber chunks, raw shallot and ketupat or rice cakes
How to make it
- 1
Blitz lemongrass, shallots, garlic, turmeric, coriander, palm sugar, salt and oil into a paste and marinate the chicken 3 hours.
- 2
For the sauce, simmer ground peanuts with coconut milk, chili paste, tamarind and a little sugar until the oil rises to the top, then keep warm.
- 3
Thread the chicken without crowding the tip of each stick.
- 4
Grill over hot charcoal, fanning the coals and turning often, 7-9 minutes, brushing with oil using the bruised lemongrass stalk.
- 5
Serve the sticks over the sauce with cucumber, shallot and pressed rice.
Pro tip: Bash the spare lemongrass stalk into a frayed brush and baste with it all through the grilling; it mops, perfumes and bastes in one gesture, exactly as the satay men of Java and Malaysia do.
The story of Satay
Satay is Southeast Asia's kebab descendant, and the transmission is generally traced to Arab and Indian Muslim traders whose skewered meat was adapted by Javanese street cooks, probably in the eighteenth or nineteenth century. Small pieces of turmeric-marinated chicken, goat or beef go on bamboo sticks, are grilled over coconut charcoal, and are sauced with sweet-spicy ground peanut.
Indonesia alone counts dozens of regional sate styles, and treating satay as one dish is like treating kebab as one dish. What holds the family together is the bamboo stick, the small cut and the charcoal; almost everything else — the marinade, the sauce, the accompaniment — varies by island and by town.
The technique that defines it
The pieces are small, around a centimetre and a half, and this is a deliberate departure from the Middle Eastern skewers satay descends from. Small pieces cook in minutes over a shallow charcoal trough and take on a high ratio of char and glaze to meat, which is the flavour profile the whole tradition is built around.
Coconut-shell charcoal burns hot and fast, and the vendor fans the coals by hand with a woven fan — which is not theatre but temperature control. The skewers are basted repeatedly with a mixture of oil and kecap manis or marinade, and the constant fanning keeps the fire responsive to that basting.
Choosing your ingredients
Chicken thigh, goat or beef in small cubes, with some fat. Bamboo skewers, soaked. Turmeric, coriander, garlic, shallot, lemongrass and galangal are the common marinade base, blended into a paste.
Kecap manis — Indonesian sweet soy — is the ingredient that most defines the family's flavour and there is no real substitute; soy sauce with palm sugar approximates it. For the peanut sauce, roast the peanuts yourself and grind them coarse; peanut butter gives a smoother, sweeter and less interesting sauce.
Mistakes that ruin it
Cutting the meat too large
Satay uses small pieces so the ratio of char and glaze to meat stays high. Large cubes make it a different dish.
Peanut butter for the sauce
Grind your own roasted peanuts, coarsely. Peanut butter is too smooth and too sweet.
A static fire
Vendors fan the coals constantly. It keeps the heat responsive as the basting drips and flares.
Skipping the kecap manis
It is the flavour signature of the whole family. Soy with palm sugar is the workaround.
How it is served
Ten skewers to a portion with peanut sauce, kecap manis, sliced shallot, cucumber and lontong or ketupat — compressed rice cakes. Fried shallots over the top. It is street food eaten in the evening, and the vendor's cart is often carried on a shoulder pole.
Questions about Satay
Where does satay come from?
Java, most likely, adapted from the skewered meat of Arab and Indian Muslim traders. Indonesia and Malaysia both have deep satay traditions.
Can I use peanut butter for the sauce?
You can, but it is too smooth and too sweet. Roasting and coarsely grinding your own peanuts gives a far better sauce.
What is kecap manis?
Indonesian sweet soy sauce, thick and molasses-like. It is central to the flavour of most satay and is worth buying rather than approximating.
How many kinds of satay are there?
Dozens in Indonesia alone, varying by island and town in cut, marinade, sauce and accompaniment. Satay is a family, not a single dish.
