I’m not saying that I made chicken sateh tonight, but I ate chicken sateh tonight, and it’s not hard to make at all. The most important thing you have to do is remember to get skewers and coconut milk from the grocery store. Somehow, my deli on the corner manages to pack in every almost every ingredient known to man on this planet in a space no bigger than a one bedroom apartment. It is a grocer’s miracle. It takes a while to learn how to maneuver the pronged claw that they leave around to get the stuff on the shelves nearest to the ceiling. I’m thinking library ladders would have been fun, but out of control when it came to insurance.
For the chicken, just get cutlets, and make a marinade of half a cup of coconut milk, a hefty pinch of sugar, a half a teaspoon of turmeric, a zest of lime, and about a teaspoon each of whole cumin and whole coriander SEEDS that you grind up in your little mortar and pestel. Pour this over a pound of chicken, and let it sit for about a half an hour. Remove the cutlets, and lay them onto a piece of wax paper. Season each of them on one side with kosher salt. If you have a grill, slice them into strips and skewer them before grilling (soaking the skewers first), or saute the chicken first, just enough to cook it through, and then skewer after the chicken is cooked by slicing the cooked chicken into 2 inch by 1 inch pieces, and threading the sticks through. This is a great way to do it if you forget to soak your skewers.

For the sauce, mix half a cup of all natural peanut butter with a little lime juice, a few Tablespoons of coconut milk, a Tablespoon of sugar, and a dash of some hot sauce (or red chili sauce). Add a drop of water if when you taste it, it’s perfect, but needs to be thinned out a bit. Water can be your best friend in these situations by either making the flavor a bit less intense or smoothing out the consistency of something without changing its makeup.

On the side serve jasmine rice cooked with a bay leaf and a little butter and salt.

For the salad serve mango wedges with watercress and avocado, with a little olive oil, salt and lime juice over the top.

For a second salad, you could slice up a cucumber and drizzle it with a little white vinegar, a dash of hot sauce, and a pinch of sugar.