I'm Dutch Indonesian, and Saté has been one of my all time favorites since I was a kid. I'd eat stick after stick at Philly area Garuda Indonesian Picnics with all of my "aunts" and "uncles" who are family for life.
My Pops was Indonesian, and he always introduced me to the best foods of his country. It may not always look fancy and "pretty" like other foods, but the flavors and sometimes spice (I love a good spice sweat!) are second to none.
Street food is the absolute heartbeat of so many countries, and Saté is the champion.
And no saté for me is complete without copious amounts of peanut sauce. To this day, peanut sauce can bring tears of happiness and nostalgia to my eyes.
Some foods need a white tablecloth and a quiet room. Satay is not one of them. Sate ayam is Indonesian street food at its best: small pieces of marinated chicken threaded on bamboo skewers, grilled hot and fast until the edges char, then dragged through a peanut sauce so good you will start looking for other things in the kitchen to dip in it. Fries. A spoon. Your finger. No judgment here.
The marinade does the heavy lifting before the grill even gets lit. Kecap manis brings the sweet, dark caramel flavor. Turmeric brings the color and the earthy base. Ground coriander, garlic, and a little lime juice round it out. Give the chicken at least an hour in that mix, and overnight if you can plan that far ahead, which, honestly, most of us cannot. An hour works. Do not skip it and expect the same result.
Use chicken thighs. I will say it plain: breast meat dries out on skewers over high heat, and dry satay is a sad little stick. Thighs stay juicy, they take the char better, and they cost less. That is a win in every column.
Then there is the peanut sauce, and this is where a lot of home versions get lazy and just thin out peanut butter with water. We are not doing that. Real sauce gets simmered with coconut milk, kecap manis, garlic, and sambal until it turns thick and glossy. It should coat the back of a spoon and hold a line when you drag your finger through it. Make the full batch. Leftover sauce keeps for a week in the fridge and improves just about anything it touches.
Put the chicken pieces in a large bowl. Add the kecap manis, soy sauce, oil, garlic, turmeric, coriander, brown sugar, lime juice, and salt. Mix well until every piece is coated and the chicken turns a deep golden color. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or overnight for the best flavor.
While the chicken marinates, make the peanut sauce. Heat the oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds, just until fragrant. Do not let it brown.
Add the peanut butter, coconut milk, and water to the saucepan. Whisk over medium heat until the mixture comes together into a smooth sauce, about 3 minutes. It will look loose at first. Keep whisking. It sorts itself out.
Stir in the kecap manis, sambal, brown sugar, lime juice, and salt. Drop the heat to low and simmer for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring often, until the sauce thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. If it gets too thick, whisk in coconut milk or water a tablespoon at a time. Taste it. It should be rich, a little sweet, and warm with heat at the end. Set it aside off the heat. It will thicken a bit more as it sits.
Thread the marinated chicken onto the soaked skewers, about 4 to 5 pieces per skewer. Pack the pieces close together with no gaps, but do not crush them flat. Leave the bottom 2 inches of each skewer bare so you have a handle.
Heat a grill to medium-high, or heat a grill pan or cast iron skillet over medium-high heat until it is good and hot. Brush the grates or the pan lightly with oil.
Lay the skewers on the grill in a single layer with a little space between them. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes on the first side without moving them, so the chicken picks up real char marks and the edges caramelize.
Flip the skewers and cook for 3 to 4 minutes more, turning once or twice as needed, until the chicken is cooked through, charred in spots, and reads 165 degrees Fahrenheit on an instant read thermometer. Total grill time should be about 8 to 10 minutes depending on the size of your pieces.
Rest the skewers on a platter for 3 minutes. Warm the peanut sauce gently over low heat if it has cooled, and whisk in a splash of water if it needs loosening.
Serve the skewers over jasmine rice with cucumber chunks and red onion wedges on the side, lime wedges for squeezing, and a generous bowl of peanut sauce for dipping. Put extra sambal on the table for anyone who wants more heat.
Brush a little of the leftover marinade, thinned with a spoonful of oil, over the skewers in the last minute on the grill. The sugar in the kecap manis caramelizes fast and gives you those dark, sticky edges that make satay taste like satay. Watch it close in that last minute, because the same sugar that makes it great will burn if you walk away.
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