CHICKEN PEANUT BUTTER SATAY SKEWERS

Chicken Peanut Butter Satay Skewers image

I sort of made this up, as I was contemplating what to do w/ some chicken, and didn't feel like making my African Chicken Peanut Butter Stew. I did some research on another website, picked and chose the things I wanted in it, and this is what I came up with.

Provided by Terrie Hoelscher

Time 1h25m

Number Of Ingredients 10

Ingredients

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thawed
MARINADE
1/3 c peanut butter
1/3 c low sodium soy sauce
1/4 c lemon or lime juice (i prefer the lime)
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp onion salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp red pepper (more or less, to your taste)

Steps:

1. JUST A NOTE, re: the peanut butter ... most recipes for Satay call for creamy peanut butter. I only had the chunky, so that's what I used. I made up the marinade, microwaved it just a bit so it was soft enough to be "pourable", then strained it thru a wire mesh strainer. Keep the peanuts that you strain out. Set aside.
2. Using a sharp knife or heavy-duty cooking shears, cut the chicken breasts into about 1/4" thick strips. Lay them out onto a cutting board, cover them w/ waxed paper or plastic wrap, and pound them with your meat mallet very lightly, just to tenderize them a bit. Set strips aside while making the marinade.
3. MARINADE: mix all marinade ingredients together with a whisk. Put in the microwave for about 30 second intervals to 'soften' and smooth out the PB and make the mixture more liquid. Don't get it too hot! Just enough to make it more malleable and smooth out the chunks in the PB. [Note: this is the point at which I strained the peanuts out of the chunky peanut butter, after it was liquid-y and pourable thru a strainer).
4. Take your tenderized chicken from the cutting board, and put it into the marinade for at least an hour. After meat has marinated for at least an hour, divide meat strips evenly and string onto four long skewers. After removing the chicken from the marinade, the marinade will have the chicken bacteria in it ... so after removing the chicken, bring the marinade to boil in a pan [to kill the bacteria], so you can use this for extra dipping sauce. At this point, I added the peanuts back to the sauce as I cooked it, and it was nice to have that extra texture.
5. Place loaded skewers on a foil-lined pan, and broil for several minutes on each side. Watch them closely, as the brown sugar WILL cause them to burn! After flipping them over, baste them with the re-cooked marinade/dipping sauce. I did this several times, to get a nice build-up of the satay on the chicken.
6. Serve with rice and a nice steamed vegetable, with some extra satay on the side for dipping, if preferred.
7. These were SO TENDER, and very flavorful. If you like them spicy, you might want to kick up the cumin and/or the red pepper.