New York Cooking - Chicken Saté

The origins of saté (or satay) is in Indonesia, Java to be exact, but its roots are in the kabobs brought from the Middle East by Muslim traders. The dish probably started as street food. Today saté can be found throughout Asia from the streets to the finest restaurants. The basics of the dish are pieces of meat that have been marinated, and then cooked on skewers, usually over coals. The meat is served with a sauce, which can be spicy, coconut based, curry based or often a combination of all three.

In The New York Cookbook, Molly O'Neill has included a wonderful recipe from Dhanit Choladda. Today Dhanit is the head chef at Thai U.S.A. in Huntington NY. He can to the United States at the age of 19 from Thailand. His recipe uses coconut milk curry and Thai fish sauce as the base of an excellent sauce and marinade that keeps the chicken moist and flavorful.

Chicken Saté skewers

I made the dish as a welcome home lunch for The Amazing Ms. D, who was coming home after spending a week in Puerto Rico attending El Primer Congreso del Afrodecendencia en Puerto Rico. I prepared the chicken and sauce along with rice and a salad. A very nice light lunch.

Our lunch table

Preparation and cooking:

The recipe in The New York Cookbook is very easy to follow. It took about 20 min to prepare the marinade and chicken, which I did 2 days ahead. Today I made the sauce, which took about 10 minutes of prep and then about 15 min to cook down. Cooking the chicken took 10 minutes of prep time to put the chicken onto the skewers and about 20 minutes, but that was because I had to cook 2 batches of skewers. if you have a large broiler or grill it will take less time.