Chicken Satay with Peanut Dipping Sauce

OMG, this was so good! If I'd known peanut sauce was this amazing I'd have tried this long ago! So good! I mean, it was good without the sauce too, but wow!

This post is also going to give you a little bit of extra instructions in addition to the usual 'mix this with that' routine. I'm going to give you some tips on how to keep your cooking area from becoming contaminated by peanuts. You see, I live with a brother who has a deadly peanut allergy, but there are some easy ways to keep safe when using peanut and peanut products so I'm going to include them here!

 A few hints: never cook with peanut oil. Oil does funny things: it gets into things, seeps around corners and, if there's any scratching at all in your non-stick pan's coating, it may well hide in there microscopically. Another hint is that you can never be too paranoid.

Ingredients

(marinade):

chicken cutlet

about 2 to 3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce

1 clove garlic, finely diced

ginger to taste, finely diced

(sauce)

2 tablespoons creamy or extra creamy peanut butter

1 teaspoon reduced-sodium soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon sesame oil, the peanut-free kind

you'll also need:

5-10 bamboo skewers, depending on how much chicken you have

non-stick grill pan or you could just use a regular pan

glass baking dish

tongs

small glass microwave-safe  bowl

small plate that fits tightly over the bowl

microwave

paper towels

cooking spray

liquid dish soap for washing dishes in the sink

1. soak the bamboo skewers overnight in water so they won't burn. I like to use the same glass baking dish I marinate them in.

2. prepare the marinade by putting the garlic and ginger in the baking dish, once it's been emptied of water and skewers. Pour in soy sauce until the bottom of the dish is soaked. Put the skewered chicken in and turn them to coat. Leave it for 15 minutes at room temperature, or up to 12 hours in the fridge. Be sure to turn them a few times.

3. While they're getting ready, make your peanut sauce. Put the peanut butter, soy sauce and sesame oil in the small glass bowl and mix together with a spoon. Put your dirty spoon on a paper towel on the counter.

4. cover the bowl with the small plate and microwave it on high for 10 seconds. Carefully take the plate off, turning it over and resting it on the counter so nothing drips off of it or comes in contact with the counter. Cover the bowl with the plate again and repeat for another 10 seconds: it should blend completely at this point. You cover the bowl to make sure nothing splatters, filling the microwave with peanut particles. Put the spoon and whatever you measured the peanut butter with in the sink. Throw out the paper towel.

 5. take the chicken out of the marinade and pat them dry with paper towels. Spray your grill pan with cooking spray and preheat over medium heat. Put the skewers on to grill, turning them with tongs once the first side is done. Once the second side is done, you're ready to eat! Serve these over rice or noodles.

6. now, it's time to clean up your mess. Anything you used to make the sauce, eat the sauce with, and eat the meal with should be placed in the sink: anything else can go in the dishwasher. To be safe, wash your plate, too: you may have eaten peanut sauce off the meat on your fork and then touched the plate with the fork. It pays to be paranoid, I always say. I always also say that if you're going to kill someone, you should mean it instead of doing it accidentally.

7. wash your peanut dishes with warm to hot water and a liberal amount of dish soap in the sink; use running water and wash them individually rather than filling the sink with water and doing them in a batch. Put them in the dishwasher (double washing!) and dry your hands with a paper towel. Do not fry your hands on a shared dishtowel, just to be sure. Rinse the sink with water and wipe down with paper towels.

8. use a damp paper towel to wash out the microwave, the  go over it with a dry one, just to be safe. Leave the microwave door open for a few minutes so it airs out. Voila!



I made this recipe up after looking at a bunch of recipes online and discarding them as either too complicated or impossible under my circumstances.