Name: Chicken Satay (ไก่สะเต๊ะ) — Thai Chicken Skewers with Peanut Sauce
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 80 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Thai
Ingredients: 500 g chicken thigh (สะโพกไก่), sliced thin; 1.5 tbsp coriander seeds (ลูกผักชี); 1 tsp galangal (ข่า), chopped; 1.5 tbsp lemongrass (ตะไคร้), sliced fine; 1/2 cup head coconut milk (หัวกะทิ); 1/2 tbsp ground cumin (ยี่หร่าป่น); 1 tsp turmeric powder (ผงขมิ้น); 1 tsp curry powder (ผงกะหรี่); 1.5 tbsp sugar (น้ำตาลทราย); 1 tbsp salt (เกลือ) — the source's amount; halve it if you prefer; 1 tbsp ground pepper (พริกไทยป่น); 1 cup head coconut milk + 1 cup fresh milk — mixed, for basting while grilling; 300 ml coconut milk (กะทิ) — for the sauce; 200 g roasted peanuts (ถั่วลิสงคั่ว), ground fine; 20 g massaman curry paste (พริกแกงมัสมั่น); 20 g red curry paste (พริกแกงแดง); 80 g palm sugar (น้ำตาลปี๊บ); 4 tbsp tamarind water (น้ำมะขามเปียก); 1/2 tsp salt (เกลือป่น); rice vinegar, sugar, salt and 70 ml water — for the ajad pickle; 1 cucumber (แตงกวา), 1 red spur chilli, 2 shallots — sliced, for the ajad

The Skewers That Arrived By Boat

Satay is a traveller. Thai food writers are open that the dish came to Thailand through the Malay world — most likely brought by Muslim traders — and the Thai kitchen made it its own. What makes the Thai version Thai is the coconut-milk marinade, the cumin-turmeric-curry-powder warmth, and the habit of basting the skewers with sweetened coconut milk while they grill, so the surface stays glossy instead of charring dry.

Then there's the sauce. In Thailand it is built from roasted peanuts pounded fine, cooked into coconut milk with curry paste — the sources split between massaman-plus-red and roasted red paste — sweetened with palm sugar and sharpened with tamarind. It is savoury, nutty and slightly hot. It is not the sweet peanut-butter gloop of western takeaways.

And the pickle matters as much as the sauce. Ajad — cucumber, red chilli and shallots in a hot-sweet vinegar brine — is the fresh crunch that keeps the whole plate from being rich. Satay without ajad is only two thirds of the dish.

The Recipe (chicken version — serves 4)

Thai	English	Amount
The marinade
สะโพกไก่ (แล่บาง)	Chicken thigh, sliced thin	500 g
ลูกผักชี	Coriander seeds	1½ tbsp
ข่า (สับ)	Galangal, chopped	1 tsp
ตะไคร้ (ซอย)	Lemongrass, sliced fine	1½ tbsp
หัวกะทิ	Head coconut milk	½ cup
ยี่หร่าป่น	Ground cumin	½ tbsp
ผงขมิ้น	Turmeric powder	1 tsp
ผงกะหรี่	Curry powder	1 tsp
น้ำตาลทราย	Sugar	1½ tbsp
เกลือ	Salt — the source's amount; halve it if you prefer	1 tbsp
พริกไทยป่น	Ground pepper	1 tbsp
For grilling
หัวกะทิ + นมสด	Head coconut milk and fresh milk, mixed — for basting	1 cup + 1 cup
The peanut sauce (น้ำจิ้มสะเต๊ะ)
กะทิ	Coconut milk	300 ml
ถั่วลิสงคั่วป่น	Roasted peanuts, ground fine	200 g
พริกแกงมัสมั่น	Massaman curry paste	20 g
พริกแกงแดง	Red curry paste	20 g
น้ำตาลปี๊บ	Palm sugar	80 g
น้ำมะขามเปียก	Tamarind water	4 tbsp
เกลือป่น	Salt	½ tsp
The ajad (อาจาด)
น้ำส้มสายชู + น้ำตาล + เกลือ + น้ำ	Rice vinegar, sugar, salt and water, simmered	as needed + 70 ml
แตงกวา · พริกชี้ฟ้าแดง · หอมแดง	Cucumber, red spur chilli, shallots — sliced	1 · 1 · 2

The Method

Pound the aromatics. Coriander seeds, galangal and lemongrass in the mortar until fine — the marinade's base note.
Marinate. The pounded aromatics, sliced chicken, head coconut milk, cumin, turmeric, curry powder, sugar, salt and pepper in a bowl. Massage it in; rest 2–3 hours in the fridge. (One source's version skips the powders and uses black pepper instead — see below.)
Soak the skewers. Bamboo skewers in water while the chicken marinates, so they survive the fire.
Thread. Chicken onto the skewers in a thin, even layer. Mix the basting liquid: one cup of head coconut milk, one cup of fresh milk.
Grill and baste. Charcoal if you have it, a hot grill pan or a 200°C oven grill otherwise. Baste with the coconut-milk mix as it cooks — this is what keeps the surface glossy and the chicken moist.
Build the sauce. A little oil, then the massaman and red curry pastes fried until fragrant. Coconut milk in, then the ground roasted peanuts, palm sugar, tamarind water and salt. Simmer gently until thick and glossy.
Pickle. Vinegar, sugar, salt and water dissolved over low heat, cooled, then the sliced cucumber, chilli and shallots stirred through.
Serve. Skewers hot, sauce and ajad alongside. The pickle is not optional — it is the cut the dish needs.

Where Thai Sources Disagree

Peanut butter vs peanuts. The classic grinds roasted peanuts and cooks them into the sauce. Home cooks and shortcut blogs openly use peanut butter — the modern habit, not the original. Both appear in Thai sources; the recipe above is the ground-peanut version.

The sauce's paste base. Wongnai builds it on massaman paste plus red curry paste; Phol's version fries a roasted curry paste (พริกแกงคั่ว) first. Both produce a savoury, curry-scented sauce — the point is that a curry paste belongs in it.

The marinade spices. The cumin-turmeric-curry-powder trio (Wongnai) against the simpler galangal-lemongrass-black-pepper pound (Phol). One is warmer, one is cleaner; both are published as ไก่สะเต๊ะ.

Salt. The Wongnai source prints a full tablespoon for 500 g of chicken. Home versions run lighter. We've transcribed the source amount and flagged it.

The pickle. Ajad appears in nearly every Thai recipe — but some home cooks serve satay with sweet chilli sauce instead. The sources treat ajad as the standard and the sweet chilli as the market shortcut.

The origin story. Thai sources agree satay travelled from the Malay world via Muslim traders; the exact route is argued. The Thai version's coconut-milk character is the settled part.

How Western Versions Get It Wrong

Sweet peanut gloop. Jar "satay sauce" is peanut butter with sugar. The real sauce has roasted peanuts, curry paste, coconut milk, palm sugar and tamarind — savoury first.
No curry paste in the sauce. It is the difference between satay sauce and sweetened peanut butter.
Dry, unglossy chicken. The coconut-milk baste during grilling is not optional — it is the dish's signature finish.
No ajad. Served without the cucumber pickle, the plate has no freshness and everything runs rich.
Thick blocks of chicken. Satay is sliced thin and threaded flat, so the marinade reaches everywhere and the grill can do its work.
Skewers that burn. Soak the bamboo. Burnt-wood flavour is not a garnish.

UK Ingredient Notes

Coriander seeds and ground cumin: any supermarket spice aisle. The curry powder is the mild "Madras-style" blend, not a Thai-specific product.
Thai curry pastes (massaman, red): Thai grocers sell proper pastes by weight — the ones with shrimp paste listed in the ingredients, not the jarred soup-bases.
Roasted peanuts: buy unsalted roasted peanuts and grind them yourself — salted snack peanuts make the sauce too salty to balance.
Coconut milk: full-fat tins; you'll use the thick head for the marinade and basting, the rest for the sauce.
Bamboo skewers: any supermarket; soak them 20–30 minutes minimum.
Grilling indoors: a cast-iron grill pan or the oven's top grill at 200°C both work — charcoal adds the smoke but the baste matters more.
Ajad: rice vinegar, sugar, salt — everything's standard. It keeps in the fridge for a week, so make extra.

Sources

This recipe is translated from the following Thai-language sources. Where they disagree, we've said so.

1. Wongnai (pimtp__) — "วิธีทำ ไก่สะเต๊ะ เมนูย่างสุดเด็ด" (4 Jan 2019 — full marinade, basting liquid and peanut-sauce quantities) — wongnai.com

2. Phol Food Mafia — "Chicken Satay (ไก่สะเต๊ะ)" สูตรโดย พล ตัณฑเสถียร (marinade pound, ajad and the roasted-paste sauce method) — pholfoodmafia.com

3. BlogGang (tabtimsiam) — "สูตรหมูสะเต๊ะ -ไก่สะเต๊ะ" (home-cook discussion incl. the peanut-butter shortcut) — bloggang.com

Johnny Tiger

Johnny researches and translates Thai recipes from Thai-language sources — chefs, restaurants and home cooks in Thailand — and publishes them with their sources cited. No westernised shortcuts, no invented steps.