Chicken Sate with Peanut Sauce and Spicy Cucumber Salad

This recipe comes from the July 2005 issue of Cooking Light. We made this recipe right when we got the issue back in 2005, and after tonight’s dinner the family said “we should have this more often.” It’s super tasty, easy to make, and is great on a hot summer day. You can easily adapt this recipe for vegetarians by substituting tofu for the chicken, and I imagine using beef would be quite tasty too. You can also double the sauce recipe if your or family likes sauce.

The accompanying spicy cucumber salad is fresh and light tasting, and like the sate is excellent. I served the sate and salad with rice noodles, but you can use rice or leave the starch out completely. After we finished dinner I had some of the dressing from the salad on my plate and I mixed it with the noodles, then put some of the peanut sauce on top and it was superb. We all liked the extra punch the cucumber dressing gave the peanut sauce, so the next time I prepare this recipe, once the salad is made, I’m going to put some of the dressing into the peanut sauce. Try it, and I guarantee you’ll like the addition to the peanut sauce.

This recipe used wooden skewers, and I soaked them in water for over 1 hour, which is supposed to prevent the skewers from burning. They still burned, so next time it’s back to the old standby…metal skewers.

Sate:

• 1 lb. skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into strips
• 1 TBSP brown sugar
• 2.5 TBSP soy sauce
• 2 TBSP ginger, minced
• 1 tsp. grated lime rind
• 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper
• 2 garlic cloves, minced

Directions for Sate:

1. Combine chicken and next 6 ingredients in a medium bowl. Let stand 10 minutes.

Peanut Sauce:

• 1 TBSP brown sugar
• 1.5 TBSP soy sauce
• 2 TBSP natural-style peanut butter
• 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper
• 1 garlic clove, minced

Directions for Peanut Sauce and Chicken:

1. Combine 1 TBSP brown sugar and the next 5 ingredients in a medium bowl, stirring until sugar dissolves.

2. Thread chicken strips onto skewers. Grill until chicken is done.

Spicy Cucumber Salad:

• 1/2 c. rice vinegar
• 1 TBSP sugar
• 1 TBSP minced seeded jalapeno pepper
• 1 tsp. grated lime rind

Combine above ingredients in a large bowl, then add the following ingredients and toss to coat

• 3 cups thinly sliced English cucumber
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion

Chicken Sate with Peanut Sauce and Spicy Cucumber Salad: