WEEK 4: Chicken Satay with Spicy Peanut Sauce

It was Asian inspiration week! When I got the Costco cookbook I read through and marked all of my favorites. I had everything but curry powder and ginger on hand so this was the perfect recipe for my "end of the month grocery crisis" (I stink at spacing out the grocery money throughout the month and am down to $13 for this week) ... tears.

Chicken Satay with Spicy Peanut Sauce

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients

1 C Italian dressing - divided into two 1/2 cup portions

1 T firmly packed brown sugar

1 T finely chopped cilantro

1 T finely chopped fresh ginger

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, pounded thin and cut into thin strips

1/2 C creamy peanut butter

1/4 t curry powder

1/4 t ground red pepper

Steps

To make a marinade, combine 1/2 C Italian dressing, brown sugar, cilantro, and ginger.

Place chicken in a large, shallow baking dish. Pour 1/4 C marinade over the chicken; turn to coat. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator, turning occasionally, for 30 minutes to 3 hours. Refrigerate the remaining marinade.

Blend peanut butter, 1/2 C Italian dressing, curry powder and red pepper; refrigerate until ready to serve.

Preheat the grill or broiler.

Remove chicken from the marinade, discarding marinade. Thread chicken onto skewers. Grill or broil chicken turning once and brushing frequently with refrigerated marinade, until chicken is thoroughly cooked.

Serve with peanut sauce.

My 2 Cents

Lesson of the week ... READ THE RECIPE BEFORE YOU GO ALL CRAZY IN THE KITCHEN. I assumed this was a pretty easy recipe and went on my merry way throwing things together. Because of this assumption I used all of the entire cup of Italian dressing in the marinade and missed the part about setting aside part of the marinade for brushing while cooking. This explains why my marinade was so running ... it had an extra 1/2 cup of dressing. Seriously, Gretchen, seriously.

All in all, this is definitely going to be a staple recipe. I want to make the peanut sauce spicier next time. I also forgot to soak the bamboo skewers so we just had chicken squares cooked in the wok instead of grilled chicken skewers. We decided that we want to fire up the grill next time so they get the "grill flavor".

One of the greatest parts (in my opinion) was the brown rice I found in the freezer section of Trader Joe's today. It is pre-cooked. Yes, I am so lazy that I am thoroughly excited about pre-cooked rice. Brown rice takes so long (which the package explains) hence they pre-cook and freeze it so all you have to do is warm up in a saucepan or microwave. GENIUS!

Dominic's Rating

Gretchen: So, Dominic what did you think about dinner tonight?

Dominic: It was good.

Gretchen: How am I supposed to blog, "It was good." Can you say something about the flavor?

Dominic: I know brown rice is healthy ... so why does white rice taste so much better?

Gretchen: The rice was not the new recipe!

Dominic: Oh, then I would say the chicken was good enough to eat by itself, but the peanut sauce was a nice treat!

Gretchen: That's blog-able, thanks :)