Picky Chicken Satay

I love Asian food. LOVE it. However, I have become extremely allergic to seafood of any kind. Last time I attempted a dish that included soy sauce I had to chew some Benadryl as a last ditch attempt before the EpiPen. (The soy sauce had fish sauce in it...who knew?!)

Logan and Kyle cannot have anything with wheat in it, and a ton of sauces have wheat in their bases. So pretty much everything has to be made from scratch and labels read very carefully.

I made "chicken satay" last night. I wanted to make peanut chicken but Logan can't eat peanuts. I made the peanut sauce on the side.

The satay recipe is my own. The peanut sauce recipe is adapted from a Tyler Florence recipe on Foodnetwork.com.

This was really good! I served it with Jasmine rice (Don't. Use. Instant Rice.) (Ever!) and green beans with garlic and red pepper.

First, make the satay sauce. I used a blender for mine, and it worked out just fine. My sauce uses lemon juice, soy sauce (gluten and fish byproduct free), onions, garlic, cayenne pepper, ginger, coriander, brown sugar, vegetable oil. You may want to add cumin and fish sauce, but I leave those out. Cumin grosses me out and fish sauce is bad news. Blend all the lovely ingredients together.

I like to use chicken breast to make this recipe. You can use thighs, too. I really have an aversion to the frozen chicken pieces that come in a bag, so I just cut two bone in breasts into "tenders".

See how nice those look! Pour your sauce over the chicken (it will look like barf, sorry) and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes.

Once the chicken has soaked in all the goodness from the marinade, you are ready to cook! You can totally grill the chicken if you want. I am sure you could bake it. I like to get a pan smoking hot and saute the chicken. Then the sauce caramelizes a little bit and the chicken gets a little crunchy, but still stays nice and juicy on the inside. Like I said, not great at the photography, so don't laugh at the next picture...

Notice the chicken is "dry". I made the peanut sauce on the side, the recipe will be in the wrap-up. This way Logan can have chicken and I don't have to make a whole separate batch. Also, when Cooper comes begging for food I can serve him a few pieces without any worry of a possible allergic reaction.

Recipe wrap-up for chicken satay

Chicken breast or thigh cut into "tenders". Use as much as necessary for your family. The sauce recipe makes enough.
1/4 cup lemon juice (you can use lemongrass, it is NOT the same flavor, but it will add a little tang)
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp. cayenne pepper (at LEAST! I added 1 T)
1 T. ginger
2 T. ground coriander
3 T. dark soy sauce
5 T. brown sugar
2 T. vegetable oil
(you can use 4 T fish oil as well)

Blend marinade ingredients together, pour over chicken, refrigerate for at least 20 minutes. Cook chicken how you desire.

Recipe wrap-up for peanut sauce

Let me start off by saying that this sauce is NOT good by itself, but delicious on the chicken. The flavors are amazing together. I encourage you to try it. Also, don't make this in a blender if you don't haver to. It makes a huge mess. Use a food processor, the smaller the better.

Recipe adapted from Tyler Florence's Peanut Sauce Recipe on Foodnetwork.com

1 c. peanut butter

1/4 c. soy sauce

2 t. Sriracha

2 T. dark brown sugar

1/2 c. lime juice

1/2 c. hot water

Blend (use the food processor!) first five ingredients together, adding hot water as necessary for desired consistency.

Serve on the side or pour it over the chicken and rice! I would suggest adding some chopped peanuts for a little crunchy fun in the food.