Everything is more fun on a stick, right? Well, that’s what I thought then I confirmed my suspicion as I sat and watched my family (yes, my husband included) practically fight over the last two of these chicken skewers the other night. Before my girls even knew what this dish was called they desperately needed more of “those things.” And the best part was that it took me no time at all to put this fancy-looking dinner together, which means it’s definitely “good enough” for company!
Coconut Chicken Satay
Serves 4 as an entree
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken breasts, preferably locally and/or organically raised
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 1/2 cup coconut milk, unsweetened
- 1 tablespoon lime juice, plus 1 extra teaspoon (freshly squeezed)
- 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1/2 jalapeño, seeds and stem removed (use the other half to make some overnight refried beans…yum!)
- 1/8 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/3 cup unsweetened coconut flakes, lightly toasted (note: coconut can burn quickly and needs to be stirred/checked frequently while toasting…we do ours in the toaster oven for no more than 2 or 3 minutes)
Instructions
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Preheat the oven broiler on high.
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Soak skewers in water if you don’t want them to cook/burn in the oven (I didn’t because I like to skip steps).
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Cut the chicken breasts into strips and thread them onto about a dozen skewers. Place the prepared skewers on a foil-lined baking sheet and set aside (you can stick them in the fridge if you’d like).
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In a food processor or blender puree the peanut butter, coconut milk, lime juice, vinegar, honey, garlic, jalapeno, and chili powder together. Remove ¼ cup of the peanut mixture and drizzle/brush it over the raw chicken skewers.
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Place chicken under the broiler to cook. After 4 – 5 minutes take the baking sheet out, turn the skewers over, drizzle another ¼ cup peanut sauce on top, and cook for 4 or 5 more minutes or until cooked all the way through.
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Once the chicken is done take it out, drizzle on the remaining peanut sauce (or serve it as extra dipping sauce on the side), and sprinkle the toasted coconut on top.
Serve warm and enjoy!
Recipe Notes
Also need: skewers and foil lined baking sheet
We recommend organic ingredients when feasible.
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What are all these diets with crazy names and acronyms?
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Mallory
February 23, 2012 at 11:11 amThese sound DELICIOUS.
the flex belt results
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Diane Jaquay
February 23, 2012 at 11:18 amThis looks YUMMY! I wonder if it would work substituting almond butter for the peanut butter? I’m going to give it a try!
100 Days of Real Food
February 25, 2012 at 6:26 pmI think it would work!
Christina
February 23, 2012 at 11:19 amI LOVE chicken satay. I LOVE peanut sauce. I have tried many times to make thai peanut sauce at home and FAILED MISERABLY. I am VERY EXCITED to try this!! I’ve had great luck with your recipes so far. If I succeed, however, I do risk never eating anything else ever again :)
Amber
February 23, 2012 at 11:38 amLooks delicious. I am not a coconut fan so I’m assuming I can leave of the shredded coconut. What about the coconut milk? Does it have a strong coconut taste and if so would you recommend a different milk?
Holly
February 23, 2012 at 11:51 amI’m not a coconut fan either, but I find that in things like coconut shrimp, like it. I also use coconut milk with no problem.
100 Days of Real Food
February 25, 2012 at 6:25 pmHave you ever tried toasted coconut? I don’t like plain coconut either, but it’s quite different (and better in my opinion) when it’s toasted!
Adina
February 23, 2012 at 11:57 amI have been a fan of chicken satay since coming across it in Holland. We’ve since given up peanuts, and I have missed it. I’m going to try this with a different nut butter, perhaps cashew. Now wondering if I have everything in the pantry for this … I want this for dinner tonight!
dalton
February 23, 2012 at 12:05 pmI cannot wait to try out this recipe on my family!!
Peanut + Coconut is one of my favorite flavor combos. Plus, the jalapeno for a little extra for zip sounds kind of like perfection. Thanks for sharing this.
sara
February 23, 2012 at 6:01 pmThis looks amazing! What great flavors – love chicken satay, but haven’t tried it for coconut, bet it is amazing!
LSW
February 23, 2012 at 7:59 pmWe love satay and have a quick tip for cooking. Instead of heating up the oven, if you have George Foreman type grill, just pop them in there. Saves time and energy. Quick cleanup, too! Thanks for the great recipe.
Lindsay
February 23, 2012 at 8:28 pmWhat type of rice vinegar do you buy? I’ve only found ones with HFCS.
100 Days of Real Food
February 25, 2012 at 6:12 pmOh wow…HFCS in rice vinegar? Ours is made by Nakano and it’s pretty clean.
Victoria
February 24, 2012 at 7:47 amI have never had cocunut peanut butter combo, what sides would you serve with this?
100 Days of Real Food
February 25, 2012 at 6:01 pmIt has an Asian flair to it so brown rice, snow peas, bok choy, fried rice, asian noodles, etc….any of that would go nicely with it!
staci
February 24, 2012 at 3:22 pmwhere did you find the coconut? i was looking today for unsweetened coconut with no luck!
100 Days of Real Food
February 25, 2012 at 5:43 pmUnsweetened shredded coconut can be hard to find. I got mine at Earth Fare, but I have seen it at Bi-Lo in the “healthy food” section.
Bridget
June 12, 2012 at 5:23 pmYou can also get it at Asian markets or an Indian food store, places along those lines have it. Sometimes it is called dessicated coconut, which basically means dried coconut.
Whitney
February 24, 2012 at 3:43 pmI was wondering if anyone had a reccomendation for where to get coconut milk? I tried Whole foods, and the two types I found were in the cold section and seemed to have a lot of added ingreadients. I am a little new to the ‘real food’ plan and to coconut milk… but wanted to give it a try. Any help would be appreciated.
100 Days of Real Food
February 25, 2012 at 5:42 pmCheck out the canned coconut milk in the Asian section of any grocery store…I bought organic unsweetened coconut milk in a can. Whole Foods should definitely have the same thing.
Heather
February 25, 2012 at 9:03 pmI made this tonight and it was awesome. Even my picky five year old loved it.
Sara
February 27, 2012 at 10:15 amHow many skewers did this make?
100 Days of Real Food
February 27, 2012 at 10:26 amA dozen
Kari
February 27, 2012 at 7:58 pmMy boys will freak when I make this!! They are 4 and 8 (and 35, lol) and love all things Thai!!! :-) THANKS SO MUCH for making out “transition” easier. Exited to move from boxed food to food in jars, (eg beans, grains, you know, healthy stuff?) :-)
THANKS AGAIN!!
Kari
Emily Rae
February 29, 2012 at 10:44 amI made this for dinner last night. Used almond milk instead of coconut (on a no-buying spree right now), added a big knob of chopped ginger to the sauce, and rolled each skewer on a plate with chia and sesame seeds and the coconut. I didn’t want the topping to burn, so I baked them with the convection fan on for about 20 minutes at 350. I also stirred the extra sauce into some curried lentils and quinoa. Oh, and between each piece of chicken I put a piece of orange pepper. The whole meal came together so efficiently and was delicious. Thanks for the recipe, and for reminding me that skewers are not just a summer food!
Willow
March 12, 2012 at 12:11 amThis is wonderful! I didn’t have any skewers, though, so I simply dunked all the chicken pieces into the sauce, then stir-fried it with a red pepper and half an onion. We served rice cooked in chicken broth on the side. Next time, I’ll probably go all out and cook the rice in coconut milk, too.
Emily
March 14, 2012 at 8:38 pmThis is an awesome recipe! I made it as directed and it will definitely be on our regular rotation!!! What did you serve it with? We just heated up leftovers, but as I was planning dinner I wasn’t sure what sides you would pair with this.
100 Days of Real Food
March 16, 2012 at 5:43 pmThis dish has an Asian flair so you could do stir fried veggies or brown rice or whole-grain Asian noodles on the side. Glad you enjoyed it!
Emily
March 22, 2012 at 11:02 amI made this as written and it was delicious! Just go ahead and double the recipe, peoples!
Melissa
March 25, 2012 at 10:44 pmWe made this tonight with a bok choy recipe I found and it was wonderful! Thank you so much Lisa!
Erin Dow
April 4, 2012 at 10:08 amHi Lisa!
I love what you’re doing to cut out processed foods. I’m the expert chef for Guiding Stars (and sometimes blog over at Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution site) I loved the look of this recipe, so I had it rated. We made one minor tweak (changing the regular coconut milk to unsweetened, lite coconut milk to reduce the saturated fat) and it earned a star! Thanks for sharing the delicious goodness!
Erin Dow
Expert Chef, Guiding Stars
http://guidingstars.com/expert-chef/recipe-review-welcome-spring/
Lisa
April 12, 2012 at 12:16 amJust wanted to let everyone know, I made this with sunbutter (sunflower seeds) because of nut allergies. And it turned out fabulous. I love peanuts, but couldn’t stop eating the sauce. My 7 year old loved it too. (still working on the 2 yr olds, but that’ will come). Thanks for all the great recipes!
A Table in the Sun
June 7, 2012 at 11:19 amI wonder how it would work to marinate the chicken? I like my flavors to be infused, so I think I’ll give it a try. This looks like the perfect dish for an appetizer only retirement get-together.
Assistant to 100 Days (Jill)
June 8, 2012 at 10:46 pmGive it a try! Let us know how it turns out. Jill
Christy
June 28, 2012 at 7:27 pmWe had a lot of the sauce left over-we aren’t heavy saucers in our house! I’m not good at knowing what is OK to freeze, and what isn’t. Is there anything in the sauce that would make it a bad candidate for freezing for a later recipe?
Assistant to 100 Days (Jill)
July 1, 2012 at 9:15 pmHi Christy. I’ve haven’t tried freezing the sauce, but, it’s worth a try. Good luck. Jill
Rachel
August 16, 2012 at 9:42 pmI made this tonight. Great recipe! I used chicken tenderloins instead of breasts, and then I didn’t have to cut them (I hate cutting raw chicken). I had to make some substitutions based on what I had in the house – subbed almond milk for the coconut milk, as I accidentally used up the last of our coconut milk in the morning making popsicles! I left out the jalapeno for the sake of my toddler, who currently hates spicy stuff, and also used white vinegar instead of rice wine. The sauce was great despite all these changes, and this was really easy to make!
Christin
October 16, 2012 at 4:34 pmThis was amazingly delicious and relatively easy to make! Thank you for the recipe!
Amanda
October 28, 2012 at 7:43 pmWe tried this tonight, but I used the sauce as a marinade. I marinated 1lb of chicken tenders for a few hours, then rolled the tenders in a mix of panko crumbs and unsweetened coconut flakes. I lined a pan with parchment paper and baked at 475 for 20 min…..fantastic!!! This will be a regular recipe in our house. My kitchen still smells delicious :)
Kim
March 5, 2013 at 9:52 pmHi, this recipe looks delicious. My daughter has a life-threatening peanut allergy. Has anyone tried this with no nut butter, or any other suggestions?
Heather Laushway
July 15, 2013 at 10:02 pmHi Kim – I just made this recipe tonight with WOW butter. It was delicious. My daughter also has a peanut allergy. We really enjoyed this recipe.
Kyrstin Mulvihil
January 28, 2014 at 11:09 amHeather, I was just about to ask the same question, because my fifteen month old also has a peanut allergy. But what is WOW butter??
Courtney
October 22, 2013 at 3:51 pmVery similar recipe to this one, with sunflower seed butter (ditto the nasty p-nut allergy here), very very very yummy.
The leftover sauce did freeze and thaw well.
And its also tasty over noodles with “Asian Veggies” of your choosing :-)
Joanna
March 8, 2013 at 7:09 pmI made this tonight! Huge success with my husband. I didn’t have skewers so instead I sliced the chicken into thin pieces and let it marinade in half the sauce for a few hours. Then I dipped each piece in the unsweetened coconut and baked it at 350 for about 25 minutes until the outside was crispy. I used the rest of the sauce for dipping. My daughter is too young to eat this now but I know this will be a favorite when she gets older! SOOOO yummy. Can’t wait to try the original way next time!
Tim
April 3, 2013 at 8:11 amAnother great recipe from 100 days of real food! I threw everything in my trusty vitamix blender and presto. I had been using a store-bought thai peanut sauce, but was unhappy with the ingredient list, and so tried this. Very easy, and actually more tasty than the one in the jar. It wasn’t too spicy (I followed the no-seed recommendation – I suppose that as I get more experience with this, I can actually adjust the spicy-ness by adding some seeds from the pepper.) I also used a very high quality peanut butter (ingredient = just peanuts.)I served this with rice, and the extra sauce for dipping, and in fact just pouring over the rice… I made the full amount of sauce, for about half the chicken (just my wife and I), so there was plenty of extra. Thanks as always for all of the great recipes.
Jessica Harri
October 22, 2013 at 7:11 pmI made these tonight!! My kids loved them as this is what they always order at the sushi and thai restaurants. It was so easy to bake and loved baking on foil so no messy cleanup! Subbed almond milk and almond butter because I did not have the others.
Alicia Eifler
November 6, 2013 at 10:00 amI’m planning on making this tomorrow and was curious as to what side items you served with it.
Assistant to 100 Days (Amy)
November 8, 2013 at 10:22 pmHi Alicia. It sometimes takes us a few days to get through our many comments. Sorry. What did you serve? ~Amy
Jessica(Guam)
November 9, 2013 at 4:44 amMade this for dinner tonight and it was a big hit!!! Used the left over peanut sauce for dipping and it was also VERY good!!! We served ours with organic noodles which everyone got to choose what they put on their noodles, and some organic spinach!!! Think I will double this and make for our next wives bunco night!!! ;)
SeattleMom
January 9, 2014 at 7:23 pmA new family favorite! YUM
Anna Hatchett
January 28, 2014 at 11:10 amWe have a peanut allergy in our house. Do you have a recommendation for a good substitute? We sometimes use sunflower seed butter, but that just doesn’t seem like it would taste good.
Kelly
January 28, 2014 at 8:13 pmReally good – next time I will skip the skewers and just marinate and roll as other commenters suggested – just to save time. I doubled the recipe (family of 6) and still have enough for lunch tomorrow and sauce to freeze (thanks for that idea!) I served this with jasmine rice and green beans.
Carolyn
January 30, 2014 at 11:35 pmJust made this – it was DELICIOUS. I agree that I will skip the skewers, but I think my husband liked them because then they looked like they were from a restaurant.
amanda77k
March 25, 2014 at 11:57 amWe tried this last night. Husband was doubtful, and not interested in the sticks, but agreed in the end that it was really good. Definitely a keeper recipe. Thanks for sharing this!
Julie
April 22, 2014 at 5:53 pmWhat can I do with the leftover coconut milk?
Assistant to 100 Days (Amy)
April 27, 2014 at 12:42 pmHi Julie. We use it in cereal and oatmeal all the time. ~Amy
sarah
June 11, 2014 at 4:20 pmJulie, I like to use coconut milk in my smoothies, it makes them extra creamy.
Elayne
June 10, 2014 at 7:21 pmWe’ve made this before, but today I finally found some unsweetened coconut at a local health store, so we made the ‘exact’ recipe. Yum! This has become one of our favorites served with grilled vegetables. My young boys think the sticks are fun, of course.
meredith
September 8, 2014 at 1:39 pmwould the recipe change a whole lot if i just used regular 1% milk? thanks!
Assistant to 100 Days (Amy)
September 11, 2014 at 10:05 amHi Meredith. The coconut milk adds a lot of flavor. ~Amy
jenn poulin
October 14, 2014 at 6:59 pmI’ve been following your blog for a while and I love all your recipes…but I have to say, the sauce for this chicken is INSANELY GOOD!!!
Megan
November 20, 2014 at 4:36 pmWhat happened to the recipe? I was going to make this tonight and I can’t see it!
Amy Taylor (comment moderator)
November 25, 2014 at 10:51 amHi. We had a brief technical problem. All is well. :)
AndrevS
January 16, 2015 at 11:52 amGood but not more. I used extra fresh pressed garlic as well, sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, freshly squeezed lemon juice plus the rest of the ingredients. I also added red bell pepper & red onion to the skewers. I did ours under broil. I`d use another recipe ext time.
Tina
February 3, 2015 at 2:46 pmHi,
What’s the calorie count? I prepped the skewers to stick in the oven when I get home, can’t wait.
Amy Taylor (comment moderator)
February 17, 2015 at 10:01 amHi Tina. We do not provide nutrition information. This post will help you understand why: https://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2013/01/04/healthy-eating-defined/.
Kate
February 8, 2015 at 12:51 amThis was great. My kids both loved it. I made brown ride and steamed broccoli and red peppers. The sauce worked well with getting my little guy to eat his veggies!
Katie Evans
March 1, 2015 at 8:55 amYeahh…finally you made this Satay recipe, Even I come from Australia and ate Chicken Satay many times, I have’nt post any Satay recipe, because took a long time to make this with a lot of ingredients. You’re right, grounding peanuts is a hard work. Normally I used 100% peanut butter that I bought at Asia shop or organic shop. Amazing Satay pictures
Darlett
March 25, 2015 at 6:57 pmI can’t find unsweetened coconut milk. Has anyone used sweetened coconut milk? If so what were your results?
Bonnie
May 19, 2015 at 4:10 pmI made this a few weeks back, and it was a huge hit. My three year old was asking to eat the leftovers as he got ready for bed that night… We made him wait until the next day. ;) I got a good price on chicken today, and this is on the menu for tonight. Thanks for a great recipe my family loves.
Claire Phillips
December 6, 2015 at 4:45 amHey there! Are these spicy at all? I’m wanting to feed them to my 1 and 2 year old, but I don’t want to spice it up too much! Thanks in advance, Claire :)
Amy Taylor (comment moderator)
December 8, 2015 at 7:41 amHello Claire. You can always leave out the jalapeno.
Heidee
December 14, 2015 at 8:28 pmMy picky boyfriend gobbled these up! I’m going to try the sauce on stirfry next time. Thanks for sharing this with us!
Amanda Johnson
January 15, 2016 at 1:23 pmSounds yummy! Broil on high or low?
Thanks!
Amy Taylor (comment moderator)
January 19, 2016 at 5:45 pmHigh.