“My Thai chicken satay skewers have been a reader-favourite recipe from the moment I published the recipe on my website,” writes Nagi Maehashi – aka Recipetin Eats – in her new cookbook, Tonight. “It’s the peanut sauce! People go bonkers over the peanutty, sweet-savoury flavour.”
Tonight is all about recipes you can make, well, tonight. They’re low-effort, high-impact and geared towards easily accessible ingredients, whether you’re cooking for one or a family. To make this recipe more friendly to that approachable ethos, Maehashi has come up with a new version of her crowd-pleasing satay chicken.
“Skewering chicken pieces does take a bit of work … so I’ve come up with this oven-baked version using whole thighs, to make things easier and faster,” she writes. “Same taste, half the effort ... Now you can have chicken satay even more often. I dare say it’s also possibly even better than the original, because of the flavour boost the sauce gets from the delicious chicken juices that seep out as it bakes.”
Before you start, make sure you consult the notes at the bottom of this recipe. Once cooked, this can be stored in the fridge for three days and the freezer for three months.
Nagi Maehashi’s baked satay chicken
Serves 4–6
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 50 minutes
Ingredients
400ml full-fat coconut milk
6 x 250g bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (see note 1)
Satay paste for chicken
1 tbsp curry powder (see note 2)
1 tsp white sugar
½ tsp cooking salt
2 tsp red curry paste
Satay sauce
120g (½ cup) natural unsweetened smooth peanut butter
1½ tbsp caster sugar
2 tsp curry powder (see note)
¾ tsp cooking salt
¼ tsp chilli powder or cayenne pepper (optional)
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1½ tbsp red curry paste
2 tsp dark soy sauce (see note 3)
1¼ cups (310ml) water
To serve
Jasmine rice, to serve
2 tbsp unsalted roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
Coriander leaves, to serve (optional)
Sliced red chilli, to serve (optional)
Lime wedges, to serve (optional)
Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan-forced).
Put the satay paste ingredients in a bowl with ¼ cup (60ml) of the coconut milk. Mix to combine. Add the chicken and turn to coat. Set aside while you prepare the sauce (see note 4).
Place the remaining coconut milk and all the satay sauce ingredients in a 23x33cm ovenproof casserole dish. Whisk to combine. Place the chicken in the sauce, skin-side up, arranging the pieces so that they are not touching each other (tuck the sides of the chicken under to make the footprint smaller, if needed) (see note 5). Scrape all the satay paste out of the bowl and dab it onto the chicken skin.
Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and spoon the sauce over the chicken. Bake for a further 15 minutes. Spoon the sauce over the chicken, then bake for a further 5 minutes or until the chicken is golden. The sauce should have a thin, syrupy consistency (see note 6 if it’s too thin).
Remove the dish from the oven and let it rest for 5 minutes. The sauce will thicken a little more during this time. Serve the chicken and sauce over rice, garnished with the chopped peanuts, and the coriander, fresh chilli and lime wedges (if using).
Notes
1: Chicken drumsticks work just as well, use 8–10. Boneless chicken like boneless thighs or breast will work but the sauce won’t be as tasty because they won’t release as many chicken juices. However, you can use 750g of either of these. Bake the sauce only for 20 minutes, then add the chicken and bake for 15 minutes. Spoon the sauce over the top and bake for a further 5 minutes.
2: Just your regular curry powder from ordinary grocery stores.
3: Adds seasoning and deepens the colour of the sauce. Can substitute with light or all-purpose soy sauce but the sauce colour will be lighter.
4: The chicken does not need to be marinated, but you can if you want. Marinate for up to 24 hours in the fridge.
5: There needs to be space around each piece of chicken to allow the sauce to reduce and thicken in the oven.
6: If the sauce is looking a little too watery, take the chicken out of the dish and put it onto a plate for the resting time. Pop the dish (with just the sauce in it) back in the oven for 5–10 minutes to thicken the sauce.
This is an edited extract of Tonight by Nagi Maehashi, published by Pan Macmillan. RRP $49.99.
The Recipetin Eats baked chicken satay is one of Broadsheet's most popular recipes of 2024, according to our readers. You can check out the others in our round-up of the most-clicked recipes of 2024.
