Chicken Satay with Thai Radish & Cucumber Salad

Why don't I make chicken satay more often? Every time I do I remember just how much I like it. Once again we used a recipe from Mastering the Grill: The Owner's Manual for Outdoor Cooking, have I mentioned have fabulous this book is? (I wish I had $300 to take a class from the authors in Napa this weekend) This Thai Coconut Peanut Sauce was fabulous, just spicy enough to have a bite without too bite much for wimpy me. We used Smucker's Natural Peanut Butter which is a lot less sweet than something like Jif so our sauce was not super sweet. We used about 1/2 the sauce tonight & since it will last in the fridge for a week I'll use the rest next week for peanut noodles (You could always make half the sauce if you didn't want leftovers).


Chicken Satay

3/4 c lite coconut milk
1/2 c peanut butter
1 T Thai fish sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
1t sriracha hot sauce
2 T fresh mint leaves, minced
2 T lime juice
2 T rice vinegar
2 chicken breasts, cut into 1/4-inch strips

Combine all the ingredients except the chicken to make sauce. Pour 1/4 c of the sauce over the chicken strips & stir. Let chicken sit a few minutes. Thread the chicken strips on bamboo skewers (if cooking on a grill soak the skewers in water 1/2 before cooking). Grill the chicken on a bbq or grill pan the chicken for 2 to 3 minutes per side. Serve with more sauce for dipping.

Serves 2

The chicken was served with a Thai Radish & Cucumber Salad from Rachel Ray. It was the perfect accompaniment just like the pickled vegetable salad you often get in Asian restaurants. And talk about colorful with all the bright red & green. The recipe called for daikon radishes but I just used the regular red radishes we got in the CSA box. I didn't even peel them since I liked how their red skin looked. I have sized this recipe way down as Rachel's would have fed 8 - 10 people instead of the 6 she says. Also the basil really didn't add much here so if you don't have any don't bother with it.


Thai Radish & Cucumber Salad

2 T rice wine vinegar
3/4 tablespoons sugar
1/2 tablespoons light oil
4 oz radishes, thinly sliced
1/4 of an English or seedless cucumber, thinly sliced
1/4 of a red bell pepper, seeded and very thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
5 fresh basil leaves

Combine vinegar, sugar, oil in a bowl. Add radishes, cucumber, bell pepper, pepper flakes. Toss and combine. Cover and chill until ready to serve.
When ready to serve, tear basil into pieces and add to salad. Toss salad to incorporate basil and serve.

Serves 2