Thai Chicken Satay Skewers Recipe for Sate Gai. 22 most popular chicken recipes of 2022. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Thai Chicken Satay Skewers Recipe for Sate Gai in the Southern Thai Street Food Style

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This Thai chicken satay skewers recipe for sate gai makes Thai satay chicken in the Southern Thailand style although you’ll find these small skewers at street food stalls all over Thailand, including Bangkok, where satay pork skewers (sate moo) are preferred. Marinated in coconut milk and spices, the skewers are usually grilled over charcoal, but you can do them indoors on a griddle pan.

Our Thai chicken satay skewers recipe will make you sate gai in the Southern Thai style of the kind that you’ll find at street food stalls in Thailand – and not only in Southern Thailand but in Bangkok and all over the country – and this is the recipe for the Thai peanut satay sauce that goes with it.

These Thai street food satay skewers are very different to the ‘Thai’ satay skewers you typically see in foreign cookbooks, food magazines and food blogs, which are often enormous, with big chunky pieces of chicken meat, and are nearly always charred.

As delicious as they may be, you’re unlikely to find sate gai like that at street food stalls in Thailand, nor in Thai restaurants in Thailand based on our experience. Thai chicken satay skewers are generally small skewers with 3-4 pieces of chicken per skewer and the strips of chicken are thin.

Why? Because street food is generally snack food rather than a full meal for Thais. But if Thais wanted to eat a full meal of street food, they wouldn’t only eat chicken skewers, they’d order an array of different dishes and rice, which is how they eat.

Street food is also fast food, essentially. It’s also affordable food so that it’s accessible to everyone. All of which means smaller pieces of chicken on small skewers served in small portions. If you want more, you simply order more.

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Thai Chicken Satay Skewers Recipe for Sate Gai in the Southern Thai Street Food Style

Our Thai chicken satay skewers recipe is going to make you the kind of sate gai or satay chicken in the Southern Thai style, although you’ll find this type of satay chicken in pork-loving Bangkok, where sate moo (pork satay) is more popular.

The food of mainland Southern Thailand is heavily influenced by and shares a lot of similarities with northern Malaysian food, as the region was once Malay and the heart of old Malay kingdoms.

This explains why Southern Thailand has a significant Muslim population and why chicken is favoured. Pork is taboo in Islam, which is why you’ll see more chicken dishes in Southern Thai food.

If you’re not familiar with the cuisines of Thailand, there are essentially four different regional cuisines: Central Thai (Bangkok and the surrounding plains), Southern Thai (which is influenced by Malaysia), Northern Thai (based around the foodie capital of Chiang Mai), and Northeastern Thai (which shares many similarities with Cambodia, as it was once part of the Khmer Empire, and Laos, in the northern part of Northeastern Thailand, near the Lao border).

Southern Thai food also features more dried spices and makes use of curry powder, whereas in other Thai regions, such as, say, Northeastern Thailand, which shares much with Cambodia, including a long rich history, you’ll find more fresh herbs and spices pounded into curry pastes.

Just a few tips to making this Thai chicken satay skewers recipe for sate gai in the Southern Thai style.

Thai Chicken Satay Skewers Recipe for Sate Gai. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Tips to Making this Easy Thai Chicken Satay Skewers Recipe for Sate Gai

I only have a few tips to making this Thai chicken satay skewers recipe for sate gai of the kind you’ll eat at street food stalls in Southern Thailand – as well as in Bangkok, where we used to tuck into satay sticks at a favourite Bangkok food stall almost every week when we lived there in 2012.

These Thai chicken satay skewers are generally served as a street food snack in small portions, with dishes of peanut sauce and a cucumber relish and perhaps small portions of steamed rice, although at some stalls, as a foreigner, you might have to ask for rice if you want to make a meal out of it.

See our recipe for an authentic Thai peanut satay sauce made from scratch (link above) to serve with these Thai chicken satay skewers.

Make sure to soak your bamboo skewers in a bowl of water before you thread the chicken pieces onto the skewers, so they don’t burn. The measures below normally make 20 satay chicken skewers so soak around 20 bamboo sticks.

Next make the marinade, which is super easy to prepare. In a non-reactive mixing bowl, such as a glass bowl or ceramic bowl, combine the ground turmeric, coriander, lemongrass, salt, palm sugar, white pepper, fish sauce, light soy sauce, and coconut cream, using a wooden spoon or spatula. Pop it in the fridge until you’re ready to use it.

To make the skewers, you’ll be piercing the pointy end of the skewer through a strip of chicken lengthways, and the chicken should be quite thin so it cooks quickly, so stretch it out, making sure the pieces butt up against each other.

I’ve recommend chicken breast. We prefer brown chicken meat, which is more moist and flavourful, but it comes in all shapes and sizes. I like that you can cut chicken breast pieces in fairly uniform sizes, plus the marinade tenderises the white meat.

Thai Chicken Satay Skewers Recipe for Sate Gai. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Chicken breast is also more affordable right now. Here in Cambodia it is anyway. You’ll probably use 3-4 pieces of chicken per bamboo skewer. Make sure you leave enough room to hold the skewer at the end.

I lay the skewers out flat in a small, fairly shallow, ceramic casserole or baking dish, and I can usually fit 2-3 layers in the dish. When I pour the marinade in, the skewers are saturated in the stuff, which is what you want.

I’ve recommended a minimum of 30 minutes for the marinade, but anytime up to 2 hours is fine. I’ve also been known to marinate overnight. While the skewers are marinating, you can make the Thai peanut satay sauce. I’ll publish that recipe tomorrow and link to it here.

Of course, you could use an outdoor grill or barbecue, but to grill the skewers indoors, I recommend a griddle pan. You want really high heat if you want char marks, but I find these skewers cook so quickly there’s not even enough time for charring. Black marks on my skewers generally means they’re over-cooked.

I do the skewers in batches of 7-8, which fit in our griddle pan nicely. Don’t forget to baste with the leftover marinade, as this is super important. I find that basting once per side is enough. They’re cooked to my liking and are nice and juicy. Any longer and they’ll be dry.

I transfer them to a baking tray and keep them covered in foil. I find there’s no need to keep them warm in an oven, as they don’t take long at all, and I don’t want to dry them out. But if you’re making a bigger batch than 20 skewers, you may want to do that.

Thai Chicken Satay Skewers Recipe for Sate Gai

Thai Chicken Satay Skewers Recipe for Sate Gai. 22 most popular chicken recipes of 2022. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Thai Chicken Satay Skewers Recipe for Sate Gai

This Thai chicken satay skewers recipe for sate gai makes Thai satay chicken in the Southern Thailand style although you’ll find these small skewers at street food stalls all over Thailand, including Bangkok, where satay pork skewers (sate moo) are preferred. Marinated in coconut milk and spices, the skewers are usually grilled over charcoal, but you can do them indoors on a griddle pan.
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Marinating Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Course Breakfast, brunch, snack, street food
Cuisine Thai
Servings made with recipe20 Pieces
Calories 64 kcal

Ingredients
 
 

  • 1 tsp ground turmeric
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • ½ tsp ground lemongrass
  • ½ tsp ground cumin
  • ½ curry powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp palm sugar – or brown sugar
  • ½ ground white pepper
  • 1 tsp fish sauce
  • 1 tsp light soy sauce
  • 200 ml coconut cream
  • 500 g chicken breast or other boneless chicken - sliced against the grain into thin 4 x 1 cm strips

Instructions
 

  • Soak 20 short bamboo skewers in a bowl of water.
  • Make the marinade: in a non-reactive mixing bowl, use a wooden spoon to combine the ground turmeric, coriander, lemongrass, salt, palm sugar, white pepper, fish sauce, light soy sauce, and coconut cream, then refrigerate until you’re ready to use.
  • To prepare the skewers: pierce the sharp end of the skewer through a strip of chicken lengthways, pulling it to the end of the skewer, then pierce another strip of chicken, pulling it up against the first piece, then repeat. You may need 3-4 pieces of chicken per bamboo skewer; just make sure you leave enough room to hold the skewer at the end.
  • Lay the skewers out flat on a shallow ceramic or glass rectangular casserole dish; several layers are okay. Pour the marinade over the skewers so that they are soaking in it, turning the skewers to ensure every part is covered in marinade. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for a minimum of 30 minutes, but anytime up to 2 hours is fine.
  • While the skewers are marinating, you can make the Thai peanut satay sauce recipe.
  • To grill the skewers: heat a griddle pan over high heat, lay out a row of skewers, separating them so they’re not touching, then dip a pastry brush into the leftover marinade and generously baste the top of each chicken skewer, starting with the first skewer you laid down and turning each one as you go.
  • When you reach the end of the row of skewers, repeat. By the time you’re finished, they should be ready. Slide a piece of chicken off a skewer to make sure. As the chicken strips are thin and the skewers are small, they should only take a few minutes to cook. If they’re not ready, baste and turn one more time.
  • Remove the first batch of skewers, transfer them to a baking tray, cover with foil to keep warm, and repeat with the next batch until you’ve done all the skewers.
  • Serve the skewers on a large sharing plate with individual bowls of Thai peanut satay sauce and cucumber relish.

Nutrition

Calories: 64kcalCarbohydrates: 1gProtein: 6gFat: 4gSaturated Fat: 3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.1gMonounsaturated Fat: 0.4gTrans Fat: 0.003gCholesterol: 16mgSodium: 130mgPotassium: 132mgFiber: 0.3gSugar: 0.1gVitamin A: 8IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 4mgIron: 0.4mg

Please do let us know in the comments below if you make this Thai chicken satay skewers recipe for sate gai as we’d love to know how it turns out for you.

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A travel and food writer who has experienced over 70 countries and written for The Guardian, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Feast, Delicious, National Geographic Traveller, Conde Nast Traveller, Travel+Leisure Southeast Asia, DestinAsian, TIME, CNN, The Independent, The Telegraph, Sunday Times Travel Magazine, AFAR, Wanderlust, International Traveller, Get Lost, Four Seasons Magazine, Fah Thai, Sawasdee, and more, as well as authored more than 40 guidebooks for Lonely Planet, DK, Footprint, Rough Guides, Fodors, Thomas Cook, and AA Guides.

2 thoughts on “Thai Chicken Satay Skewers Recipe for Sate Gai in the Southern Thai Street Food Style”

  1. You were sure right about Bangkok – satay pork skewers were everywhere! A couple of us don’t eat pork, but we did find some in Chinatown that were doing chicken. In the south there were many more chicken skewer vendors.
    Made these with charcoal on our little balcony BBQ and they smelt so good I thought the neighbors were going to climb over the railing!
    Definitely making a double portion next time!5 stars

  2. Hi Jane, so good to hear this! Sounds like you got a great taste of Thailand on your trip. You’ll definitely have to make some extras for the neighbours next time ;) Thanks for dropping by to let us know how they turned out :)

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