Braaied chicken sosaties with Indonesian-inspired peanut sauce
Chicken thigh sosaties with crispy skin, peanut sauce and chilli crunch
My sister-in-law loves what the Dutch call pindasaus - a peanut sauce that originates from Indonesia. Frequently eaten with chicken sosaties, this is exactly what I made when visiting my wife’s family in The Netherlands.
South Africans love a good sosatie on the braai. Chicken breast is often used, but it can dry out quickly over hot coals. For this recipe I use thigh meat, which stays juicy and can handle a little extra time on the fire.
Instead of throwing away the chicken skin, I cut it into pieces and thread it between the thigh meat. As the skin cooks, the fat renders over the chicken, adding loads of flavour and creating crispy little edges. Served with a creamy Indonesian-inspired peanut sauce (which the Dutch love, and call pindasaus), chilli crunch and roasted peanuts, these sosaties are sweet, salty, smoky and slightly spicy. This one is a crowd-pleaser!
Serves: 8
Makes: 16 sosaties
Preparation time: 30 minutes, plus marinating
Cooking time: 15–20 minutes
Ingredients to make the chicken sosaties
2 kg boneless chicken thighs, with the skin
4 garlic cloves, finely grated
30 ml fresh lime juice
60ml soy sauce
30ml vegetable oil
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp finely grated fresh ginger
1 tsp ground coriander
Freshly ground black pepper
16 metal skewers, or wooden skewers soaked in water
Ingredients to make the Indonesian-inspired peanut sauce (Dutch: pindasaus)
400 ml coconut milk
250 g smooth peanut butter
60 ml kecap manis
30 ml soy sauce
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 garlic cloves, finely grated
1 tbsp finely grated fresh ginger
1–2 tbsp sambal oelek, depending on how hot you like it
Juice of 1 lime
100–150ml warm water, as needed
Salt, if needed
Ingredients to garnish
100 g roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
4–6 tbsp chilli crunch
20 g fresh coriander, roughly chopped
2 spring onions, finely sliced
1 lime, cut into wedges
How to prepare the chicken sosaties
Remove the skin from the chicken thighs, but do not throw it away. Trim off any very thick pieces of fat and cut the skin into strips of roughly 3–4cm.
Cut the chicken thighs into even pieces of about 4cm. Keeping the pieces a similar size will help them cook evenly.
Add the garlic, lime juice, soy sauce, vegetable oil, brown sugar, ginger, ground coriander and a generous grinding of black pepper to a large bowl. Mix well.
Add the chicken thigh meat and toss until completely coated. Cover and marinade in the fridge for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight.
Thread a piece of chicken onto each skewer, followed by a folded strip of chicken skin. Repeat until the skewer is full. Press everything together quite tightly, but leave a little of the skin exposed so that it can crisp over the coals.
Prepare a medium-hot fire. You want enough heat to colour the chicken and crisp the skin, without burning the sugar in the marinade.
Braai the sosaties for approximately 15–20 minutes, turning regularly. The chicken skin will render fat onto the coals, so keep an eye out for flames and move the sosaties to a cooler part of the grid if needed.
Remove the sosaties once they are golden and charred on the outside and the chicken is cooked through. If using a thermometer, the centre of the largest piece should reach 74°C.
Rest the sosaties for 5 minutes before serving.
How to make the peanut sauce (pindasaus)
Add the coconut milk, peanut butter, kecap manis, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, ginger and sambal oelek to a saucepan.
Place over a low heat and whisk until the peanut butter has melted and the sauce is smooth.
Allow the sauce to simmer gently for 5–8 minutes, stirring regularly. Do not let it boil too hard, as the sauce can catch on the bottom of the pot.
Add the lime juice and enough warm water to give you a thick but pourable sauce.
Taste before adding salt, as the soy sauce and kecap manis are already quite salty. Add more sambal if you want an extra kick.
How to serve the chicken sosaties
Spoon a generous amount of warm pindasaus onto a large serving platter. Place the braaied chicken sosaties on top and drizzle over a little more of the sauce.
Finish with chilli crunch, chopped roasted peanuts, fresh coriander and sliced spring onions. Serve the lime wedges on the side for everyone to squeeze over.
The combination of juicy chicken thigh, crispy skin and creamy peanut sauce is already delicious, but the chilli crunch and roasted peanuts take it to the next level.
Enjoy! Please tag me on Instagram if you’ve made this recipe - I’d love to see it!
More recipes
Below the newsletter block, you will find some more recipes.
There are a lot of different types of meats you can cook on the braai. How about this Prime Rib Roast with Exotic Mushroom Sauce and Pak Choy? You can also make a Leg of Lamb on the braai or a Lemon & Herb Peri-Peri and Rosemary Deboned Leg of Lamb. I’ve also made Ostrich Fillet Kebabs with Nectarine and Rosemaryon the braai.
Other than meat, South Africans also love to put seafood on the braai. This braaied snoek recipe with plum jam is a winner.
If you’re looking for a side on the braai, you can either make this pull bread with pesto, mozzarella and Hellmann’s mayonnaiseor make traditional braai broodjies(keep an eye out for my secret ingredient). If you have leftover gammon, these gammon braai broodjiesare also to die for.
About Shawn Godfrey
Photo credit: Niki M Photography
Shawn Godfrey is an entrepreneur based in Cape Town, South Africa. After the Covid-19 lockdown saw his business in financial distress, cooking was the creative outlet that helped to keep him sane. To keep track of his recipes, and encourage friends and families to join him, he starts his instagram account The Roasted Dad.
Fast-forward to late 2021 - on a whim Shawn (encouraged by his wife Lianne) enters MasterChef South Africa. It is a crazy time of life: running a 200 people business and struggling to keep it profitable, two small children with a third on the way, and about to move into a new house. But when Shawn gets selected to be one of the 20 contestants participating in the fourth season of MasterChef South Africa, he decides to go all in. Leaving his 7-month-pregnant wife to look after their then three and one-year-old children, he battles it out and comes back home five weeks later with the trophy and a million rand prize money in his pocket.
It all started with an Instagram account, but The Roasted Dad is so much more now. Shawn has stayed his entrepreneurial self and whilst he hosts Private Dinner Parties and Cook-with-Me Demos, does Restaurant Take-Overs, he still runs the lighting company and several other businesses.
On his blog, Shawn shares Restaurant Reviews and Accommodation Reviews, and gives an insight into the wild and wonderful life he leads together with his wife Lianne, and their three children Aiden (8), Olivia (6) and Harvey (4).
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