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This easy 10-minute Satay Sauce Recipe makes a great dip for chicken, pork or vegetable skewers. Smooth and creamy with a little chilli kick!
A decent satay sauce, made from store cupboard ingredients is a great recipe to have on standby. It’s a simple way to pep up a rotisserie chicken, drizzle over a salad or to use as a dip for veggies.
Of course it also goes perfectly with satay chicken skewers– which is a recipe we all love at home. Not forgetting beef satay skewers too (I must get a recipe up for that one on the blog).
What do we need?
I prefer to use shop-bought smooth peanut butter for the sake of simplicity, but you can whizz up your own peanuts for this if you prefer. Or you could use chunky peanut butter. A traditional Indonesian Satay (where satay originates) would use roasted peanuts that have been ground by hand.
How to make Satay Sauce
In a small saucepan mix together peanut butter, soy sauce, chilli flakes, fish sauce, coconut milk, light brown sugar and ground coriander whilst heating over a medium heat.
It will thicken as it approaches boiling point. Turn off the heat just before it comes to the boil and stir in fresh lime juice. You can serve it warm or cold. If serving it warm, reheat right before serving.
Can I make it ahead?
Yes! The sauce can be made ahead, cooled, covered and refrigerated for up to 2-3 days. Place in a pan and reheat whilst stirring if you want to serve it warm.
What Type Of Peanut butter
Either crunchy or smooth is fine. Alternatively you can whizz up your own dry-roasted peanuts in a food processor to a chunky or smooth texture.
Don’t want the heat?
You can leave the chilli flakes out entirely if you prefer. I like it a little spicy, but it’s completely up to you.
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1tbspfish saucesub with vegetarian fish sauce if you want it vegetarian
200ml(7 oz) coconut milk from a tin
1tbsplight brown sugar
½tspground coriander
juice of 1 limeabout 2 tbsp
Toppings (optional):
½tspsesame seeds
1tbsproasted peanutsfinely chopped
pinchchilli flakes
1tbspfresh coriandercilantro leaves
Instructions
Place all of the satay sauce ingredients EXCEPT for the lime juice into a small pan
3 heaped tbsp smooth peanut butter, 1 tbsp dark soy sauce, 1/2 tsp chilli flakes, 1 tbsp fish sauce, 200 ml (7 oz) coconut milk, 1 tbsp light brown sugar, 1/2 tsp ground coriander
Heat over medium heat whilst stirring with a wooden spoon. The sauce will look thin at first, then as it comes close to boiling point, it will start to thicken. Don't let the sauce boil, just turn down the heat as it approaches boiling point and stir until thickened, then turn off the heat and stir in the lime juice.
juice of 1 lime
Transfer the sauce to a serving dish and sprinkle with sesame seeds, chopped peanuts, chilli flakes and fresh coriander before serving.
The sauce can be served cool or warm, or you can reheat if you wish (the oil will separate a little from the peanut butter and coconut milk as it cools, but a good mix with a wooden spoon will bring it back together again).Nutritional information is per serving. This recipe contains 8 servings.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Welcome to Kitchen Sanctuary
Hi, I’m Nicky, bestselling author, award-winning recipe creator and food photographer. I love to cook comforting, delicious and easy recipes and share them with you.
I made this EXACTLY as written in the recipe and it came out like the picture. The dark soy, fish sauce, and brown sugar did not turn the sauce dark brown, but tbh, I wouldn’t mind if it did. I chose this recipe because I had all the ingredients in the house and alternative web recipes all called for red curry paste, which I do not have on hand (but I love.)
Anyway, this sauce was absolutely fabulous and better than what we had at our favorite Thai restaurant last week! So easy and delicious. My family was dipping everything into it. It’s a keeper.
I made this it taste ok I added more chilli, but it is dark brown due to the dark soy sauce, it looks nothing like the photo. I would suggest using light soy sauce instead.
A percentage of the population have a genetic alteration that caused Coriander (Cilantro to our transatlantic cousins!) to impart a flavour, to anything it contaminates, that make it taste like SOAP!
I love pork ribs I’m looking for recipes for marinating the ribs over night.and also like a good recipe for pork ribs with peanut saute.thank you if you can help Mick dunne
Thankyou for this satay sauce recipe. I used dairy milk instead of coconut milk as I had non. I also had no fish sauce. However I substituted with a quarter tsp of whole grain mustard and a couple of shakes of Tumeric powder mixed in. It probably took longer to thicken with cows milk but it eventually did thicken and was delicious! We had it with chicken, rice and siverbeet which you would know as chard.
I need a substitute for the fish sauce, which causes migraines. It’s in the same food additives family as E621 and E635.
I made this EXACTLY as written in the recipe and it came out like the picture. The dark soy, fish sauce, and brown sugar did not turn the sauce dark brown, but tbh, I wouldn’t mind if it did. I chose this recipe because I had all the ingredients in the house and alternative web recipes all called for red curry paste, which I do not have on hand (but I love.)
Anyway, this sauce was absolutely fabulous and better than what we had at our favorite Thai restaurant last week! So easy and delicious. My family was dipping everything into it. It’s a keeper.
My family loves this recipe thanks
I made this it taste ok I added more chilli, but it is dark brown due to the dark soy sauce, it looks nothing like the photo. I would suggest using light soy sauce instead.
A percentage of the population have a genetic alteration that caused Coriander (Cilantro to our transatlantic cousins!) to impart a flavour, to anything it contaminates, that make it taste like SOAP!
I love pork ribs I’m looking for recipes for marinating the ribs over night.and also like a good recipe for pork ribs with peanut saute.thank you if you can help Mick dunne
Good
Thankyou for this satay sauce recipe. I used dairy milk instead of coconut milk as I had non. I also had no fish sauce. However I substituted with a quarter tsp of whole grain mustard and a couple of shakes of Tumeric powder mixed in. It probably took longer to thicken with cows milk but it eventually did thicken and was delicious! We had it with chicken, rice and siverbeet which you would know as chard.
Delish! I use maple syrup instead of sugar, maggi sauce instead soya or fish sauce and also i add turmeric for color.