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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 and I love to cook! I want to share with you my favourite, delicious family friendly recipes. I want to inspire you to create fantastic food for your family every day.
I always know I can trust your recipes. I’ve made so many versions of this sauce and finally have landed on this one. It was not only easy, but utterly delicious! Thank you so much for all that you do to put out such tested recipes.
Yum! This was quick and easy to make. I didn’t have dark soy sauce, so I used Kecap Manis and left out adding sugar altogether. I also used lemon juice as I didn’t have lime either. It is really nice with the sesame seeds and coriander garnish on top of the chicken. I ate all this on a bed of lettuce and chopped red onion. Thank you!
This is the best satay sauce recipe I’ve ever followed. I was a bit more generous with the PB and it turned out outstanding. I could eat spoonfuls of it on its own, haha
You get a big thumbs up from me for this recipe. I’ve been looking through satay recipes for days now, and decided your would be the simplest yet rich sauce with the ingredients and time I have available. I did substitute sriracha for the chilli, and I added ginger and five spice. Also, I used only half the lime.
The fish sauce added an interesting smokiness. The sauce went really well with chicken fried rice. The family raved over the sauce. We’ll be having this again soon.
Made this earlier, did not turn out good. I had used Ground Coriander Seeds powder, not sure if that’s the same as Ground Coriander powder. But it did not come out tasting good or anything similar to restaurant peanut sauce. Not sure what I did that was wrong
I’ve tried to recreate an authentic satay sauce for ages & now I’ve found it! Really tasty & super easy to make
This website is useless. Far too slow and inflexible. And all I wanted is the recipie.
Just clink on the ‘jump to recipe’ button, right at the top of the page Bill, it will take you to the recipe card.
I always know I can trust your recipes. I’ve made so many versions of this sauce and finally have landed on this one. It was not only easy, but utterly delicious! Thank you so much for all that you do to put out such tested recipes.
Can I freeze this sauce?
Yum! This was quick and easy to make. I didn’t have dark soy sauce, so I used Kecap Manis and left out adding sugar altogether. I also used lemon juice as I didn’t have lime either. It is really nice with the sesame seeds and coriander garnish on top of the chicken. I ate all this on a bed of lettuce and chopped red onion. Thank you!
I used Sambal Olek as my chilli and it was really good and added Lemongrass – Bali style
This is the best satay sauce recipe I’ve ever followed. I was a bit more generous with the PB and it turned out outstanding. I could eat spoonfuls of it on its own, haha
You get a big thumbs up from me for this recipe. I’ve been looking through satay recipes for days now, and decided your would be the simplest yet rich sauce with the ingredients and time I have available. I did substitute sriracha for the chilli, and I added ginger and five spice. Also, I used only half the lime.
The fish sauce added an interesting smokiness. The sauce went really well with chicken fried rice. The family raved over the sauce. We’ll be having this again soon.
Made this earlier, did not turn out good. I had used Ground Coriander Seeds powder, not sure if that’s the same as Ground Coriander powder. But it did not come out tasting good or anything similar to restaurant peanut sauce. Not sure what I did that was wrong
First time making satay sauce. Was cooking Thai Fish Cakes….. absolutely magnificent!!!!
The taste is amazing!!