Satay Kajang is one of Kuala Lumpur’s most iconic dishes and one of those food items loved equally by locals and tourists. I remember growing up in Malaysia that my parents would always detour to the famous town of Kajang every time we made a day trip to the big city of Kuala Lumpur 40 miles from my Seremban hometown.
We would order satays by the score and my brothers would compete with each other on how many they could eat, so our meal always wrapped up with everyone counting the number of bamboo sticks left on their plate. If you didn’t make 20 sticks you weren’t in the running – which is a testament to how addictive they were (granted Malaysian satays are much more petite than those here in Sydney).
The crew from international travel show, The Travel Bug, flew into Malaysia and filmed the entire Street Eats Journey pilot with me in under four days across 2 states, so you can imagine we had to do a lot of the setups on the fly.
I was thus delighted that Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur was able to facilitate the shoot for this segment since they had a dedicated satay station (not to mention all the ingredients I needed to make the dish).
CHICKEN SATAY
The main point of difference between my recipe here and the one from Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur is the use of minced dried prawn in the hotel’s recipe. It makes a huge difference to have the satays cooked on a charcoal barbecue, by the way.
Also, for an extra bit of flavour bruise a stalk of fresh lemongrass, dip it in oil and use to brush the skewers while they cook. If you like your satay spicy, spoon over some chili paste fried in oil before serving.
The traditional method of cooking the peanut sauce requires that it’s simmered for hours. The Grand Hyatt’s kitchen cooks theirs for 5 hours; I use a shortcut in mine, per demonstrated in the video above.
Serves: 4 – 6
Ingredients
1 kg chicken thigh fillets
bamboo skewers
For the marinade
½ Tbsp turmeric powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 onion, pureed
50 g minced lemongrass
50g minced galangal
1 ½ Tbsp minced garlic
5 Tbsps sugar
2 tsp salt
For the peanut sauce
1/4 cup Carotino red palm fruit oil
1 ½ cups sugar
3 Tbsp tamarind concentrate
50 g minced lemongrass
1½ Tbsp minced garlic
1½ Tbsp salt
2 lt water
3 cups roasted peanuts, crushed
½ cup fried, sliced onion or shallots (commercially available; alternatively, puree an onion, then fry in 4 Tbsp oil until browned)