I don’t know why I haven’t posted about chicken satay, or sate ayam in Indonesian, before. It’s definitely one of my favourite dishes. Who doesn’t love succulent chicken smothered in beautiful peanut sauce? Chicken satay is a mainstay in much of South East Asia, particularly in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

Mind you, each region seems have their own version of it. In Malaysia the chicken is marinated in tumeric, and the sauce has coconut milk with the ground peanuts. The chicken in this version from Satay Inn, is deep-fried, and the sauce is undoubtedly a Malaysian style one.

While this is very tasty, I still prefer the Indonesian version, which is a lot simpler. The chicken is marinated in kecap manis (sweet soy sauce) and then char-grilled over coals to give it a smokey flavour. The sauce is also simple – ground peanuts, garlic, kecap manis and chilli. But even though it sounds easy to make, making it is actually an art, and to this day I still judge an Indonesian restaurant by how good its sate is.