Satay Chicken

I had never had this dish before moving to New Zealand.  When we moved here I was introduced to Thai food.  I'm not sure if this is authentic, but we have a Thai restaurant that we love and satay chicken is one of our favourite dishes from there.  This is not exactly like they serve at the restaurant, but we really enjoy it.  My daughter calls it "Peanut Butter Chicken."  My husband, who doesn't even like peanut butter, is a huge fan of this dish.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

I had planned on taking pictures of this dish when I made it this week, but we had company over for tea that night and I ran out of time to take pictures before it all got eaten.  One batch of this is enough for our family of 2 adults and 2 children, plus leftovers for lunch the next day.

Satay Chicken (a.k.a. Peanut Butter Chicken)
400 grams (or about that amount) boneless/skinless chicken breast cut into bite-sized pieces
1 Tablespoon oil
500 grams frozen stir-fry veges* (See note below)
1 batch satay sauce (recipe below)

Heat oil in wok (a frying pan works too) over medium-high heat.  Stir-fry chicken in oil.  Add frozen vegetables and stir-fry for 7 minutes.  Pour over satay sauce and bring to the boil.  Stir often.  Reduce heat and simmer until sauce is thickened-about 10 minutes.  Stir occasionally to keep it from scorching on the bottom.  Also, keep an eye on it because it can get thick really quick.  Serve over rice of choice.  We really like short grain rice, but jasmine rice is nice too.

Satay Sauce
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground corriander
3 Tablespoons crunchy peanut butter
1 - 2 Tablespoons coconut sugar (you can use brown sugar)
1 - 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 - 2 Tablespoons soy sauce 
1/8 teaspoon ground chili powder** (if you like it spicy, feel free to add more)
1 to 1 1/2 cups coconut cream

Mix all together in blender.  Start with the smallest amount of each ingredient and add more to get a balance of sweet, sour, and salty.

*You can just use fresh veges, but if you are using broccoli and/or cauliflower I would steam them for a short time first unless you like them quite crunchy.  If using carrots, make sure to cut them into thin strips or steam them a bit first.

**Chili powder here is incredibly spicier than the kind you buy in the States.  I found this out the hard way.  :)