Pork Satay with Peanut Sauce

If you’ve never had Pork Satay with Peanut Sauce you will enjoy this one. “Satay” (say ‘sah-tayh’) is a Southeast Asian dish with strips of marinated pork, chicken or beef, skewered and grilled. It is often served with a peanut-flavored sauce. The internet Oxford Dictionary offers different ways it is spelled in Asian countries. For example, in Indonesian recipes it is spelled ‘sate’. Malaysian recipes call it ‘satai’. However it is said, this skewered meat dish is also popular in other countries like Singapore, Brunei, Thailand and the Philippines.

Even if I’ve lived in America for so long, I still cook a satay dish all the time. We never tire of it. The sweet-savory flavors with a tinge of spicy notes appeals to my family and friends when I serve it. I make sure to marinate the sliced meat pieces a few hours or up to overnight. Then when I’m ready to cook, the skewered pieces cook fast and easy on our outdoor grill. I serve these succulent pieces with a side of a nutty dipping sauce and savory garlic rice. I make the meal complete with a bowl of salad greens and everyone just dives in.

A satay dish can be an all-weather kind of dish, too if you prefer it anytime. Serve it straight from the grill and all will be okay on any hundred-degree summer day.

Print Recipe

Pork Satay with Peanut Sauce

This Thai-inspired Pork Satay with Peanut Sauce is so versatile and easy to cook. Serve these as an appetizer, a side or main course. The skewered meat pieces are flavored with a sweet-savory and spicy marinade that comes alive once it’s grilled. Simply marinate the sliced pork shoulder pieces a few hours or up to overnight. Serve it with a nutty sauce made of tamarind juice, coconut milk and sprinkled with crushed peanuts. This was inspired by a recipe from the cookbook “Nong’s Thai Kitchen” by Nongkran Das and Alexandra Greeley, with a foreword by Nancie McDermott (Tuttle Publishing). Serves 2 as a main dish up to 4 for a side dish.

Course: Appetizer, Dinner, Lunch, Main Course

Cuisine: American, Asian, Filipino

Keyword: Asian Pork Satay Peanut Sauce

Servings: 4 people

Calories: 275kcal

Ingredients

• 1/8 cup fish sauce
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 Tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon yellow curry powder
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper powder
• 1 pound pork shoulder sliced in 1-inch pieces
• 12 to 14 pieces bamboo skewers pre-soaked
• 1/2 cup crushed unsalted peanuts for sauce
• 1/8 cup brown sugar for sauce
• 1/4 cup tamarind juice concentrate
• 1 Tablespoon chili sauce bottled
• 2 teaspoons fish sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• for serving: garlic rice or boiled rice

Instructions

• Mix together in a medium sized bowl the marinade ingredients : fish sauce (or patis), brown sugar, soy sauce, vegetable oil, curry powder, cornstarch, sea salt and black pepper powder. Blend well. Pour over the pork shoulder slices. Store in a resealable plastic bag (Ziploc bag) and refrigerate for 4 to 6 hours or overnight.
• The next day, prepare the bamboo skewers by soaking at least 30 minutes before you start skewering the meat. Soaking the bamboo skewers prevents the wood from burning while you grill or from splinters getting into the meat. (Note: for this recipe I used re-usable stainless skewers which were a gift from family).
• Preheat the outdoor grill to a medium high for about ten minutes. Meanwhile, skewer the meat, about 4 to 5 pieces per stick. Spread the meat apart and don't let the slices clump up or it will not cook evenly.
• Place the skewers with the pork pieces on the grill. Turn the heat down to a medium. Cook on a gas or charcoal grill for about 10 to 12 minutes, turning them around to cook evenly. (Important: for safety reasons, pork must be cooked thoroughly until no pink parts remain).
• While the pork satay in  skewers are grilling, prepare the side dipping sauce. Separately, in a small stock pot, pour the coconut milk. Heat this over medium high heat. When it boils, reduce the heat to a medium low. You don't want the coconut milk to curdle, so keep the heat low.
• Add the remaining ingredients (except for the crushed peanuts) for the side sauce. Continue to cook for about 5 to 8 minutes till sugar dissolves and sauce boils. The sauce will thicken by then. Sprinkle the crushed peanuts on the sauce.
• Remove the sauce from the heat and pour into a small serving bowl or gravy boat. Serve the skewered pork satay straight from the grill. Serve with the Peanut Sauce. Additionally, serve with garlic or boiled white rice and a big bowl of salad greens.
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Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 275kcal | Carbohydrates: 27g | Protein: 15g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Cholesterol: 46mg | Sodium: 2289mg | Potassium: 323mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 25g | Vitamin A: 25IU | Vitamin C: 1.2mg | Calcium: 34mg | Iron: 1.3mg

Notes on Nutrition: The nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and specific brands of ingredients used.

Did you like this recipe? I have more classic recipes inspired by my late mother’s cooking in my popular cookbook: My Mother’s Philippine Recipes. If you’re learning how to cook Filipino food or a fan of Philippine cuisine, buy my cookbooks and books on Amazon.com sold worldwide in paperback and Kindle format.

Hello, Friends! Please DO NOT LIFT OR PLAGIARIZE my original recipe, stories, photos or videos. All the images and content on this blog are COPYRIGHT PROTECTED and owned by my media company Besa-Quirino LLC. This means BY LAW you are NOT allowed to copy, scrape, lift, frame, plagiarize or use my photos, essays, stories and recipe content on your websites, books, films, television shows, videos, without my permission. If you wish to republish this recipe or content on media outlets mentioned above, please ASK MY PERMISSION, or re-write it in your own words and link back to my blog AsianInAmericaMag.com to give proper attribution. It is the legal thing to do. Thank you. Email me at [email protected]