Shiz Can't Cook Series: Chicken Satay

So remember all that trouble I went through to get the ATK beef satay recipe?

The potluck was on MLK Jr Day, so I did my test run w/ じゅるる the night before.

Things we had in the kitchen:
- Chicken
- Garlic
- Scallions (green onions)
- Soy sauce
- Siracha sauce
- Brown sugar

Things we had to go buy:
- Cilantro
- Creamy peanut butter
- Flank steak
- Lime
- Skewers

But I think that's all the ingredients you need.
For both the marinade & the peanut sauce. Pretty simple, eh? That's why I love ATK.

Anyhoo, first the marinade.
It's everything but the peanut butter & lime. Those go into the peanut sauce.

Soy sauce & brown sugar, we went by the recipe.

For garlic & cilantro, I'm a fan of the frozen cubes they sell at Trader Joe's. They're not fresh, but they're pre-measured, pre-mashed & easy to store. I think I put in 3 cubes of garlic, 2 cubes of cilantro.

The recipe calls for 4 scallions, so I just put 3 fist fulls of chopped up green onions (we have them chopped & in the freezer).

For Siracha, they suggest 2 tablespoons...!? That's friggin' hot! So I went w/ 1 tablespoon. Smells pretty spicy already.

I mixed the marinade in a cube-shaped Tupperware. Tall sides make it easier to mix all the ingredients... but I should have used something even taller, cuz dipping the skewers is tricky. I had to tilt the container at a 45 degree angle to get most of the meat dipped, and I still couldn't do a good job w/ the bottom (of the skewer) pieces. I guess flat & narrow would work too.

Meat + marinade go into the fridge for an hour.

While they do their work, time for the peanut sauce.
Same ingredients + peanut butter and lime. I tried using chunky peanut butter before (the only kind I eat!), but the chunks got in the way during actual dipping. So we got creamy peanut butter for a nice smooth sauce.

It's 2 tablespoons of lime, which is about 1 whole lime. I never really knew that, so that's good to know.

And again, they suggested 2 tablespoons of Siracha...! I went w/ 1 tablespoon. It was plenty spicy.

At this point, we realize じゅるる only got one lime. And this is a trial run for the next day... how do I make more peanut sauce!? Instead of going out to get another lime, we decided to split the peanut sauce for today use & potluck use. 80% went to the potluck. It ended up being enough, whew.

For the actual grilling, ATK recipe uses the broiler. Unfortunately, our apartment's oven was missing the broiler pan. We made do w/ a baking sheet & wire rack that fits in it. The baking sheet doesn't fit nice & snug in the broiler, so it was a bit uncomfortable getting it in & out of the broiler drawer.

So this is how it came out:

Success!!

I ended up cutting the skewers to 8-inch lengths to fit in the Tupperware. ATK said to get 6-inch ones, but I've only seen 12-inch ones. I also realized the skewers are easier to cut w/ scissors when they've been soaked. FYI.