I don’t often have a dish that takes me back to a place I’ve ever been. But this chicken and especially the peanut sauce really brought me back to Indonesia. Not only me by the way, but also Gerhard said the same. Even though it has been almost 25 years since I have been there.
So you understand that this is highly recommended and a “keeper” here.
Ingredients:
For the sauce:
130 grams peanut cheese
120 ml black soy sauce
120 ml coconut milk
120 ml chicken stock
3 tbs cornstarch
5 garlic cloves
A large piece of ginger, grated (the more the better)
4 tbs honey
4 tbs mirin
2 peppers (I use the mild variety but with the seeds in it)
700 g chicken thigh fillet
for the garnish:
About 3 spring onions, cut into strips
A handful of peanuts, salted is fine
Another red pepper (this time without the seeds), chopped small
Lime wedges
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 160°C (fan).
Place the peanut butter and soy sauce in a bowl and mix well. It’s a long job, but it really mixes once. Then stir in the coconut milk (this is a lot easier). Separately, stir the cornstarch into the stock and stir it together into the peanut butter mixture. Then stir in the garlic, ginger, honey, mirin and peppers in succession.
Place the chicken in a suitable roasting tin/oven dish, whatever you have. Pour the peanut sauce over this so that all the chicken is covered. Cover with aluminum foil and place in the preheated oven. Let this stand for 25 minutes. Then remove the foil. Cover the chicken well with the sauce again and put it back in the oven for 10 minutes.
Check whether the chicken is properly cooked, otherwise leave it in the oven for a little longer.
Sprinkle the spring onions, pepper and peanuts over the chicken. This is also possible if you want to serve it nicely in a bowl in which you have first scooped rice.
Serve with rice or noodles and Asian vegetables.
Tip:
Every time I make this dish the sauce is different. This will also have to do with how much moisture comes out of the chicken thighs. If the sauce is too thick, you can carefully stir in some extra stock or water.
If the sauce is too thin, stir some more cornstarch into water and carefully stir this into the sauce. After this, the chicken needs to be put back in the oven to thicken and remove the taste of the cornstarch.
Enjoy your meal.
