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Satay is probably Malaysia’s “King of Street Food.” Satay such as beef satay and chicken satay are well loved by many people.
Satay is perfect as an appetizer.
The skewered meat never fails to impress, especially for those people who have never tried Malaysian street food.
Serve the beef satay with a spicy peanut sauce and you have the most amazing tasting skewered meat ever, with a flavor so complex and deep that you want more with each bite.
Anyway, here is my easy, authentic, and super delicious beef satay recipe, with a spicy peanut sauce for dipping.
Serve the beef satay with some onion and cucumber.
Take some cucumber and onion after each bite of the beef satay to refresh your palate.
Trust me, it’s the most amazing combinations ever.
How Many Calories per Serving?
This recipe is only 504 calories per serving.
What Dishes to Serve with This Recipe?
For a wholesome meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
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Beef Satay
Equipment
- 16-20 Bamboo skewers soaked in water
Ingredients
- 2 lbs (1kg) beef, sirloin (cut into 1/4 inch thick or 3/4-1 inch cubes)
- 1 small cucumber (cut into small pieces)
- 1 red onion (cut into quarters)
- Malaysian rice cakes (optional, cut into bite size pieces)
Marinade:
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 2 tablespoons coriander powder
- 2 teaspoons turmeric powder
- 10 shallots (peeled, cut and halved)
- 3 cloves garlic (peeled)
- 4 stalks lemongrass (white part only, cut into 1-inch length)
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons oil
- 1-2 tablespoon water
Spicy Peanut Dipping Sauce:
- 5 tablespoons oil
- 3/4 tablespoon seedless tamarind pulp (soaked in 3 1/2 tablespoons water)
- 3/4 cup roasted peanuts (skins removed and coarsely blended)
- 3/4 cup water
- Sugar (to taste)
- Salt (to taste)
Spice Paste:
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 5-6 tablespoons chili powder
- 1 1/2 tablespoons coriander powder
- 3/4 teaspoon cumin powder
- 3 stalks lemongrass (white part only, cut into 1-inch length)
- 3/4 inch (2cm) galangal (sliced)
- 4 cloves garlic (peeled)
- 3 shallots (peeled)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
- salt and sugar to taste
Instructions
- Blend all the ingredients in Marinade into a smooth paste. Heat up some oil in a wok, stir-fry the Marinade until fragrant and the oil slightly separates from it. Transfer out and set aside.
- Marinate the beef pieces with the Marinade overnight. Keep in the refrigerator.
Spicy Peanut Dipping Sauce:
- Extract the juice from the tamarind pulp, discard the pulps. Blend the Spice Paste ingredients into a smooth paste. Add some water if needed.
- Heat up the oil in a pan, stir-fry the spice paste until fragrant, turn the heat to medium-high and continue cooking until the oil slightly separates.
- Add in the tamarind juice, peanuts, water, stir well and bring it to a quick boil. Cover the pan, turn the heat to low and simmer for another 5-10 minutes. Add sugar and salt sugar to taste. Dish out and set aside.
Making and Cooking Beef Satay:
- Make the satay skewers with 3-4 pieces of the marinated beef threaded onto each bamboo skewer. Repeat until you use up all the meat. Grill the satay over a charcoal grill or outdoor gas grill until both sides are slightly charred, and the meat is cooked through.
Nutrition
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated, using Spoonacular, for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
Hi Bee, love your site. I think you should take a closer look at the dipping sauce for this one – it looks like you left out all the chilies, so it’s a “spicy” dipping sauce made of just tamarind, water, and peanuts.
These are new photos and re-shot…the satay peanut sauce is the ones in the recipe.
Cant beat a classic! Come to Malaysia and try this you will love it :)
I will try your delicious recipe soon.! I can purchase all the ingredients here in Florida. Thank yoy.
I will try it,sound delicious! Glad to get your recipe and able to purchase all the ingredients here in Pinellas Park,Florida.Thak you!
My favourite is Satay Perut aka tripe. I used to live in Kajang and was so easy to pop into town and buy some. Now I have to make from scratch lol. The British version of satay and peanut sauce is not recommended lol xx
where is the 2nd page? for the recipe
Lucky I only put in 1 teaspoon – it’s still supa dupa hot. I also added a can of coconut cream and 2 heap tablespoon peanut butter… Delicious!
As my mom’s side is from Malaysia and I’ve had the opportunity to travel several times to both Malaysia (including KL, Klang, and Kajang) and Singapore, and have a lot of delicious malay cuisine. As such, back in the US I’ve been craving some good satay and thought I would give this recipe a go…. but when I tried this recipe out, measuring everything by scale for accuracy, was still rather disappointed with the taste. It’s missing something that I can’t put my finger on. It wasn’t very bad or good, very so-so.
How did you cook the satay?
The flavors from this recipe were legitimate!!! I added a lot more water and extra peanuts (1 & 1/4 cup) as well as gula melaka palm sugar to the peanut sauce and it was fantastic. I served it with pressed jasmine rice cooked with pandan leaves and the satay was grilled over charcoal. This is as close to the satay I would find in Singapore as I can get here in Belgium! Thank you!
I agree, I lived in KL for several years and the peanut sauce sounds like chopped peanuts floating in water..
and why two spice pastes and chili powder and not chilies?
Have you actually tried the peanut sauce recipe? There is not a lot of water used in the peanut sauce recipe and you have all the spice paste and also the peanuts. You can ground the peanut instead of roughly chopped. How you like the texture of the peanuts is up to you.
I use your other peanut sauce recipe, which is different than this one, and much better and closer to the Wednesday night markets in Klang.. I can’t get a recipe from back home, as try to get any auntie to share is not possible la
Hi James yes I have many different ways of making peanut sauce. Glad you like the other recipe better.
I’m confused about the spicy peanut dipping sauce. I mixed it as instructed but it basically is a lightly peanut flavoured water. Which makes sense, I think, given that it is just equal parts water and peanut. And I can’t tell where the spicy flavour is supposed to come from.