Chicken Satay

Chicken satay is chunks of chicken marinated in turmeric, garlic, shallot and kecap manis, threaded onto skewers and grilled over charcoal until the edges char, then served with a thick, sweet-savoury peanut sauce. It's sold from carts and warungs across the archipelago, grilled a few skewers at a time over a length of charcoal fanned by hand, and it's the dish most people outside Indonesia would name first if asked what Indonesian food tastes like. Malaysia and Singapore claim satay just as strongly as a defining dish of their own hawker cultures, carried there generations ago by Malay and Indonesian communities; most food historians still trace its roots to Javanese street vendors, but on the ground today it's genuinely shared across the region rather than owned by any one country.

What it really is

Bite-sized pieces of chicken thigh marinate for at least an hour in a wet paste of shallot, garlic and turmeric loosened with kecap manis, which seasons the meat and colours it deep gold before it reaches the grill. Threaded four or five pieces to a bamboo skewer, the chicken grills directly over charcoal, basted partway through with more kecap manis so the sugars catch and char at the edges without drying the meat. The peanut sauce that comes with it — roasted peanuts ground with garlic, chile and a little more kecap manis, loosened with water — is thick enough to coat the skewer rather than pool around it.

The peanut sauce is not a dip on the side; it's poured directly over the skewers before serving. A plate of satay arriving with the sauce in a separate bowl is a Western adaptation rather than the original service, worth knowing before assuming a guest wants it kept apart.

How it's served

• Skewers plated together, peanut sauce poured over rather than served alongside.
• With compressed rice cakes (ketupat or lontong) instead of plain rice, especially at celebrations.
• With sliced shallot, a few slivers of bird's eye chile and a squeeze of lime on top.

How to write it on the menu

• Say how many skewers make a portion, since satay is sold and counted by the stick.
• Flag the peanuts and the soy in the kecap manis — easy to miss on a menu that only names "peanut sauce."
• Offer the sauce on the side if asked, even though pouring it over is the traditional service.