Chicken with peanut butter sauce (Thai)

The peanut sauce is a very special Asian treat, found in many local cuisines. There are many variations on it: a Indonesian peanut sauce is served over a salad called gado gado,  a Chinese one served over noodles(that one is tempting, maybe we'll do it soon) and this one, the way they do it in Thailand: a spicy version served over chicken or tofu. 

We used basic ingredients like peanut butter, soy sauce, lemon juice, garlic, curry and chili powders and so on. Traditionally you can also add coconut milk in the sauce, but we wanted to keep it a little lighter. Also feel free to add - or not add -  sesame oil, fish or oyster sauce, rice vinegar or curry paste to it without being afraid you'd break tradition. Thai kitchen is all about fusion ingredients :) so as long as it's on the list of commonly used ingredients you ca be sure they do it in that version as well.

The chicken we had here was delicious and rich and velvety. You must try this.

Ingredients (serves 2):

• 400 g chicken breast
• 3 large tablespoons peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• juice from half a lemon
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• sprinkle of salt
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon granulated garlic (powder garlic)
• 1 tablespoon sunflower kernel oil for frying
• 10-15 g pickled ginger (or grated fresh ginger) for decorating

Note: This is well served over a bed of simple boiled rice.

Cut the chicken into cubes:

Fry them in the oil:

Careful to turn them once in a while to make sure they get evenly cooked. In about 10-15 minutes total they should be done. Meanwhile, heat the peanut butter with 3 tablespoons water in a small pot, stirring:

Add the rest of the dry ingredients in it and mix, then turn off the heat. Add the soy sauce and lemon juice:

Mix again and the sauce is done. Arrange the chicken bits on two plates, then pour equal amounts of peanut sauce over them:

Garnish with ginger and dig in! :)