Spicy Chicken Satay Toastie Recipe (Grilled Sandwich)

This little toastie friend will take you on a trip to Indonesia. In the Netherlands, Indonesian food is quite common. And while I wonder how authentic our current presentation of Indonesian Satay really is, this flavor combination is definitely worth a try! 

I’ve been thinking about this toastie ever since the beginning of the Toastie Lab. Given my secret-not-so-secret love for peanut butter, Jack’s love for everything spicy and our shared love of toasties, this recipe was an easy deduction: spicy + satay + chicken = our next toastie. 

Satay Sauce = Peanut Butter? 

So, while satay sauce actually includes a little more than just peanuts, it does absolutely use peanut butter as the main ingredient. You could therefore totally use regular satay sauce on this toastie. 

The reason why Jack and I decided to go for peanut butter instead, is because I think it will make it less runny and therefore better for this toastie. And it’s always available in our pantry, so a safe option 🙂

Depending on which part of the world you are, you will find satay sauce in many different shapes and colors. With or without additives, with or without milk, with coconut and sugar, or with chiles and garlic. Really, the possibilities with satay sauce are endless!

Thai, Malaysian, Singaporean and Indonesian satay sauces (or sate), are the most popular ones. Today we’re going for Indonesian, because that’s the one I know best 🙂

So, officially satay refers to the entire dish that includes basically any kind of meat or fish that you can think of… However, the most common way to make satay is with chicken.

-> YOU SHOULD TOTALLY TRY THIS ONE WITH SHRIMP!

But actually, that doesn’t even really matter, because we are focusing on satay sauce… Which is the sauce that is often served with satay. According to Mr. Wikipedia (who knew he’s such a  renowned chef, right!?), the main ingredients of Indonesian satay sauce are: 

  • Roasted peanuts
  • Palm sugar
  • Garlic
  • Shallot
  • Ginger
  • Tamarind
  • Lemon juice
  • Lemongrass
  • Salt
  • Chili
  • Pepper
  • Sweet soy sauce

Bam, that’s a whole list, right? So, given that “easy” is a main key-ingredient of toasties, we have to keep it a little simpler here, so we’re going to skip making our own peanut sauce and just add sambal to peanut butter and recreate it. 

Watch the YouTube Video!!!

Speaking of Sambal

Sambal is another key component of Indonesian cuisine, and according to my new favorite cook book (Wikipedia again!), sambal has pretty similar ingredients to satay sauce, namely: 

  • Shrimp paste
  • Garlic
  • Ginger
  • Shallot
  • Scallion
  • Palm sugar
  • Lime juice

So, while sambal plus peanut butter doesn’t really equal satay sauce, I’m pretty happy with the outcome 🙂 And so will you, wait and see!

Peanut Butter

Peanut butter is actually one of the main ingredients of this recipe, so you want to be really careful with your choice here. Peanut butter MAKES or BREAKS this toastie. And so does the amount! 

It is really, really important that you choose the right peanut butter, with the right amount of creamy texture, but not too much crap in it, because natural is always better. But you don’t want peanut butter that’s too dry either. Something with a hint of salt and maybe even a dash of sugar. 

And then the amount! Wow this is real precision-work! You can’t just spread some peanut butter on the sandwich and call it done. Applying peanut butter to this toasted sandwich is absolutely essential! 

Here’s the trick: it needs to be a lot of peanut butter. 

Only with the right amount of peanut butter, these chicken slices will come out tasting like true satay. And that’s our goal today. So don’t be shy: double the amount you initially wanted to throw on your white piece of bread and make your badass dreams come true! Peanut butter heaven, baby!

DIY Satay Sauce

Now, of course, if you’re feeling creative, you could make your own satay sauce, or put the different ingredients together on the toastie, which would be delicious, too!

Just make sure you don’t make it too liquid!

Spicy Thai Version

You can perfectly make this recipe using sriracha sauce instead of sambal. It has a similar taste, although I think sriracha is slightly more garlic-y. (If you’re really interested, read this article by Pepperscale: Sambal Oelek Vs. Sriracha: PepperScale Showdown)

Sweet Thai Version

When I make peanut sauce that is not for a toastie, I like to add some more hints of coconut and coriander in them. So if you’re feeling creative, add some sweet chili sauce, coconut flakes and cilantro to your peanut butter instead of sambal, and you’ll have a less spicy, but sweeter version of this toastie!

Vegan Version 

Replace the chicken with vegan deli meats and you’ll have yourself a delicious vegan toasted sandwich, now, make sure that the sambal you buy doesn’t have any shrimp paste in it and you’ll be all set for a vegan delight!

Another option, if you want to stick to something more whole-food-ish, is to add sweet potato to this recipe (cook some thinly sliced sweet potatoes and “layer” them on the bread). Sweet potato and satay sauce are AMAZINGLY delicious! In fact, we might actually try this one for Toastie Lab, so stay tuned! 🙂

Cheesy Version

I am slightly tempted to put a slice of cheese on this toastie, just for a goof… (Jack is nodding aggressively) But I really can’t think of a type of cheese that would be actually nice with this. 

But, given that I’ve already started writing this section… How about fried halloumi? Or just regular cheese? Those seem to be most compatible with peanuts. We’ll leave this one cheeseless for now, making this toastie lactose-free! 

The Bread

When we have a BBQ in the land of the Dutch, there is always satay sauce. And slices of french baguette. And cucumber. But that doesn’t matter right now. 

French, white, white, white baguettes and pre-made satay sauce are just delicious together. So when everyone is waiting for the BBQ to reach the right temperature, a true Dutchperson will stuff their face with bread and peanut sauce. Just because.

So that is our grounded argument for why we are picking a deliciously, unhealthy white bread today! 

Atjar

Atjar is ANOTHER one of those staples in Indonesian cuisine. I actually don’t know if it is, but again, if you were to order satay in the Netherlands, you’ll get a chunk of atjar-salad on your plate. 

And thank God you do! Because Atjar is delicious! 

Atjar is like pickled vegetables, but then it’s all yellow-orange-red. While you can find some delicious store-bought jars of Atjar in chinese-like stores, you could also make it yourself. 

I get store-bought ones because I don’t have patience for pickling things myself, BUT, it is worth it to add this to your pickle-collection, so I’ve found this delicious recipe from the SBS website, if you want to make your own Atjar. 

If you’re in the unlucky situation of not having atjar available and you don’t feel like making it yourself, I recommend using cucumber. Cucumber and satay sauce also go very well together (also another one of those winners that I’d stuff my face with at BBQs).

You could make a quick cucumber salad with vinegar, sugar, salt and garlic (and the cucumber…) and let it sit for 15 minutes, or just add strips of cucumber to your plate whenever your toastie is done. 

Behind Every Delicious Toastie Is a Great Toastie-Maker

It might sound cliche, but it’s so, so, so true. We would have been nowhere without a great grill for this yummy yummy toastie. 

Depending on the bread you use, this toastie might be perfect for a good old fashioned toastie iron (the one with the triangles). While you want to be careful with all your precious punnter butter satay sauce exploding out of your bread if it’s in for too long, it will totally squeeze the outsides together to seal the deal. 

On the other hand, we ended up using our grill instead (all that chicken!) so that we wouldn’t completely destroy our piece of art. Both worked, just make sure that you toast the toastie long enough to make the peanut butter go creamy, but not so long that it all disappears on you. 

Timing!

It’s a fine line really, but we ended up toasting our babies between 3 and 5 minutes. Much of the grillin’ time will depend on how thick the bread is that you use and the type of toastie maker you’ll end up using. The peanut butter is also an important factor when it comes to timing. 

Pure “natural” peanut butter often takes a little longer to grill, because it has less creamy additives, while other brands might be creamy straight from the jar. Choose wisely and keep an eye out to see where Mr Satay Toastie is at!

YouTube

Want to see a real masterpiece being born? Check out our Toastie Lab YouTube Channel!?! Don’t forget to subscribe and hit that notification bell! And while you’re at it, let us know what you thought of our creation! 🙂

Hope you enjoy it!

Lots of toasted love from Jack & Eveline

Print
clock clock icon cutlery cutlery icon flag flag icon folder folder icon instagram instagram icon pinterest pinterest icon print print icon squares squares icon

Spicy Chicken Satay Toastie Recipe (Grilled Sandwich)


  • Author: Toastie Lab
  • Prep Time: 5
  • Cook Time: 5
  • Total Time: 10 minutes
  • Yield: 2

Description

This little toastie friend will take you on a trip to Indonesia. In the Netherlands, Indonesian food is quite common. And while I wonder how authentic our current presentation of Indonesian Satay really is, this flavor combination is definitely worth a try!


Ingredients

  • Deli meat chicken slices – as much as you like, although a thick-ish layer is recommended.
  • Peanut butter – as much as available 🙂
  • Sambal (or Sriracha, or anything else spicy)
  • Four slices of bread
  • Thinly sliced red onion
  • Coconut oil 
  • Atjar (on the side)

Instructions

  1. Butter the outside of the bread with coconut oil. You could leave this step out or replace it with butter if you feel like it. 
  2. On the inside of the bread, (on both sides) spread a deliciously, exaggerated layer of peanut butter. 
  3. On top of the peanut butter, spread some sambal (or sriracha), depending on your taste buds and spice-proofness, a lot can be nice 🙂 
  4. Place several slices of chicken on one side. 
  5. Place some thinly sliced red onion on top of the chicken. 
  6. Assemble the top layer and place the toastie in the pre-heated toastie iron (or grill). 
  7. Let it sit for 3-5 minutes, or before the peanut butter starts to run out. 
  8. Serve with atjar and/or crispy fried onions and some extra sambal.

Notes

  • Bread Tip: White bread is actually the way to go for this one. White bread and satay sauce is just such a guilty pleasure!
  • Sauce Tip: Sambal! If you can’t find sambal in your part of the world, look for sriracha sauce, instead. While it is slightly different, it fits the flavor profile pretty well!
  • Salad Addition: Here in the Netherlands, we used to combine our satay sauce with atjar on the side. It doesn’t only look nice, but it’s delicious (and authentic), too!
  • Category: Homemade
  • Method: Grill
  • Cuisine: Toasted Sandwiches

Keywords: Grilled Sandwich, Toasted Sandwich, Homemade, Comfort Food, Snack, Chicken Satay, Spicy

Toastie Lab

Toastie Lab is the collective effort of Jack and Eveline. We love making, experimenting with, and eating toasted sandwiches.

Recent Posts