Featured Friday – Curry and Comfort

Have I mentioned lately how much I love Friday’s??!! Well when I cook my Featured Co-Host’s Recipe during the week I get even more excited!! So without further delay, I am honored to introduce to you our next Co-Host. Her name is Ramona and she blogs in blog-land over at Curry and Comfort. Ramona started her blog because she loves to cook, share recipes and collect cookbooks!  She is a SAHM momma of two kiddo’s who love to watch cooking shows with their Mom! How awesome is that! Ramona has a wide range of recipes, I honestly had a hard time finding one that I wanted to try. I wanted to try something different and spicy, something with curry in it! So make sure you go and visit Curry and Comfort so you can share her step by step recipes with pictures and her culinary journey of exotic foods from around the world and comforting foods from the United States.

So here is the recipe I decided to make from Ramona’s collection.

Chicken Satay Skewers with Spicy Thai Peanut Dipping Sauce

Ingredients for Chicken Satay:
1 1/2 pounds of chicken breast sliced (or chicken tenders)
1 cup of low-fat plain yogurt
2 cloves of garlic grated
1 Tbs of grated ginger
1 Tbs of curry powder (I used McCormick)
1/2 Tbs of garam masala
1 tsp of paprika
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:  
Mix all ingredients together and marinate in the fridge for 2-4 hours.

I chose to mix them and marinate it in a plastic bag. I also ended up  marinating the chicken over night because something came up the night I was planning on making it. The way I look at it you can never marinate for too long!

When you are ready to cook the satay, tread them on bamboo skewers.  Remember to soak the skewers in water for 30-45 minutes before you thread the chicken on them so they don’t burn. unfortunately no matter how long I let them soak they still burn, but I don’t care!!

Set the skewers down on a grill pan or on a grill on medium heat. Cook both sides for 3-5 minutes (or until cooked through).

Look at these babies!! I seriously could NOT wait to taste these!

Ingredients to make Spicy Thai Peanut Dipping Sauce:

1 cup of coconut milk
1/4 cup of water
1/2 cup of creamy peanut butter (I used Jiff, reduced fat)
1 Tbs of brown sugar
1 Tbs of soy sauce
1/2 Tbs of fish sauce
1/2 tsp of red chili flakes (or to taste)
roasted crush peanuts for garnish (optional)

Directions:  Heat a saucepan on medium-low heat.  Add all ingredients and stir until everything mixes well and the peanut butter melts.   Allow to cook a few minutes and thicken.  Adjust flavors/seasoning to your palate by adding more soy sauce or fish sauce for a saltier flavor or brown sugar to sweeten it. (sorry for the dark picture, I was inside w/no flash!)

Serve hot or room temperature.  Enjoy.

I served it a little warm, I also used a few shaved almonds because I didn’t have peanuts on hand, it was a perfect substitution!

The taste was so awesome, I’ve never made a sauce with peanut butter in it, I think the only thing I’ll do different next time is add a little more red pepper, I always hesitate with it because it can be too much sometimes but a little more kick would have been nice, that was my fault, I should have experimented a little more!

I packed it for my hubby’s lunch the next day and asked him to guess the secret ingredient and he just texted me saying “Peanut Butter!!” LOL….I had this with a Cucumber Salad and it was perfect because the Peanut Butter was very filling, I just couldn’t stop dipping! NOW TRUST ME……go visit Ramona over at Curry and Comfort and check out her recipes, be sure to say hello and tell her this Momma sent you!!