🍢 SNACK
Sate Ayam Madura (Madurese Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce)
Small cubes of chicken thigh marinated in sweet soy sauce, grilled over charcoal, basted in peanut sauce and served with more sauce, lime, fried shallots and lontong.
Indonesian (Madurese) · medium · serves 4
prep 40 min · cook 30 min · plus 30 min hands-off time
~892 cal · 58g protein · 70g carbs · 44g fat · 7g fiber · 14g sugars · 7g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Sate ayam Madura is the satay you hear before you see it: the clack of a vendor's cart and the smell of charcoal and caramelising sweet soy sauce drifting down a street at dusk. It is named for Madura, the island off the north coast of East Java, and Madurese satay sellers carry it with them all over Indonesia, from Jakarta to the smallest towns, fanning their long narrow grills by hand.
The chicken is thigh meat, cut into small cubes that stay juicy over the heat, marinated in kecap manis, the thick Indonesian sweet soy sauce, and threaded onto thin bamboo skewers. The peanut sauce is made from fried or roasted peanuts ground with candlenuts, red chillies, palm sugar and salt, then cooked with water until thick. Part of it is mixed with more kecap manis to brush over the skewers as they grill, so the edges char and turn sticky.
It is served on a plate or a banana leaf, drowned in peanut sauce with an extra drizzle of kecap manis, fried shallots, raw shallot slices, lime and sambal, with lontong, compressed rice cakes, on the side.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally dairy-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
- 600 g boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1.5 cm cubes
- 4 tbsp kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce), for the marinade
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- 1 tbsp
- a pinch salt
- 20 bamboo skewers
- 250 g raw peanuts, fried or roasted (for the sauce)
- 3 candlenuts (kemiri), fried or toasted
- 4 red chillies (cabai merah), fried briefly
- 3 tbsp palm sugar (gula jawa), grated
- 1 tsp salt (for the sauce)
- 500 ml hot water (for the sauce)
- 2 tbsp kecap manis, to serve
- 2 tbsp fried shallots, to serve
- 2 shallots, thinly sliced, to serve
- 2 limes, halved, to serve
- 3 cups cooked lontong or steamed rice, to serve
Instructions
- 1Make the peanut sauce: grind the peanuts, candlenuts and chillies to a coarse paste in a food processor or mortar. Put the paste in a pan with the palm sugar, salt and hot water and simmer, stirring often, for about 15 minutes until thick and a little oil rises to the surface.✎ Chef’s noteKeep the sauce slightly coarse rather than smooth. Madurese satay sauce has texture from the peanuts.
- 2Toss the chicken with the 4 tbsp kecap manis, lime juice, oil, salt and 3 tbsp of the peanut sauce. Leave to marinate for 30 minutes while you soak the skewers in water.
- 3Mix 150 g (about 1/2 cup) of the peanut sauce with any marinade left in the bowl to make a basting sauce. Thread 4 or 5 pieces of chicken onto each skewer.
- 4Grill the skewers over hot charcoal or under a very hot grill, turning, until half cooked. Dip or brush them with the basting sauce and grill again, turning, until cooked through and charred at the edges, about 10 minutes in all.
- 5Pile the satay on a plate, pour over the rest of the warm peanut sauce and a drizzle of kecap manis, scatter with fried shallots and raw shallot, and serve with lime halves and lontong or rice.
Madurese street-vendor tradition, sold across Indonesia.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Jakarta. Jakarta is a megacity fed by roaming carts, where gado-gado dresses blanched vegetables, tofu, and egg in thick peanut sauce. Betawi cooking leans on coconut milk, candlenut, and palm sugar, in soto soups, nasi uduk rice, and richly spiced beef.
🗺️
Indonesia. Indonesia's seventeen thousand islands each guard their own sambal, uniting a vast archipelago through chili heat, coconut, and aromatic spice pastes. Rich rendang, fragrant nasi goreng, and satay skewers showcase a cuisine shaped by the original Spice Islands.
🌍
Asia. Fermentation is the thread that runs the whole way across: soy sauce and miso, Korean doenjang and kimchi, Southeast Asian fish sauces, the soured batter behind an idli. Chilli is the newcomer among them, arriving only after 1500 with Portuguese and Spanish traders, which makes the heat in Sichuan, Thai and Korean cooking far younger than the fermenting underneath it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Indonesia
Nasi Goreng KampungVillage-style fried rice, smoky and sweet with kecap manis, crowned with a crisp-edged fried egg.
Gado-GadoJakarta’s "mix-mix": blanched vegetables, tofu, tempeh, and egg under warm peanut sauce.
Beef RendangBeef simmered for hours in coconut milk and spice paste until the liquid vanishes and the meat turns dark, dry, and intense.
Browse all Indonesia recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Grill or barbecue, Food processor, Mortar and pestle.
Storing it: Best straight off the heat. Leftovers keep 2 to 3 days refrigerated and reheat well in a hot oven rather than the microwave.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Sate Ayam Madura (Madurese Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce)?
Small cubes of chicken thigh marinated in sweet soy sauce, grilled over charcoal, basted in peanut sauce and served with more sauce, lime, fried shallots and lontong.
Where does Sate Ayam Madura (Madurese Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce) come from?
Sate Ayam Madura (Madurese Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce) is an Indonesian (Madurese) dish from Jakarta, Indonesia.
Can Sate Ayam Madura (Madurese Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Sate Ayam Madura (Madurese Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Sate Ayam Madura (Madurese Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Sate Ayam Madura (Madurese Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce) take to make?
About 1 h 40 min in all: 40 minutes prep and 30 minutes cooking, plus 30 min of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 4.
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