Grilled Curried Chicken Skewers with Spicy Peanut Sauce

For me, one of the best days of the year is when you first grill outside again in the spring. It's starting to get warm in Utah, after a winter of frozen water pipes, and I've used my grill about five times already. These chicken skewers were adapted from a recipe in my current favorite cookbook, Fine Cooking Annual, something I cooked when my friend Trudy came to dinner. In the book they were appetizer-sized chicken satays, but I cut the chicken bigger, marinated it longer, and made them for an entree. Trudy and I both loved the taste of these; this is definitely something I'll be making again.

I trimmed the chicken breasts, then cut each one lengthwise down the middle to make a long, thin strip. The strips were put into a ziploc bag with the marinade and left to marinate all day in the refrigerator.

When it was time to cook, I threaded two strips of chicken on to each skewer. Try to fold them back and forth as many times as you can, creating surface area to get browned. Chicken skewers like this take about 20 minutes to cook on the grill.

Grilled Curried Chicken Skewers with Spicy Peanut Sauce
(Makes 4 main course servings, recipe adapted from Fine Cooking Annual.)

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Marinade:
2 T soy sauce
2 T fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup peanut oil
2 tsp. garlic puree
1 tsp. curry powder (I used Penzey's Sweet Curry Powder)

Peanut Sauce:
2 tsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup natural peanut butter (without sugar, regular or chunky)
1/3 cup coconut milk (freeze the rest for another time)
1 tsp. Splenda or brown sugar (use Splenda for South Beach)
1/4 - 1/2 tsp. Cayenne pepper

Trim all visible fat and tendons from chicken breasts and cut each breast in half lengthwise to make two strips. Combine marinade ingredients in a small bowl and whisk together. Put chicken pieces and in ziploc bag, pour in marinade, then seal bag and turn over several times so chicken is well-coated with marinade. Let marinate in refrigerator, a minimum of a few hours, or all day.

To cook chicken, first spray grill with olive oil, or wipe with paper towel dipped in oil if you don't have an olive oil mister. Preheat charcoal or gas grill to medium high (you can only hold your hand there for a few seconds.) Thread two chicken pieces onto each skewer, folding back and forth as many times as you can to get a lot of the chicken surface exposed to the grill. Grill chicken 15-20 minutes, turning every 3-4 minutes, until it's nicely browned and feels firm (but not hard) to the touch.

While chicken grills, whisk together soy sauce, lemon juice, peanut butter, coconut milk, Splenda or brown sugar, and cayenne pepper in small saucepan. Heat over low heat, thinning sauce with a little water if it thickens too much. Serve chicken hot, with some sauce on the side for dipping chicken pieces.

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South Beach Suggestions:
This is a perfect main course for any phase of the South Beach Diet, as long as you use Splenda and natural peanut butter without sugar. For phase one, this would taste great with Grilled Zucchini and Wake Up Your Mouth Thai Cucumber Salad. For phase two or three you could switch one of those for Curried Rice and Red Lentils.

More Recipes with Chicken and Curry:
Curried Chicken on the Grill with Cilantro Chutney
Chicken Breasts with Cilantro and Red Thai Curry Peanut Sauce
Bollywood Chicken Curry from What's For Lunch Honey?
Curry Chicken Skewers from What Did You Eat?
Chicken Tikka Masala from Becks and Posh
Green Chicken Korma from Habeas Brulee