Chicken Meatballs w/ Peanut Sauce
This side condiment is crunchy, garlicky and super delicious! Will you make it soon?
At home we used make Peanut Sauce with packages that we bought or shipped from Surinam. It wasn’t a powdered consistency but contained a minced substance of peanuts, sugar, tamarind and probably a thickening agency. It was fun to make and delicious to eat, but I always wondered how a homemade version would taste like. Hence, I did some research and stumbled upon Pinch of Yum’s recipe. It instantly caught my eye as her peanut sauce looked very similar as to what I was used to.
However, in the Surinamese peanut sauce, tamarind and Madame Jeanette are key ingredients. In Pinch of Yum’s recipe she uses rice wine vinegar and Sambal Oelek. At first, I wanted to exactly make her recipe but didn’t have any Sambal Oelek at home, so I tweaked it a bit and went for chili flakes (which certainly gave it a kick) and added a bit more rice wine vinegar because I'm using more sugar and honey. Plus, I used a crunchier peanut butter, because I just loooove a chunky sauce and the texture of the peanuts. At the end I heat up the sauce to make sure that the sugars are completely dissolved. I still have to make a Surinamese version though, but this one is already so good!
The Peanut Sauce goes well with a lot of dishes (Satay, Gado Gado, salad bowls and buns) and it’s perfect with these chicken meatballs which I served with noodles. Try it out and thanks Pinch of Yum for your amazing recipe!
Chicken Meatballs w/ Peanut Sauce
- Prep: 10 min
- Total: 30 min
Meat
Ingredients
NOTE: this recipe serves one greedy person or two small portions.
- ½ cup + peanut butter (I’ve used Calvé Pindakaas w/ extra nuts)
- ⅓ cup soy sauce (make sure it’s low sodium, otherwise you’ll end up with a salty peanut sauce)
- 1 garlic clove (minced)
- small piece of ginger (minced same amount as the garlic clove)
- 1 tbsp (or less) chili flakes
- 3 tbsp of light brown sugar + 1 tbsp honey
- 2 ½ tbsp of rice wine vinegar- 2 tbsp of sesame oil
- noodles (Ramen/Udon noodles for serving)
For the chicken meatballs:
- 175 gr of chicken mince (season w/ a bit of chicken stock cube)
- 1 tbsp of olive oil
For garnish:
- fresh coriander/spring onions
- cucumber (in julienne or thin slices)
- white/black sesame seeds
Instructions
- Mix all the ingredients for your peanut sauce in a bowl. Then heat it up in a pan, add the peanut sauce so the sugar can dissolve. This will take about 5 minutes. Remove the sauce from the pan and transfer it to a heatproof bowl.
- Season your meatballs with some chicken stock cube and cook them in a bit of oil until they are done. Then add a few tbsps of peanut sauce and stir well on medium heat. The peanut sauce will coat the meatballs and caramelize further. This will take about 5 minutes. Make sure you keep an eye on it.
- In the meantime cook your noodles of your choice (I’ve used Ramen but Udon is also very nice) and toss them in a few tablespoons of peanut sauce and serve them with the Chicken Meatballs, cucumber slices and garnish w/ coriander and sesame seeds.
TIPS:
- Serve with satay skewers.
- Use this peanut sauce as a dip for your crunchy veggies, an Asian Salad or Gado Gado.
- Add your meatballs in a steamed Bao bun and garnish with crunchy veggies (cucumber, lettuce, carrot) and fresh coriander.
This recipe adapted from Pinch of Yum and inspired by @Aichide.xj delicious peanut noodles!
If you make my recipes please tag me in them and use #thespicedchickpearecipes. I'd love to see what you've made!