Easy Thai Satay Peanut Sauce
This flavorful quick and easy homemade Thai Peanut Satay Sauce recipe is made with coconut milk, peanut butter, and red curry paste and requires no cooking. It is great with chicken satay, appetizers, salads, or noodles!
Servings: 1 cup
Calories: 604kcal
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons coconut cream (or coconut milk)
- ¼ cup natural peanut butter (unsweetened)
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Thai red curry paste
- 2 teaspoons honey (or maple syrup)
- 2 teaspoons fish sauce (or soy sauce)
- 2-3 tablespoons water or enough to thin it out the the consistency you like
Optional Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil (optional)
- 1 teaspoon chili oil (optional)
- 2 teaspoons Sriracha chili sauce (to make it spicier)
- crushed peanuts (optional, sprinkled on top)
Instructions
- Mix the peanut butter and the red Thai curry until they are combined.
- Add in the honey, fish sauce (or soy sauce), and rice vinegar (or lime juice) and mix well.
- Add the coconut cream (or coconut milk) and mix well until everything is smooth.
- Add 2-3 tablespoons of water and mix well. If it's too thick, add more water, 1 teaspoon at a time until you get the consistency you like.
- Do a taste test. If you like it more sour, sweet, or salty, adjust it with rice vinegar, honey, or fish sauce.
- Add in any optional garnishes
- Serve it with chicken, salad, noodles, or appetizers!
Notes
- If you are adding crushed peanuts to the sauce, make sure you toast them in a dry frying pan until it is golden brown before you use them to get more flavor from them.
- I highly recommend using coconut cream over coconut milk because it has more of a coconut flavor. If you are going to use coconut milk, make sure to find a high-fat one. I like to shake the can to test how much fat the coconut milk will have - the thicker the milk the fattier and more flavorful it will be.
- For extra flavor, I like to drizzle some chili oil on top of the peanut sauce and gently swirl it in. My favorite chili oil to use is Lao Gan Ma Chilli Crisp, (I'm not sponsored by them, I just really love their chili oil.)
- My peanut sauce turned out too thick, can I fix this? Yes, you can add water to it 1 tablespoon at a time until you get it to the consistency you like.
- How do you make this a spicy peanut sauce? This simple peanut sauce uses red Thai curry paste which gives the sauce a mild spiciness already. If you want to make it even spicier, you can add sriracha to it as well.
- How long can I keep this peanut sauce? You can keep it in the fridge for up to 1 week. To use it again, let it warm up on the counter at room temperature for 30 minutes to an hour.
- Can I use this as a peanut dressing in salads and noodles? Absolutely! To make this into a peanut dressing, thin it out a bit more with water. You may need to add a bit more fish sauce, so do a taste test before adding it to your salads or noodles.
- Can I use creamed coconut blocks? Yup. You will need to melt it in the microwave first, and then mix it with a bit of milk or water to keep it at a liquid consistency before mixing it with the peanut butter.
