Saturday, September 10, 2011

Chicken Satay Burger 1.0

Hello from beautiful Carmel-by-the-Sea, California! Michele and I are here to tour a couple family farms as guests of knowacaliforniafarmer.com. Hopefully, I’ll have some photos and more info to share when I return to San Francisco on Sunday evening, but in the meantime I wanted to post this experimental chicken satay burger video.

I’ve been thinking about how to do a chicken burger using some of the same flavors found in Thai-style chicken satay, and this was my first attempt. I thought it was pretty good, and benefited from some seasoning adjustments, as you’ll hear. I think the concept is solid, but I’ll continue to try and perfect the execution.

This is one of those videos where I especially hope some are inspired to take the idea and run with it. Then, come back and share your incredible success with the rest of us. This is a fun jumping off point in regards to doing burgers inspired by other classic dishes. I can’t wait to see what you come up with. Enjoy!


For the burger (4):
1 pound ground chicken
1 1/2 tbsp coconut milk
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp sambal chili sauce
1 tbsp bread crumbs
2 tsp soy sauce
3 cloves minced garlic
pinch of cayenne
For the peanut sauce:
Peanut butter thinned with a squeeze of lime, seasoned with more sambal or hot pepper
For the slaw:
1/2 cup grated or julienne carrot
1/2 cup grated or julienne cucumber
2 tbsp sliced jalapeƱo
2 tsp Asian fish sauce
1 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar

28 comments:

Ameirah said...

This is amazing, I was just wondering how to use ground poultry other than the traditional turkey burger mix. Definitely stealing this!

Anonymous said...

Just a thought, but I'm not sure that chicken satay is Thai. I think it's Malaysian. i may be wrong.

asnwords said...

@anonymous
I'm sure that satay is from Indonesia. But maybe it's just me because it's where I live *grins*

Btw, Thanks to Chef John who use sambal here ;D
*looking at my comment on the all-recipe-acquisition post*

Livia said...

Looks delicious!

Simon said...

Could I use butter milk instead of coconut milk? or something else of similar consistency.

Chef John said...

Looks similar, but wouldn't recommend buttermilk.

rancholyn said...

This looks AMAZING....thanks for your creativity!!!

Razors Edge said...

You will regret using buttermilk.

Anonymous said...

If I can weigh in on the nationalist argument, I imagine Singapore when I think satay! Chef can you think of a way to incorporate the flavor of lemon grass in this? Do you think fine grating would work or still be too woody?

Anonymous said...

This is great idea. I'll definitely give it a try.

Anonymous said...

Satay what, brother-clucker?

dsowerg said...

You can't do satay without lemongrass! I didn't know a satay platter is served with carrots at your end. Here (Singapore) we eat it with the satay sauce, raw cucumber, onions and ketupat (compressed cooked rice).

A great experiment nonetheless!

kimchilover said...

NEver use peanut butter for sauce. You should cook peanut, toasted and crushed, toss into the cooked sambal for a more authentic taste. That's the right way a satay sauce should be.

Anonymous said...

I think it needs ginger in the chicken, but pickled ginger could do okay on top too. Love the julienned cucumber idea.

Pam said...

Chef, you got me thinking about creating a burger inspired by a classic dish. How about the rather obvious "Thanksgiving Burger"? Incorporate a little savory sage bread stuffing into the ground turkey, moisten with a splash of brown gravy, and top with the traditional cranberry sauce condiment (mixed with mayo to form a creamy spread, perhaps?) You can find the equivalent in certain delis using sliced turkey breast, so why not make it into a burger?

Iselinn said...

Made this yesterday. Sadly the one I sent out to buy minced chicken came back with the wrong kind of minced meat but it was oooooh so tasty anyway. I spiced it up like you said on the video and it was great! Being Norwegian and not too used to spicy food (yes - that's my excuse for being a chicken. My sis and dad loved it all spiced up though ;p)I had some sour cream on the side so I didn't die ^^

Paul said...

Can I add an egg or egg yolk to the burger mix to help it come together when cooked?

Chef John said...

Yes,
if you want

Kurt said...

Hey Chef John...........made the burgers tonight, they were delicious. I doubled almost all the spices and it was perfect for my taste. I used this ring I have for cutting out round raw pastry dough, not sure what it is called, but I put in it the skillet and then filled it with the chicken mixture, patted it down, removed the ring and went on and made the other patties. It made nice symmetrical patties. I will make this again for sure.

Kurt said...

Ohhhhh, I forgot to mention (after reading one of the above posts), I also added a Lemongrass paste that I am finding in the stores here in Seattle. About a tablespoon, I think. I figured it couldn't hurt.

Grams Pam said...

Big hit with my lunch group today!

Here are my substitutions:

incorporated salt per your video instructions

doubled the cumin, tumeric & cayenne

used sriracha instead of sambal
(it's what I had on hand)

agreed with others re: liking my satay with lemongrass, but having none, I used lemon thyme (from my herb garden) whirled in my Magic Bullet with one whole egg then added to the meat mixture.

thinned peanut butter with squeezed lemon, used sriracha instead of sambal

left out the jalapeno

This was really good ... burger was moist and the faint greenish tint disguised easily by grill marks and the slaw topping.

One member of the group asked for sour cream to put on her bun ... I didn't have any, but I did have some homemade creme fraiche; which I gave her. It's going way off the original, but I tried a dab of it on a bite of my burger. (I would be rude not to try it when your guest has introduced an new idea, right?)
I liked it much better without.

Chef John said...

thanks for sharing!! :-)

Anonymous said...

Can see you in your bowl :D

Anonymous said...

Hi Chef! How did u julienne the veggies that fine? Did u use a special tool? I would love to learn, my knife skills aren't great. Thanks!

Kurt said...

I just wanted to add, the next day, after sitting in the fridge all night, I fried up the last two burgers and the flavors had really developed and were enhanced by that night in the fridge. I think next time I might make them a day ahead and let it sit over night in the fridge for maximum flavor enhancement. Yumm.

e said...

Dear Chef John
i'v been following u'r blog and YouTube 4 sometime now - trying stuff here and there - always with great pleasure...
but this time i had to let u know... though i didn't try it exactly as u (as i didn't have any peanut butter, and i already did a few times - sesame satay, i made the sauce and added it to the grounded meat - which was not chicken by the way....)
any way i just wanted to say - that was a great idea to try out and it was awesome and delicious so thank u and keep on coming with great fresh ideas...
thank u.

Menimitz said...

I made these about a week or so ago and they were awesome! I did make a few changes, some intentional and some not.

I added a few dashes more of each spice as you said, and it was perfect.

I forgot the fish sauce all together even after I bought some since we had run out, oops.

I used turkey instead of chicken because I was lazy and waited until the day of to look for it.

All in all, I will be making these again very soon. Everyone seemed a little skeptical at first, but I know they all enjoyed them since they all went back for seconds. The only downside was the almost whole can of leftover coconut milk, but it ended well because it just forced us to make some coconut milk curry the next day :-).

Thanks for the idea, and I hope to get the chance to keep trying your dishes.

Donna said...

Coconut milk never ever goes to waste in my house. Any leftover milk from a recipe can be incorporated into a batch of Indian-spiced lentils, which is quick and easy, and freezes well. (-:

I'm definitely gonna try emulating this little experiment, Chef. Good stuff!