Pork Sate with Peanut Dipping Sauce

Street-food Thai skewers, done properly. Pork tenderloin strips marinate briefly in lemongrass, lime juice, brown sugar, soy sauce, and garlic. Thirty to sixty minutes is all you need, any longer and the citrus starts breaking down the meat’s texture.

The peanut dipping sauce is where the real effort goes. Most shortcut recipes just mix peanut butter with soy and lime, which is fine, but it tastes flat next to this version. Here, peanut butter simmers with chicken or vegetable broth, onion, coriander seeds, jalapeño, and the rest of the marinade ingredients. The mixture gets blended, strained, and reduced until glossy and thick enough to coat a spoon.

The straining step matters. It removes fibrous lemongrass and coriander-seed bits, leaving a silken dip worthy of an actual Thai restaurant.

Soak bamboo skewers 30 minutes before grilling or broiling. Dry skewers burn.

Chef Tips

• Slice pork across the grain and thin (¼ inch). Thicker slices turn gristly on high heat.
• Don’t over-marinate. An hour max; acid makes pork mushy past that.
• Broil close to the element, 3 to 4 inches. High heat, short time, for charred edges.
• Warm the peanut sauce gently before serving; cold sauce thickens and loses its sheen.

Variations

• Swap chicken thigh, beef sirloin, or firm tofu for pork.
• Add a spoon of fish sauce or red curry paste to the peanut sauce for deeper flavor.
• Serve with pickled cucumber, fresh basil, and jasmine rice for a fuller meal.