Keto Satay Sauce is a wonderfully versatile condiment, as it tastes great on pretty much anything. It’s relatively easy to make and it lasts for months in the fridge. Satay is a popular dish in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. This delicious Keto Satay Sauce is made from peanut butter, coconut milk, keto friendly sweetener and spices. Basically peanut sauce but with satay spices added to give it more kick.
EASY PEANUT SAUCE
An easy Thai peanut sauce for chicken satay, beef satay, or even noodles. You can make this easy peanut sauce mild or spicy per your taste. This a sugar-free and ketogenic recipe, but follow the tips for subs.
There are a million different recipes for Thai or Vietnamese peanut sauce and they are all good. Some add add soy sauce, ginger, or garlic; others add vinegar, fish sauce or lime; still others call for chicken broth, coconut milk, or even applesauce. For sweeteners I’ve seen recipes call for anything from white sugar, brown sugar, coconut sugar, and honey.
HOW TO MAKE SATAY SAUCE OR PEANUT DIPPING SAUCE?
You name a combination of ingredients and I have probably used it in an easy peanut sauce. At the moment, I enjoy using smooth peanut butter, coconut milk, garlic chile sauce, and Thai red curry paste. These ingredients make for a subtly spiced peanut sauce with a great depth of flavor.
Coconut milk adds a nice mellow-sweet flavor and great mouth feel. Garlic chile sauce has a nice chile and garlic flavor with a little bit of heat. Red curry paste is full of complex flavors like kaffir lime leaf and galanga.
To get the best flavor heat the curry paste in a pan with some oil until it’s fragrant. It really makes a difference. I buy a variety of Thai curry pastes at my local Asian market or on Amazon. My favorites are Mae Ploy Yellow, Red, Panang and Massaman curry pastes. They’re perfect for making an impromptu curry during the week and keep in the fridge forever.
This is an easy peanut sauce recipe for chicken satay or even beef satay. The flavors work well for both. I’ve even used leftover sauce on regular sauteed chicken breasts and grilled pork tenderloin, not to mention zucchini noodles. It literally tastes good on almost anything.
PEANUT SAUCE VARIATIONS AND HOW TO MAKE IT YOUR OWN!
- Use almond butter, cashew butter, or macadamia nut butter instead of peanut butter
- Add sesame oil or toasted ground sesame seeds to make sesame noodles.
- Sweeten with applesauce, honey, brown sugar, white sugar or coconut sugar.
- Give it some umami with tamari soy sauce or Fish sauce.
- Add a little acid with cider vinegar, white vinegar, lemon juice, or lime juice.
- Give it some flavor with minced garlic, ginger, or both.
- Spice it up with cayenne, Siracha, chile garlic paste, jalapenos or serranos.
- Thin it out with coconut milk or chicken broth.
- Garnish with crushed peanuts, cashews, green onions, cayenne pepper, or cilantro.
Is Satay Sauce Keto?
Are you on the keto diet? Wondering whether or not you are going to be able to safely consume satay sauce? Or, whether it will kick you out of that desired state of ketosis. Well, here is all you are going to want to know.
So, is Satay sauce keto? Some brands and recipes of satay sauce can be keto-friendly if eaten in moderation. However, sugar is often added to satay sauce – which prevents you from achieving a state of ketosis depending on how much is eaten. Therefore, it is crucial to always first check ingredients and nutrition labels before consumption.
It’s actually impossible to give you a blanket, ‘yes’ or ‘no’ when it comes to satay sauce.
Why?
Because recipes can range quite dramatically.
The truth is, a lot is going to depend on the specific sauce.
Let us now continue to explore when and why this sauce may be off-limits on the keto diet, before turning to a keto-friendly recipe that you can make if you do want to have some.
So keep reading.
It will be worth it – trust me!
How Many Carbs Are In Satay Sauce?
Satay sauce can provide as little as 2 grams, all the way up to 20 grams of carbohydrate per serving. It mostly depends on whether sugar or a sugar equivalent, is used as an ingredient.
You’ll actually notice that a lot of store-bought options are full of carbs.
Even in relatively small serving sizes.
Here is the nutritional content, and then the ingredients:
| Name | Total |
| Calories | 80 |
| Total Carbohydrates | 7g |
| – Of which sugars | 5g |
| Total Fat | 5g |
| Protein | 1g |
Per Serving (2 Tablespoons)
Water, Coconut Milk, Sugar, Soybean Oil, Peanut, Sesame Seed, Spices (Including Red Chili Pepper), Tamarind, Salt, Modified Tapioca Starch, Shallot, Garlic, Lemongrass, Lime Peel, Citric Acid & Turmeric.
I’ve bolded the two problematic ingredients for you, just in case you didn’t see it.
Sugar as the third most abundant ingredient? Not good.
And coconut milk is not shy of carbs either!
So as you can see, this is hardly a low-carb sauce.
Granted, I am only looking at one store-bought brand.
But if you were to take this concept on and look across the most popular brands on the market yourself, you’d soon see the same trend.
That being said, thankfully there are some keto recipes out there. As we shall soon see.
Is Satay Sauce Keto Friendly?
For the most part, pre-made satay sauce is not keto-friendly. Most satay sauces will provide too many carbohydrates per serving to enable you to remain in ketosis.
We’ve seen in the section above why this is the case.
And chances are if you are eating out at a restaurant unless you are willing to ask or they can provide you with an overview of what ingredients they use, it’s best to give it a miss.
Besides, you do need to leave room for carbohydrates that may come from other sources of food in your diet.
And the truth is, your ‘allowance’ for carbs is pretty low.
As little as 20 grams, for the average keto-dieter.
Of course, you could always try and manipulate your diet to allow for the few grams of carbs that are present in Satay sauce.
And then proceed to use it carefully.
Or alternatively, you could make your own satay sauce that is naturally much lower in carbs altogether.
That’s the recommended approach.
So let us now look at how you can do so.
Keto-Friendly Satay Sauce Recipe
Your best option if you want to consume satay sauce on keto is to make your own version from scratch. This will allow you to forgo ingredients such as sugar and lower the carbohydrate count considerably.
The following recipe is my favorite one to make.
It has less than 2 grams of carbs per serving, and takes only around 5 minutes to make!
Ingredients
- ½ Cup of Sugar Free Peanut Butter
- 2 Tablespoons of Coconut Aminos,
- 1 Tablespoons of Rice Vinegar,
- 1 Tablespoon of Lime Juice
- 1 Tablespoon of Fresh Minced Ginger,
- 1 Teaspoon of Sesame Oil,
- 1 Tablespoon of Fresh Minced Garlic,
- ¼ Cup of Hot Water.
Method
Step One: In a small bowl, add all of the ingredients together (minus the water) and whisk together to evenly combine.
Step Two: Add the water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and whisk together until you reach the consistency you like and desire.
Serve and enjoy!
Finally
Satay sauce can be keto.
But for the most part, store-bought options, or perhaps even restaurant satay sauces, are not.
Unfortunately, sugar is routinely added to the recipe.
And as such, it mostly rules it out for those of us on Keto.
Nevertheless, that doesn’t necessarily mean we have to forgo it altogether.
We just need to plan and make it ourselves.
Keto Chicken Satay Sheet Pan Dinner
This Keto Chicken Satay Sheet Pan Dinner is inspired by the popular flavors of Chicken Satay, including that yummy peanut sauce. A simplified preparation that eliminates the skewers and grilling, this dairy free low carb chicken sheet pan meal will be a hit with the entire family!
We love chicken satay and order it every time we visit our favorite Thai restaurant here in Roatan. I obviously took a few liberties with this Keto chicken satay version, both to cut carbs, and to make it a sheet pan dinner rather than a grilled skewer recipe as it is traditionally prepared in Southeast Asia.
The delicious marinade, peanut sauce, and cucumber garnish make this keto chicken satay sheet pan dinner a pretty tasty substitute for the real thing.
For a more authentic satay experience though, you can absolutely skewer the chicken after marinating and cook on the grill – time and weather permitting. Without question, grilling adds another level of flavor that you just can’t get with baking – but it’s not always practical unfortunately.
The most time consuming part of this Keto Chicken Satay Sheet Pan Dinner recipe is going to be the marinating. The longer you let that chicken soak in a tasty bath of the coconut milk, spices, and aromatics, the more tender and flavorful your end result will be.
I recommend a minimum of 2 hours, with an overnight marinade being ideal. You can also freeze the chicken in the marinade and then thaw it when you’re ready to cook.
Once you’ve finishing marinating, you’re ready to bake (or grill.)
Traditionally Chicken Satay is served as a street food or appetizer, but I’ve added cauliflower rice here to make it a complete low carb meal.
To keep this keto chicken satay easy, concentrate the flavors, and minimize clean up, we’re baking our cauliflower rice right on the sheet pan with the marinated chicken. The end result is a mellow flavor and slightly chewy texture that is more reminiscent of real rice than boiled or steamed cauliflower rice in my opinion.
But now we’re getting to the best part of any satay dish, and that’s the ubiquitous peanut sauce!
Salty, sweet, spicy, and with a punch of ginger and garlic, this crave-worthy peanut sauce is definitely the star of the show. Still, there isn’t a single thing on this plate that isn’t bringing something delicious to the table.
The crunchy cabbage and cucumber bring color and texture, the lime a welcome acidity, and the cilantro a freshness that brightens up the warm, rich flavors of the chicken and peanut sauce.
But wait, there’s more! 😂
This Keto Chicken Satay Sheet Pan Dinner is perfect for meal prepping in advance, because it’s equally delicious as a cold salad preparation as it is fresh out of the oven!
So you can be enjoying this chicken dinner all week long. 🙌🏻
I mean it just keeps getting better and better, am I right?
I’m on the edge of my seat waiting for you guys to try it and report back! Meanwhile, since there are always questions, I’m going to include a little FAQ before the recipe:
Is this Keto Chicken Satay Sheet Pan Meal really spicy?
There is curry powder in the marinade and jalapeño in the peanut sauce, but I wouldn’t call this dish extremely spicy as written. It’s got more of a warmish vibe, but if you are serving it to kids or are very sensitive to spice then I’d reduce the jalapeno in the peanut sauce to 1 teaspoon instead of a full tablespoon. Then taste it and you can always add a little more to get just the right amount of heat for your family.
If, like me, there’s no such thing as too spicy, then I recommend using a spicier pepper like Serrano or red Thai chili to really get your nose running!
Is there a peanut free option for the satay sauce?
Yes! You can substitute almond butter for the peanut butter, or even sunflower or cashew butter if almonds are an issue for you.
Can I substitute other proteins for the chicken in this keto satay recipe?
Also yes! Depending on the region, satay is made with a wide variety of different proteins, so almost anything can work. For the flavors in this particular marinade and peanut sauce, I recommend pork, shrimp, or tofu as solid options.
Beef can work but it has a stronger flavor and is less appealing for this in my opinion. I also have a Keto Teriyaki Beef Skewers recipe that you might want to try if beef is what you’re working with.
If using shrimp, don’t marinate longer than 2 hours, and depending on the size of them (if they are on the small side) you may need to cut down on the baking time so they don’t dry out.
Does it matter what sweetener I use for this recipe?
Not really. I used granulated erythritol in my version, but any sugar free sweetener will work here. Monkfruit would be my other go-to, but you can use stevia, Sucralose, or whatever sweetener you prefer.
If you’re Paleo but not keto, you can use maple syrup or honey to sweeten. Erythritol measures the same as sugar, so if you’re using something highly concentrated like liquid stevia, you’ll have to figure out the conversion so it doesn’t turn out too sweet.
Ok that should do it, let me know if you have any other burning questions about this recipe in the comments and I’ll add them to the FAQs for easy reference.
keto chicken satay sheet pan dinner
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Diet: Diabetic
Ingredients
For the satay:
- 1/4 cup canned coconut milk (unsweetened)
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon grated lime zest
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced
- 2 tablespoons yellow curry powder
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 tablespoon granulated erythritol
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into strips or cutlets
- 3 cups riced cauliflower
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil
- Lime wedges, cilantro, shredded cabbage and/or cucumber slices to garnish
For the peanut sauce:
- 1/2 cup peanut butter or almond butter (sugar free, all natural)
- 2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
- 1 teaspoon minced fresh garlic
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh jalapeño pepper
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce (sugar free)
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar (sugar free)
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 tablespoons granulated erythritol sweetener
Instructions
For the satay:
- Combine the coconut milk, soy sauce, fish sauce, lime zest, garlic, ginger, curry powder, garam masala, and erythritol in a large bowl. Add the chicken and stir well so all of the pieces are coated.
- Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight (or freeze until ready to thaw and cook.)
- When ready to cook preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Spread cauliflower rice over the sheet pan.
- Place the chicken pieces on top of the cauliflower.
- Drizzle with avocado oil.
- Bake for 20 minutes. Serve warm or cold with the peanut sauce, garnished with cucumber slices, shredded cabbage, lime wedges, and fresh cilantro if desired. Store leftovers in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
To make the peanut sauce:
- Combine all of the sauce ingredients in a blender, magic bullet, or food processor and blend until smooth.
- Taste and adjust sweetness and saltiness to your preference before serving.
- Store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.