Chicken Sate with Peanut Sauce

It's hard to say how some foods came to be. Take fois grois for example, who was the first asshole who thought to himself, "Hmm I wonder what will happen if I shove a tube into this duck and force feed it until it's liver is completely diseased and fattened?... it's going to be delicious!" Or who was the brave soul who decided, “Let's take this bacteria laden milk, let it sit in our counter for a few days and then I’ll add some berries to it” - voilà you've got mixed berry yogurt.

Other things are a bit more intuitive, like food on a stick. Some cavewoman was obviously grilling up some mammoth when she couldn't find a flat stone to heat over the fire and realized she could just put the meat on a stick. The rest is history: a history filled with awesome things served on sticks.

While I abstain from eating corn dogs I do love a good toasted marshmallow, popsicle, lollipop and of course, the timeless meat skewer. So in honor of this historically tried and true way of cooking, I present you with my rendition of chicken sate...

Chicken Skewers with Homemade Peanut Sauce
Makes 3 big servings

Sauce
-1/3 cup-creamy peanut butter (I like skippy natural)
-1 and 1/3 tablespoon soy sauce (low sodium is preferable)
-2 tablespoons water
-3 teaspoons honey
-1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (from spice section) - use more or less depending on your spice tolerance
-1/3 cup light coconut milk (comes in a can, found in international section)

Skewer
-2 cups butternut squash- cubed
-1 red bell pepper - chopped into big squares
-1 purple onion - chopped into squares
-2 large chicken breasts cubed
-Wooden skewers
- Pam

-Preheat oven to 300
-Make sauce by mixing all sauce ingredients together in a bowl. Add crushed red pepper flakes at the end - stirring and tasting to make sure it's not too spicy for you!
-Line large baking pan with tinfoil and spray with Pam
-Put cubed squash in oven on the pan.
-After 12 minutes of baking the squash throw in the onions
-Bake for another 5 minutes and take out onions and squash
-Assemble skewers using peppers, chicken, onion and butternut squash
-Brush peanut sauce all over skewers and sprinkle lightly with salt (leaving about a 1/3 cup of sauce in the bowl.
- Bake skewers for 10 minutes or until chicken is cooked through
-Serve skewers with the extra peanut sauce for dipping

Enjoy! This sauce is delicious and would also be great for dipping beef or tofu or as a sauce on soba noodles.