'Pan-Fried' Chicken Satay/ Sate Ayam Kecap

I made satay/sate with peanut sauce for the Independence day - still not post an entry about it yet and kinda promised the sauce recipe to few people, but well..too bad.., it's too long of a recipe. But will get to it.

Anyway, THAT combination was as real deal as I could get for satay and peanut sauce; except that I did not grill it on charcoal neither using bamboo weaved hand-fan to distribute the coals' heat. There are always shortcuts (like, using peanut butter) but I wanted to make it as authentic as possible, so it was all hard labor, grinding peanuts and all! That is then, story for another day, today is different story. I still have 10 satay skewers in my drawer. I used up 40 that weekend. Suppose I can just leave the skewers in the drawer, but no, I can't. I may have certain type of disorder. I can't stand '2 tbsp of chopped pecan', or '1 cup of rolled oats' just sitting there type of person. If it's basic, staple sort of ingredients, as in, sugar, salt, it's fine. Otherwise, I gotta use it and I will find a recipe that require exactly that amount.

So, these 10 skewers. Hm..I can cut them up and use it as toothpick. I can use them as 'craft' materials. Then I see a half cut tomato I used for lunch. Heh. Mix it with sweet soy sauce, chillies and shallots. Perfect for another satay dish, however, not the trouble. For 10 satay - it has to be Painless, with capital P! So 'panfrying' on high heat is the way to go. And it's perfect with Sayur Asam. Both combined, from prep to serve, less than 1 hour.

What:
satays:
- chicken pieces
- soy sauce
- sweet soy sauce (do not go overboard, or satay will burn too quickly on the pan)
- pinch of turmeric
- pinch of coriander
- more than a pinch of chillies powder
- pepper

sauce:
- sweet soy sauce (now, you can pour as much as your heart desire, in my case, for 10 satays, 1/2 a cup!)
- 4 shallots, chopped to thin rings
- 1/2 large sized tomatoes, coarsely chopped
- 6 red chillies, coarsely chopped
- juice of 1 lime/lemon (ideally lime, but only have lemon on hand, so..lemon it is)

How:
- Toss all the spices with chicken and let it marinate for about 20-30 minutes.
- Mix all sauce ingredients and lightly mash them, to infuse all the flavor together.
- Skewer chicken to sticks.
- Heat a touch of oil/butter on non stick pan. Heat has to be on medium-high. Place chicken skewers on pan.
- Once one side is browned, flip chicken to other side. Turn the heat down to medium and put the lid on for a minute, to ensure chicken is cooked throughout.
- Lift the lid and turn heat back up to high, just long enough to 'char' the other side.
- Serve with the sauce poured on top of satay.
Note: Don't overcrowd the pan, or juice from chicken will start a 'steaming' process instead of 'faking' a grilling process.

edited** 08/29/08 A friend says 'So, what do I do with the sauce?' - Heehee. :) FYI, he is just as Indonesian as I am, but felt the need of pointing out a flaw. Lucky that we grew up together so I let him be!! :P So, I added the last line of 'how'