Oven-Baked Pork Satay with Peanut Butter

Delicious, sweet-and savory, juicy, oven-baked pork satay that you can’t get enough of. Each bite of these pork satays is an explosion of flavor in your mouth. You can eat these pork satays as an appetizer, snack or even as an entrée. This pork satay is also a great party meal idea as it is considered as finger food, not messy, and can be prepared ahead of time. You can skewer the marinated pork meat and make the glaze/dipping sauce ahead of time and freeze them for up to 2 weeks. Just pop them into the oven when you want to use it.

This oven-baked pork satay is very easy to make, quick, and use the ingredients that mostly are already there inside your pantry. In a quick summary, you basically just need to marinate the meat, leave it for an hour or more. Afterwards, pop it into the oven – or of course, if you prefer, you can also grill it. While it’s in the oven, you add all the other ingredients into the blender. Let the blender do its magic, then brush the sauce onto the meat. Let it bake again, brush again, and so on until they are all done cooking. That’s all. Pretty simple, isn’t it?

Tool I used:

• Mixing bowl – durable, lightweight, and well-balanced so it’s very stable when prepping, stirring, or even kneading a dough. Comes with different sizes and stackable for easy storage.
• Baking pan – Nonstick, durable, and versatile that makes it easy to release food and easy for cleaning. It is commercial grade and has silicone handles.
• Blender – I love this blender as it is not too bulky, great for making smoothie, blend some spices, and easy to clean. Also, believe it or not, this blender can also crush ice!

Tip: To ensure that the bamboo stick doesn’t burn easily, submerge it in the water at least 1-2 hours prior to using it. Also, you can always grill it instead of popping it into the oven. To make juicy pork satays, use pork meat that has some fat in it – don’t use leaner cut. 

Ingredient:

• 2 lbs. pork shoulder – cut into bite-sized
• 1 lime or lemon – squeeze to get the juice
• 4 tablespoons sweet soy sauce – can be substituted with brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• A pinch of pepper
• Olive oil spray

For the glaze and dipping sauce:

• 4 tablespoons of creamy peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon fried shallot
• 2 cloves garlic – peeled
• ½ inch ginger – peeled and cleaned
• ½ cup sweet soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• Salt and white pepper to taste

Direction:

• In a big mixing bowl, add the cut pork shoulder, sweet soy sauce, soy sauce, salt, pepper, and lime/lemon juice. Give it a good mix.
• Then, cover the mixing bowl with a plastic wrap, put it in the refrigerator and let is marinate for at least 1 hour. Better yet, leave it marinate overnight.
• Take the marinated pork meat out and let’s thread it onto the soaked bamboo sticks.
• Preheat the oven to 400F. While waiting for it to heat up, prepare the baking pan by spraying some olive oil. Carefully place each pork satay – give some room in between the satays. Spray a bit more olive oil on top of each satay.
• Once the oven is heated, place the baking pan into the oven and let the pork satays cook for about 5 minutes first.
• In the meantime, let’s make the glaze/dipping sauce.
• Except for the peanut butter and olive oil, add everything else – fried shallot, garlic, ginger, sweet soy sauce, soy sauce, salt, and pepper – into the blender. Blend until everything is mixed well.
• Afterwards, transfer into a mixing bowl. Add peanut butter and olive oil into the mix. Give it a good stir. Adjust seasoning if needed – add salt, pepper, or sweet soy sauce to your liking. Separate some to use it later as a dipping sauce.
• Get a brush and once the 5 minutes oven-cooking is up, brush the glaze onto the pork satay. Coat each satay with the glaze sauce. Then, cook again in the oven for another 5 minutes. Repeat brushing the glaze after another 5 minutes. Cook for at least 15 minutes or more depending on the thickness your pork satay.
• To get the char on the oven, set your oven to broil. Adjust your oven rack so that the baking pan is closer to the top heat, about 3-5 inches from the broiling heat.
• Then, set it to broil for 2-3 minutes. When it’s broiling, keep an eye on it so that the pork satays do not get burnt – all you want is just a nice char.
• Once all the pork satays are cooked through, transfer to a serving plate and let them cool down before devouring them with the dipping sauce. Bon Appétit!