You probably already have a standard grill or broiler in your kitchen, so you might roll your eyes when I tell you there’s a special Thai satay grill you can get. I consider this to be one of the more esoteric pieces of Thai cooking equipment. But I also consider it a must for anyone serious about creating one of Thailand’s tastiest dishes.
Thai Satay Grill: What’s It For?
It might seem like an obvious question. Obviously, it’s for making Satay, right? Well, yes, that’s its primary role. But it does so much more than that.
When in Thailand, at any of its vibrant food markets or even street-side stalls at family-run places, you’ll almost always see one of these Thai satay grills. And you won’t always see sticks of satay cooking on them.
You see; these portable bad boys are used for grilling umpteen other dishes. They are outdoor grills fuelled by little bricks of charcoal, which imparts a wonderful smoky flavor on things like grilled chicken liver, grilled squid, and more.
Since a picture tells a thousand words, it’s probably easier to show you an example of what this type of grill looks like. I could go into the intricate details of its construction, but that would be a waste of your time and mine.
So, as you can see, it’s rectangular-shaped with removable sides. You place the charcoal on a bottom slate underneath the grill and you can remove all the ashes and embers quite easily after you’ve finished cooking.
The one I have, I picked it up on Amazon. I often buy Thai cookware in Thailand and bring it home on the plane but I didn’t bother with the grill because delivery wasn’t expensive.
The size is about 24 inches long and 8 inches tall. The seller I bought it from gives you a free Thai gift bag with your purchase, which is pretty nice. Here is the link for the one with the gift bag.
Since this is a Thai satay grill, I should mention a brief bit about authentic versions of this dish. Satay actually originated in Indonesia, but such was its popularity that neighboring countries adopted it and altered it to suit the local palette.
Key unique features of Thai satay are the wonderful peanut sauce that is served with it in addition to the tasty pickled chilis and vinegar. It’s also very common to see pork as an option on this dish, which is uncommon in other Southeast Asian countries. And of course, the particularly nifty and not-too-large Thai satay grill.
Is Buying One of These Grills Essential?
The answer is it depends. If you have tasted real Thai satay like they make in Thailand and you’d like to recreate that at home, then yes, you’ll need this grill. It pays for itself though because you can use it for grilling several other types of meat and fish. One lady in the Saturday market in Chiang Mai must have served 20 different types of meats on her grill, although it was bigger than the one I recommended here.
Once again, the particular model I recommend is this one on Amazon because of the cool free Thai gift bag that comes with it. Also, it’s the real-deal grill, the exact same one as you’ll find in Thailand.
Don’t forget to check out some other Thai cookware essentials on my page dedicated to all things you may want or need in your Thai kitchen.