Baked Chicken Rolls with Thai Peanut Sauce

This fun looking appetizer happened accidently since my original plan was to make spicy Tuna rolls; and the other plan was to make Thai chicken meatballs that would go with Thai spicy peanut sauce.  Sounded wonderful, right?!  And then my crazy thoughts said…hey…let’s do something else more fun than just spicy tuna rolls.  And this dish was the result of my daydreaming wanted to have some fun while cooking.   Certainly, I was so happy with the result!  The sushi chicken rolls on the stick served with tasty and little bit spicy Thai peanut sauce (recipe below) was an ideal for the party starter if you wanted to amaze your guests for weeks if not months.   However, if you’ve never made sushi before, you might don’t want to try this. But believe me, it’s not as hard as it looks and it doesn’t have to be perfectly rolls like when you are making sushi rolls.  The oven will do the work for you as long as you know how to roll paper into a pipe!  I promise, it simple and easy, but you have to try!   Let’s have some fun, shall we?

What you need:

1 lb ground chicken

1 medium egg

½ cup carrot shredded

¼ cup scallion thinly sliced

1 tsp sugar

2 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tsp salt

1 tsp white pepper powder

2 tbsp cornstarch

5 sheets roasted Nori seaweed

8 small Persian cucumbers cut 3/4-inch thick crosswise

**The sushi bamboo rolling mat – tool for rolling sushi but if you are a sushi expert, you probably don’t need it!

How to:  Preheat the oven at 400’F

 
1.  In a medium mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients and mix well, *except nori and cucumber.

2.  Prepare nori onto the bamboo rolling mat with the rough side facing upwards, the smooth and shiny side downwards

3.  Spoon over nori chicken mixture about 2-3 tablespoons and gently spread the mixture equally on the nori and leave the upper margin about 1 inch (as pictured)

4.  Using the closer edge of the rolling mat to help ease the rolling, gently and slowly outward.  This step might be a little messy because the soft mixture inside and that it cannot be tighten up, but don’t worry as long as you can make it into a roll it should be fine!

5.  Bake the rolls for about 18-20 minutes – you might notice that the roll is puffed and tighten up that because the mixture inside is cooked

6.  Remove and cut into ¾-inch thick crosswise and skew each with Persian cucumber

Serve with Thai peanut sauce.... Enjoy!

Thai Peanut sauce  - make about 3-4 cups

 
1 can/ 13.5 oz – coconut milk
¼ cup red curry paste
1 cup roasted unsalted ground peanut
1 tsp salt
¾ cup sugar
3 tbsp fresh tamarind pulp or white vinegar
½ cup water

In a small saucepan, dissolve red curry paste into coconut milk over medium-low heat. Add sugar, salt, tamarind pulp or white vinegar, water, and ground peanut.  Simmer for 5 minutes and whisking constantly to prevent the burn at the bottom of the pan.  Turn off the heat and let it cool down at room temperature before serving.  This sauce can be kept in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks.