In the end I decided to continue to make what I thought we'd enjoy without any other published formula. It is satay I believe. I short marinaded narrow strips of chicken thigh for a few hours in a soy, garlic, ginger, chilli, honey, sugar, 5 spice, turmeric, dry sherry etc marinade. I couldn't get outside to put it over charcoal so I used our kitchen lava grill (lots of smoke ....) with some flat grillers rather than skewers as I didn't want them to stick to the grill bars. I then brushed all the way through grilling with the sweet marinade. I used some satay peanut dip and some flat breads (and some grilled Pitta ... I am sorry ...) and it was really good. Pictures never tell the story but here they are.

Thank for all the discussion. In the end I did what we like.