......please.

Thanks.

Satay is Thai/Indonesian and is skewered, marinated chicken (soy/lemongrass/garlic) grilled and served with a peanut sauce.

Yakitori is Japanese and is skewered, sometimes marinated chicken. Sometimes marinated and grilled with teriyaki sauce. Sometimes just with salt. No peanut sauce.

Many thanks ...

Yes I understand about the teriyaki and peanut butter sauce ... it was the kebab prep I was interested in. Many of the marinades I have seen for each seem very similar.

No claim to expertise here but my experience is that satay prep (mostly Thai) involves sliced chicken while chicken yakitori tends to be "chunks." Also, chicken yakitori can include organs and whatnot, not sure about the range of parts used in satay. Other than that and the various marinades used, aren't they both just skewered and grilled meats?

In Japan, I've seen many a kushi (skewer) grilled just with salt. Squeeze some lemon on afterwards. Simple and effective.

As for sate, I haven't yet come across a savory recipe, at least in Indonesia.

Thanks to all.

I think I might have been reading into this a bigger difference than there is. I think it is essentially the same thing in two different languages. You can marinade or not how you like ... and it will be called by where you are .... except what you dip it into that is.

Another satay not mentioned is Malaysian. Indonesian ones tend to be a lot sweeter. More spices and herbs used in the Malaysian ones. Don't think yakatori has any herbs and spices.

Malay ones need to be grilled over charcoal for best flavour and are accompanied by cold compressed rice cakes, cucumber and (the local) red onion, as well as the peanut sauce. Unfortunately it can be difficult to find in Malaysia these days.

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Thanks. Do you mean plain unmarinaded chicken with a choice of salt or soy?

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As others have pointed out, they shouldn't be similar, the marinades are very different.

Thanks ... just checking.

You say marinades but is one of the differences that Yakitori has the choice of marinade brushed on whilst cooking and satay can be pre-marinaded?

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.

looks good regardless of what you call it

My only comment is that it needs to develop a browner colour with a few burnt spots (might be sugar in the marinade). Think the chicken should be yellow (more turmeric?) Difficult w/o a charcoal grill.