Chicken skewers on sugar cane ⋆ recipe via SOULFOOD.nl

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Chicken skewers are actually always good. Whether you go for a tasty chicken satay or rather a shish kebab of minced chicken… you are actually assured of success right from the start! With these chicken skewers on sugar cane you really make the flash at your next party. Because what could be more fun than an edible stick?

I got the idea for these skewers when I found a nice stalk of sugar cane at the Surinamese toko. I hadn't eaten it in years before, but I still remember the taste so well from back in the day. My parents had a huge sugar cane plant in the garden and every now and then you could use a machete (a large machete) remove a few stems and chew the inner part. A bit like liquorice, but with the delicious, tropical taste of cane sugar.

Although you can't really eat the stems (because: way too much strong, indigestible fibres), it is a pleasure to chew on such a piece until no more sugar comes out. So you can imagine how happy I was to see such a beautiful piece of sugar cane again after 12 years!

A recipe with sugar cane

And then the challenge: make a recipe with it… that's not easy. So you can't eat the stems, at the most you can squeeze them. But there are already enough recipes for juices with sugar cane as a basis and, moreover, "press the stem" is not really a recipe. That had to be completely different!

Fortunately, that's where the inspiration came: Italian Liuk ice creams! Do you know them? Those are those tasty lemon popsicles on a licorice stick. Well… “drop”… something that should pass for it then. I don't like the sticks themselves, but it's just a nice idea that they are edible and that you can continue with the stick after eating the ice cream.

Thus, the idea for these sugar cane skewers was born. And of course you can combine the taste of cane sugar very well with meat. So it was either pork or chicken. Beef seemed less suitable in terms of taste. And then the convenience wins out: because it is difficult to buy minced pork in the Netherlands (only 'half and half'), the skewers were made from minced chicken.

We've tested them and let's be honest: they are irresistibly delicious! And then you can continue with the stick 😉

You can make about 10-12 chicken skewers from this recipe

Ingredients:

1 stalk sugar cane (toko)
2 cloves of garlic, pressed
1 small onion, finely chopped
(sunflower) oil, for frying
600 gr minced chicken
1 egg
50 gr breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp cayene pepper
2 sprigs parsley, finely chopped

Prefer a video?

In the video below you can see in about 20 seconds how I saw, peel and process the sugar cane into sticks. You can also see how the chicken skewers bake and eventually become:

https://www.tiktok.com/@jurinoignacio/video/6857555260769144070

Preparation of chicken skewers on sugar cane

Of course we start with peeling and cutting the sugar cane. If you look closely, you can see that the stem is divided into segments. We use one such segment for this recipe. Note that you have to separate the segments twice. By this I mean that you saw it off both before and after the 'ring'. So you always throw away a ring of about an inch. These pieces are really too hard to handle.

When you have cut a segment (in Curaçao we use a machete, but in the Netherlands I just use a saw) you can peel the sugar cane with a sharp knife. Always cut from top to bottom, because that's how the fibers run. In the end you will be left with a piece of light yellow reed. You can divide this piece into 16 'sticks'. First cut the reed into 4 slices and then cut 4 sticks from each slice. Keep the skewers in a glass of water until you are going to fry the chicken skewers.

Now heat some oil in a pan and fry the onion and garlic until the onion is translucent. Then remove them from the pan and let them cool for a while. Then mix them with the minced chicken, egg and breadcrumbs. Now add all the other ingredients to season the minced meat.

Divide the mincemeat into 10 (or 12) parts and roll each part around a sugar cane stick. Then heat the oil or butter again and fry the chicken skewers over a medium heat for about 20 minutes until they are golden and cooked through. Serve them with rice, potatoes or chips and vegetables of your choice – enjoy your meal!