Easy Homemade Peanut Sauce with Coconut Milk

Easy Homemade Peanut Sauce with coconut milk is made with just a few ingredients and brings bold, nutty flavor in minutes. Perfect for dipping chicken satay or tossing with noodles—don’t be surprised if you start putting it on everything!

This creamy, savory sweet sauce comes together in 5 minutes and packs a punch of flavor. It’s my secret weapon for quick weeknight dinners or adding a tasty finish to leftovers—proof that delicious doesn’t have to be complicated.

My husband loves this sauce so much, he usually scoops way too much on his chicken satay and almost always ends up wearing it. Honestly, he needs to slow down on the sauce! But I can’t blame him. Once you try it, you’ll understand why it’s so hard to resist.

If you are into sauce as much as my husband is, you might want to check out this finger-licken’ BBQ Sauce that he wears often too!

Star Ingredients

• Peanut Butter – I like to stick to natural peanut butter that has only peanuts in it. Regular peanut butter is too sweet, especially when mixed with a sweet soy sauce. I usually use smooth peanut butter, but if you like a little crunch, you can use crunchy peanut butter as well.
• Sweet Soy Sauce – This ingredient is also known as Kecap Manis and can be found in most Asian sections of the grocery store. I find it hit and miss, so when I find some, I usually buy a few bottles. It is thicker, almost like molasses, compared to regular soy sauce and sweeter.
• Coconut Milk – Look for the canned kind, not the kind in a carton that is like drinkable milk. When you open the can the coconut milk fat will have risen to the top and formed a cap. I use my spoon to punch through that and mix it up into the milk below before measuring.

Making Peanut Sauce Step-By-Step

This peanut sauce with coconut milk is so easy to make there is only one step!

I find that sometimes the coconut milk fat solids don’t mix into the milk well and can be lumpy. To fix this, I first measure the milk into a glass measuring cup. Then I pop it into the microwave for about 10-15 seconds. The heat will melt the coconut milk fat, and then it will smoothly into the peanut butter.

When I am ready to serve this peanut satay sauce, I like to make it pretty and add a sprinkle of chilli flakes and some chopped peanuts to the top. Slivered green onions or cilantro also work well and look nice.

Leftovers? No Problem!

This sauce makes enough for usually two dinners. I store the leftovers in a tightly sealed container in the fridge, and it is good for up to a week. This peanut sauce with coconut milk can also be frozen for up to 3 months. It may separate when it thaws in the fridge, so be sure to give it a good stir before serving.