Satay Burger with Tamarind Fig Peanut Sauce
Satay Burger with Tamarind Fig Peanut Sauce has a juicy pork patty topped with a complex tamarind fig satay sauce that’s irresistible! The sweet tamarind and fig is paired with the salty soy and oyster sauces with a kick of ginger.
This epic burger is part of a fan-frickin-tastic month long event hosted by Girl Carnivore, but opinions are always my own!
This Satay Burger is my response to the September burger month challenge. For whatever reason I didn’t manage to make the September burger. I think I couldn’t find figs that month for some reason. And, I had difficulty finding them at all. I know I’ve seen them at my local grocery, but for the life of me could not find them when I needed them.
So, I skipped that month.
I mean, I could find fresh tamarind! Why couldn’t I find figs? Dried or otherwise? I had hoped for fresh, but knew that would be a long shot. Dry would do well since the tamarind paste I made was wetter than I anticipated. It’s not easy making a ketchup when its runny.
I should probably start from the beginning. I’ve talked about the monthly burger challenges that spawned after last years burger month, right? Maybe not in detail. So, here it goes.
Except for December and May, each member receives an email from Girl Carnivore. It highlights the previous month and has the list of ingredients to use for that month. For September, the ingredients were kale, figs, chives, and tamarind. Now, if there’s an issue with an ingredient and you’re allergic to it or just cannot access it, you can substitute something similar. For these ingredients people were using fig newtons.
Yeah, I kind of made that face, too.
But sometimes you have to do whatever works. And that meant I skipped the September burger because I couldn’t find the figs. And, well, its September and I was useless during that month. No joke. With this new job, who knows. We’ll have to see how it goes. I am low man on the totem pole which is nice for once.
Anyway, back to the burger challenge. Participants receive the email at the beginning of the month and start their plotting and planning. Then, at some point during the month, you share your burger pic in the group. Some post to their blog or social media. I plan to do both at some point, but I’m always behind on posting the burgers.
This month I plan on correcting that.
For this #BurgerMonth this year, I am creating burgers for all the months that I missed. Of which there are quite a few. I think it works out to be about one per week. Which is fine for me! I love burgers and I’m excited to kick it up and make some interesting burgers this month. I got my feet wet last year and now I’m going all out!!
Also during this month, I plan on sharing the burgers I’ve already made for the monthly challenge. I should probably show you what the scheduled looked like this year for ingredients. I’ve listed the post titles for the burgers I’ve already made. However, there’s no hint about what I’m going to make this month for those without names. I’ll have to keep you on your toes for those.
Burger Month Challenge:
- June 2018 – Spinach, cream, lemon, radish – Chicken Piccata Burger with Roasted Radish Aioli
- July – 2018 – corn, tomatillos, salmon, Old Bay
- August 2018 – Shallots, coconut, blueberry, and cayenne – Thai Red Curry Shrimp Burger with Blueberry Chutney
- September 2018 – kale, chives, tamarind, figs – Satay Burger with Tamarind Fig Peanut Sauce
- October 2018 – apples, squash, ancho chile pepper, buttermilk
- November 2018 – turkey, sage, cranberry, marshmallow – Thanksgiving Juicy Lucy Sliders on Marshmallow Buns
- January 2019 – pork, mango, avocado, red hots
- February 2019 – Short ribs, lemongrass, fennel, gochujang – Asian Burger with Thai Marinated Short Ribs and Fennel Chips
- March 2019 – cabbage, corned beef, potato, Irish beer – Corned Beef Hash Burger with Stout Soaked Mustard Seed Dijonnaise
- April 2019 – peas, carrot, horseradish, (grated) egg, rabbit – Rabbit Sausage Burger with Carrots Horseradish Aioli Topped with Crispy Peas
You can see that some of those ingredients are a bit tricky. Red hots? Marshmallows? Rabbit? Heck, I was lucky enough to find an online store that had a small package of rabbit sausage I could buy. Otherwise, I would have had to skip it like most did.
It’s not that I was trying to be a show off. I’m just trying to expand my horizons on my blog. I’ve added ostrich, duck, lamb. Yes, I know those last two aren’t really expanding, but for me it. I have ground buffalo and buffalo sausage in the freezer along with some ground lamb, ostrich, and wild boar.
No, I have no clue what I’m going to do with the wild boar.
Actually, I haven’t planned on making things with most of those ground meats yet. I stress the yet because you know I’m not only a kitchen hoor but also a food hoarder. They will not go to waste. They are conveniently vacuum sealed. So I don’t have to worry about them going bad or getting freezer burn.
Since I’ve been rambling on for a while about everything but this Satay Burger, let me tell you about this burger. It’s a simply ground pork patty sprinkled with salt and pepper. Since prepared ground pork can be a bit pasty, I didn’t want to mix anything in with the meat and make it dense.
Feel free to add in some ground ginger, a dash of soy sauce, or even some oyster sauce. Just be careful when you’re mixing to not over mix the pork.
I pan fried these Satay Burger patties. Grilling might prove difficult since the ground pork is fairly loose. You could easily use a grill pan. That would give you those grill marks. But unless you have experience grilling pork patties, I’d pan fry them.
Now is where the flavor fun begins in these Satay Burgers.
See that brown glob on top of the burger? That’s where the most amazing sauce sits. Honestly, I want to dip everything in this tamarind fig satay sauce. Seriously. EVERYTHING.
It has peanut butter, soy, sesame oil, fresh tamarind paste, dried figs, (for added sweetness), fresh ginger, and finally oyster sauce. I told you it’s packed with flavor, didn’t I? Well, I wasn’t kidding. This sauce is AH-mazing. I surprised myself when I finished it. There may have been spoon licking. Don’t judge.
Peanut butter on a burger?
I know it sounds weird to put peanut butter on a burger, but it’s a satay burger so it works. And it has all those other flavors with it which makes it not so much like peanut butter. It is a delicious satay style sauce.
What else is delicious are the #BurgerMonth burgers shared this month. Yes. I WHOLE MONTH of burgers! Check out the list of bloggers below. Or follow #BurgerMonth or #BurgerMonth2019 for the deliciousness shared this month.

Satay Burger with Tamarind Fig Peanut Sauce
Satay Burger with Tamarind Fig Peanut Sauce has a juicy pork patty topped with a complex tamarind fig satay sauce that's irresistible! The sweet tamarind and fig is paired with the salty soy and oyster sauces with a kick of ginger. #BurgerMonth #BurgerMonth2019
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup crunchy peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons tamarind paste
- 1 tablespoons tamari soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1 tablespoon chopped, dried fig
- 1/4 teaspoon sesame seed oil
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
- 1 pound ground pork
- 1/4 cup chopped chives
- 1 cup shredded cabbage
- 4 hamburger buns
Instructions
- Place the peanut butter in a microwave safe bowl and heat on high 30 seconds.
- Combine the peanut butter with the next six ingredients (tamarind paste through fresh ginger). Set aside.
- Form the pork into 4 patties (add any flavors you'd like to the meat being careful not to over mix it). Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Cook 5 to 7 minutes per side or until cooked through.
- Place the cabbage on the bottom bun. Top with a burger, satay sauce, and a sprinkling of chopped chives.
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That satay sauce sounds crazy delicious!
Thank you!
You are truly the burger expert! I love this burger and it was fate you couldn’t find fig for that challenge last year because you outdid yourself! This is amazing!
Thank you!
I seriously cannot wrap my head around how amazing the flavors are for this burger!!!
Thank you!
These flavor combinations look great!
Thank you!
What a fun burger flavor! I hear ya on the figs. A couple of years back, I wanted some fresh figs for a recipe, and I literally had to stalk about 4 local stores to find them. Not the easiest of ingredients by any means! Glad you got the dried ones to work out. This burger definitely needs to find it’s way to our summer grilling agenda! Also, I don’t know about ground wild boar, but I do know that boar ragu is delicious! 🙂
Thank you! I couldn’t even begin to think where to find fresh ones. And forget calling a store! They have no idea.
Oh my goodness, that sauce! And the combinations you’ve made – some serious creativity!!
Thank you! That sauce is da bomb.com. Seriously. I used it for stir fry tonight.
Good GRIEF! How can something be so appealing when I’ve just eaten dinner? I guess a full belly doesn’t prevent drool from running down my chin. This is a beauty, and I absolutely love the sweet/salty combo . . . especially with peanut butter and ginger. On my “must try” list!
Thank you! I know what you mean… I just pounded another burger and I’m jonesin for some of these epic ones from #BurgerMonth.
Anything with tamarind makes me happy. I dont play with it nearly enough – but OMG the flavors. I have been swooning over this burger since you posted it and need to gather everything to make it – that flavor profile is crazy good looking!
Thank you! I saw the fresh tamarind at the grocery and made my own paste. So good! I hope you like it. That sauce is KILLER!
This sounds so good! I love the fig sauce!
Thank you! The sauce really is awesome. I could eat it straight out of the bowl. #noshame
We love pork burgers and the peanut sauce is definitely a perfect pairing! Sounds like a tasty burger!
It was delicious! I used the rest of the sauce for a stir fry last night for dinner. Definitely something versatile to keep on hand.
this burger looks fantastic and I just love all of the flavors in it especially that peanut sauce
Thank you! That sauce is so good. Just warning ya.