Picture this: your chicken satay flies off the menu, but your profit margins keep shrinking. Most kitchens skip the satay sauce when calculating costs, unknowingly bleeding money with every order. Here's how to nail down your exact cost per piece.
Gather all ingredients for chicken satay
An accurate cost calculation demands exact quantities and prices for every single ingredient. Don't just count chicken and sauce—marinade, oil, and garnish all eat into your margins too.
💡 Example ingredient list per satay:
- Chicken fillet: 80 grams at €12.50/kg = €1.00
- Marinade (soy sauce, oil, spices): €0.15
- Satay sauce: 30 grams at €8.00/kg = €0.24
- Cucumber garnish: 10 grams at €2.50/kg = €0.03
- Skewer: €0.02
Total cost price: €1.44 per piece
Those "hidden" ingredients add up fast. Grilling oil and marinade spices cost real money—track them.
Calculate the satay sauce cost price separately
Satay sauce gets made in big batches, which makes portion costing tricky. You need to break down exactly what 30 grams costs, ingredient by ingredient.
💡 Satay sauce cost price (for 1 kg):
- Peanuts: 400g at €6.00/kg = €2.40
- Coconut milk: 200ml at €4.00/liter = €0.80
- Sweet soy sauce: 100ml at €8.00/liter = €0.80
- Sambal, garlic, onion: €0.50
- Broth, sugar, oil: €0.50
Total for 1 kg sauce: €5.00
Per 30 gram portion: €0.15
Based on real restaurant P&L data, sauce miscalculations are profit killers. Serve 200 satays weekly with a €0.10 error? That's €1,040 lost annually.
Account for trimming loss and preparation
Raw chicken doesn't equal cooked chicken. Fat gets trimmed, moisture evaporates during grilling, and weight disappears.
⚠️ Important:
Chicken loses 15-20% weight during prep and cooking. Using 80 grams raw yields roughly 65 grams cooked. Always calculate using raw weight for accurate costing.
Standard trimming loss for chicken fillet runs 5-8%. Buy fillet at €12.50/kg with 7% loss? Your real cost jumps to:
Actual price = €12.50 / 0.93 = €13.44/kg
Calculate the food cost percentage
Now you've got your true cost price. Time to see if this dish actually makes money by dividing cost by selling price (minus VAT).
💡 Food cost calculation:
Cost price: €1.44 per piece
Selling price: €4.50 incl. 9% VAT = €4.13 excl. VAT
Food cost: (€1.44 / €4.13) × 100 = 34.9%
For satay, aim for 30-35% food cost. Hit 35%+ and you're barely breaking even on this dish.
Optimize your satay cost price
High food cost doesn't mean you're stuck. Several moves can fix your margins without sacrificing quality.
- Smarter purchasing: Hunt down cheaper suppliers or bulk-buy for better rates
- Portion tweaks: Drop from 80g to 75g chicken saves €0.06 per piece
- Sauce control: Cut sauce from 30g to 25g saves €0.04 per piece
- Price adjustment: Add €0.50 to menu price drops food cost to 29%
Small changes create big wins. With 200 weekly satays, saving €0.10 per piece puts €1,040 back in your pocket yearly.
How do you calculate the cost price of chicken satay? (step by step)
List all ingredients with exact quantities
Note chicken (80g), marinade, satay sauce (30g), garnish and skewer. Look up the purchase prices per kilo or liter for all these ingredients.
Calculate the cost price per ingredient
Multiply the weight per portion by the price per kilo. For example: 80 grams chicken × €12.50/kg ÷ 1000 = €1.00 per portion.
Add up all costs for the total cost price
Sum chicken + marinade + satay sauce + garnish + skewer. This is your cost price per piece excluding trimming loss and preparation.
Account for trimming loss and preparation
Increase your cost price by 5-8% for chicken trimming loss. Divide the final cost price by your selling price excl. VAT for your food cost percentage.
✨ Pro tip
Weigh 10 sauce portions this week to check consistency. Most kitchens accidentally serve 40-50 grams instead of 30, which kills €0.08 profit per satay.
Calculate this yourself?
In the KitchenNmbrs app you can do this in just a few clicks. 7 days free, no credit card.
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Frequently asked questions
Should I include the marinade in the cost price?
Absolutely. Every ingredient touching your dish counts toward food cost. Soy sauce, oil, and marinade spices all chip away at your margins.
How much satay sauce should I calculate per piece?
Most kitchens use 25-35 grams per satay. Measure your actual portions several times—chefs vary wildly in how much they ladle out.
What if I buy ready-made satay sauce?
Use the purchase price per kilo directly in your calculations. Homemade usually costs less but eats up labor time. Factor that trade-off into your decision.
How often should I update my satay cost price?
Check chicken prices monthly minimum. Meat prices swing more than other ingredients, so your costs can shift fast without warning.
Is 35% food cost for satay acceptable?
That's pushing it. Target under 33% since satay's often a crowd favorite—you want strong margins on popular items.
Should I include grill energy in the cost price?
Energy typically falls under overhead, not food cost. Focus on ingredient costs first—they move the needle most on your bottom line.
📚 Sources consulted
- EU Verordening 852/2004 — Levensmiddelenhygiëne (2004) — Official source
- EU Verordening 853/2004 — Hygiënevoorschriften voor levensmiddelen van dierlijke oorsprong (2004) — Official source
- EU Verordening 1169/2011 — Voedselinformatie aan consumenten (2011) — Official source
- NVWA — Hygiënecode voor de horeca (2024) — Official source
- NVWA — Allergenen in voedsel (2024) — Official source
- Codex Alimentarius — International Food Standards (2024) — Official source
- FSA — Safer food, better business (HACCP) (2024) — Official source
- BVL — Lebensmittelhygiene (HACCP) (2024) — Official source
- Warenwetbesluit Bereiding en behandeling van levensmiddelen (2024) — Official source
- WHO — Foodborne diseases estimates (2024) — Official source
Food Standards Agency (FSA) — https://www.food.gov.uk
The HACCP standards shown in this application are for informational purposes only. KitchenNmbrs does not guarantee that displayed values are current or complete. Always consult the FSA or your local authority for the latest regulations.
Written by
Jeffrey Smit
Founder & CEO of KitchenNmbrs
Jeffrey Smit built KitchenNmbrs from 8 years of hands-on experience as kitchen manager at 1NUL8 Group in Rotterdam. His mission: give every restaurant owner control over food cost.
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