Soto Ayam

Javanese style Chicken soup or in Indonesia, we called Soto is a soupy dish and very popular in the country. Its given extra substance by noodles, Lontong (compressed rice) or potato croquettes (Perkedel). Yet, if liked, the croquettes can be substituted with crisps potatoes and you can serve it with plain rice. Most soto dishes originate from Java. You can find it easily in warung or restaurants in town. Some towns has its speciality for Soto. The famous one is Soto Kudus from Kudus, a small town in Central of Java. This recipe is my family’s favourite for lunch and dinner. We have it almost every week.

Category : Poultry

Difficulty : Medium

Cooking time : 45 – 60 minutes

INGREDIENTS

– Half of chicken or 2 thighs of chicken meat

– 2 cm Galangal (Laos/Lengkuas) or 1 tsp of Galangal powder

– 1 Lemon Grass (Sereh/Serai), chopped or 2 tsp of Lemon grass powder

– salt to taste or 1 block/cube chicken seasoning mixture/chicken bouillon (Maggi or Knorr block)

– pepper to taste

– 3 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced and fried to give more taste

– 2 Celery leafs, sliced

– 1 Spring onion, finally chopped (optional)

– 5 cups water

Spice Paste :

– 3 Shallots

– 4 cloves of Garlic

– 1 cm of fresh Ginger

– 2 teaspoons of Turmeric powder

– 5 candlenuts (Kemiri), or substitute with 6 Almonds

Additional Ingredients

– 2 boiled eggs, peeled and quartered

– 2 potatoes, thinly sliced and fried to make crisps potatoes

– cooked bean thread noodles/glass noodles (optional)

– Fresh shredded cabbage

– Fried shallots

– Sambal (chilli sauce)

– Lime

– Poyah *

DIRECTIONS

1. Simmer chicken in water until tender.

2. Heat 1 Tbs. vegetable oil in a wok with medium heat; stir fry the paste, lemongrass, galangal and pepper for a minute or two until fragrant then transfer into chicken stock. Add salt or chicken bouillion.

3.  Cook and covered over medium heat for 30 minutes. 5 minutes before cooked, Take the chicken out and let it cool off.  Then add spring onion, chopped celery leaves and the fried garlic (crushed it into small pieces) into the soup. Remove from the heat.

4. Fry the chicken for few minutes to make it a bit crunchy. When it’s cool off, remove the meat from its bones and thinly slice it into bite-size pieces and discard the bones.

5. To serve, you can do in 2 ways, either :

i. put the Soto into individual soup bowls. Add some of the shredded chicken and eggs, top with crisps potatoes and garnish with poyah and fried shallots. Eat it with plain rice (nasi putih). Serve with sambal soto if you like it spicy.

ii. Prepare plain rice (nasi putih) in plate, then chicken, cabbage or soya bean (if you like), crisps potatoes and eggs. Then pour with hot chicken broth from soto and squeeze it with lime juice. And top add poyah and fried shallots.

* poyah is a powder made from shrimp cracker (krupuk udang), blend together with fried garlic and a pinch of salt. You can make it by yourself.