Soto means soup. This soto is made with chicken. Soto Ayam is a chicken soup that should be on the list of ‘comfort food.’ I have seen people eat this soup for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I myself make this soup every time I feel a cold coming up and I have the sniffles. The aroma of the soup and the softness of the chicken is what you get addicted on. Serve the dish with rice and eggs and kerupuk (kroepoek), another Indonesian comfort food.
The basis of this soup is the broth made with lemon and organic chicken. The important part of preparing the soup is making the bumbu. Bumbu is a a mixture of spices and herbs used in the Indonesian kitchen. Often onions and garlic are added, then smashed and rubbed into a spice paste. This is then added to the soup. Boemboes are usually made with an oelekan, a mortar.
My mother, my aunt, my grandma, they all made soto and I loved my mom’s recipe the most. After many travels to Indonesia and especially Java, I’ve created my own soto recipe. I hope you’ll enjoy it.
Javanese Soto Ayam
Ingredients
- 4 or 5 large chicken thigh meat
- 2 lemon slices
- 2 onions sliced
- 2 cloves of garlic minced
- 1 tsp galangal (laos) powder
- 1 tsp ginger powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp tumeric (curcuma) powder
- 1 tsp shrimp paste (terasi) small cube smashed
- 4 candlenuts (kemiri)
- 1½ spanish peppers sliced
- 1 stalk lemon grass (sereh)
- 2 tsbp coconut oil
- 3 lemon lime leaves
- 1 bouillon cube
- ⅓ cup soya sauce (kecap)
- 1 cup bean sprouts soak in hot water and drain
- 1 cup snowpeas raw
- 2 large potatoes diced and boiled
- 4 eggs hard boiled
- 1 tbsp celery leaves sliced fine
- 1 cup cabbage sliced
- 1 small bag ready made fried onions
Instructions
- Create the soup seasoning (bumbu)first. Mix the onions, garlic, galangal, ginger, tumeric, coriander, terasi, kemiri and peppers. If you want you can use and oelekan or a blender.
- Saute the bumbu in the coconut oil for 5 minutes. Add 10 cups of boiled water. Add the chicken thighs, the lemongrass and the lemon lime leaves and cook the soup on low heat for 60 minutes. Add the bouillon cube.
- Take the chicken out of the soup and debone the thighs. Put the deboned chicken back in the soup. Stir and add soya sauce and 1 or 2 teaspoons of salt. Taste the soup.
- Finish the soup by adding the cabbage. Make white rice to serve on the side.
- How to serve: put the snow peas, bean sprouts, potatoes, boiled eggs, celery leaves and fried onions all in separate bowls. In a large soup bowl, add all these ingredients and pour the soup over it. Add a squeeze of lemon and serve with rice.
Notes
What is kroepoek
Kroepoek is an Indonesian snack made from starch, flavoring and shrimps or melinjo nuts. It is deep fried and usually eaten as a side dish of a meal or as a snack. Kroepoek udang is made with shrimps and kroepoek emping is made form melinjo nuts. There are other flavors too such as garlic kroepoek or kroepoek made with tempeh. Warning: this snack can be addicting.
