Kitchen: Soto Ayam

Soto is one of Indonesian version of soup with spiced chicken or beef broth. It is normally served with hard boiled egg, rice, thin vermicelli noodle, fried shallot, chopped celery leaves, lime and sambal. There are many version of Indonesian soto, it depends on the place of origin. The differences normally can be seen through the type of broth, coconut milk broth or clear broth, as well as the type of meat which can be chicken, beef as well as offal.

I believe that there are more than 10 type of Indonesian soto. Those are including Soto Betawi with beef and coconut milk based broth, Soto Lamongan, Soto Kudus, Soto Mie Bogor, Soto Sulung Surabaya and also Soto Banjar. And today, I would like to share the recipe of Soto Ayam Yogya.

Ingredients: 

1. 2 stalks of fresh lemon grass – crush
2. 6 pieces of kefir lime leaves
3. 3 pieces of bay leaves
4. 5 pieces of candlenut (kemiri)
5. 5 pieces of garlic
6. 6 pieces of shallot
7. 5 cm of turmeric
8. 5 cm of  ginger (crush)
9. 5 cm of galangal (crush)
10. 1 tsp of  ground black pepper
11. 1 tsp of coriander seeds
12. 2 tbs of salt
13. 1 tbs of sugar
14. 1 chicken breast with bone
15. 1 thin vermicelli noodle
16. 1 cup of chopped celery celery
17. 1.5 L of water
18. 3 pieces of hard boiled egg
19. 2 cup of bean sprout
20. 2 cup of chopped white cabbage
21. 1 lime  (slice it)
22. 2 tomato (slice it)
23. Chopped chilli

Steps

1. Place chicken in a saucepan. Add water, lemon grass, kefir lime leave, bay leaves, galangal and coriander seed.  Boil the chicken over medium-high heat. Reduce to medium-low heat. Cover and simmer it for 15 minutes;
2. Place turmeric, ginger, shallot, garlic and candle nut into food processor and pulse them into thick paste;
3. Add spiced paste, salt, sugar and ground black pepper into the boiled chicken and continue to boil it for 20 minutes. Remove the chicken and shred it;
4. Steam the bean sprout and white cabbage;
5. Soak the vermicelli noodle into hot water for 5 minutes. Drain and pat it dry

How Serve Soto Ayam

1. Place vermicelli noodle into a bowl. Add shredded chicken, bean sprout, white cabbage and slice tomato;
2. Add filtered spiced chicken broth into the bowl;
3. Add sliced hard boiled egg, chopped celery and fried shallot as topping;
4. Serve it with chopped chili and lime.