It’s been quite a while since I had a good bowl of soto ayam. It’s the end of the year and the weather has been quite wet and gloomy. Having a steaming hot bowl of herbal chicken soup and all the fixings would surely hit the spot. The few I ordered recently from different restaurants on Grab weren’t too inspiring, so I decided to make it myself.
Soto ayam can be as simple or as fancy as you want it to be. While soto ayam is featured on the menu during Eid celebrations, it is also a pretty popular breakfast item in Malaysia. The most basic components are the chicken, carb (rice or noodles), and the broth. Everything else pretty much depends on the time and effort you are willing to spend on it. After some searching, I chose a pretty simple recipe by Che Nom as my starting point, with a few modifications to suit my preferences.
For my version here, I used store-bought compressed rice cakes as my carb of choice, and I boiled them in my pressure cooker to save time. For the toppings, I air-fried the ground nuts, and fried my homemade bergedil and the glass noodles. Thankfully I found a jar of good-quality fried shallots at the store, so I saved myself a lot of time and effort there.
Jump to RecipeSome prep I did
Compressed rice cakes should be cooled when cut, so it’s better to prepare this ahead of time. I added 3 (130-gram) uncooked rice cake pouches and 2 liters of water to my pressure cooker pot. Per the package instructions I was supposed to boil for 1 to 1 ½ hours, so in the pressure cooker that should take 20 to 30 minutes. Once done, I removed the rice cakes from the pot and drained them on a wire rack. I then transferred them to the fridge uncovered to let cool.
For the ground nuts, I briefly rinsed them under running tap water, then drained in a colander. I then spread the nuts in my air fryer basket in a single layer, and air fried at 160 degrees C for 8 minutes. After giving the basket a quick shake, I continued air frying for another 7 minutes, for a total cook time of 15 minutes. I let the nuts cool in a large tray before storing in an airtight jar. I find this method to be a lot healthier and so much more convenient.
Since I was already frying the soy sauce sambal ingredients, I use the same frying oil to flash fry some glass noodles (a handful should be more than enough) and some of my homemade bergedil.
I also blanched about a cup of bean sprouts in boiling hot water for 1 minute.
Step by step
The sambal
Make the soy sauce sambal. In a skillet over medium high heat, heat the oil.
Add the red chilli, Thai chillies, garlic and red onion and cook, stirring, until soft and golden. Remove all the ingredients from the skillet, and reserve the oil.
In a small blender jar, add the fried ingredients and sweet soy sauce. Pulse several times into a slightly chunky paste.
Squeeze the calamansi juice into the mixture, and stir to combine. Set aside for serving.
The soto ayam
Make the soup. In your blender jar, add the red onions, shallots, garlic, lemongrass, ginger, turmeric, and candlenuts. Add enough water to about half of the level of ingredients, and blitz into a fine paste.
Set a large pot over medium high heat. When the pot is hot, add the chicken. Let cook undisturbed, until browned on each side, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Remove chicken from the pot.
In the same pot, heat the reserved oil. Add the cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, and star anise. Cook, stirring, until spices are nicely toasted an fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes.
Add the blended ingredients and cook, stirring, until all the liquid has evaporated.
Add the soup spice and korma spice powders, and stir to combine.
Add ½ cup water and cook, stirring, until all the liquid has evaporated and the oil separates. Repeat this step twice more.
Return the chicken to the pot, and add the celery leaf stalks, kaffir lime leaves, and chicken stock cube. Stir to combine.
Add the water, and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer and cook, covered, 20 minutes.
Season with the ground white pepper, salt, and seasoning powder. Adjust to taste.
Remove the chicken from the pot, and shred the meat into fine strips. Discard the bones.
Serve the soto. In individual bowls, add single servings of the compressed rice cakes, chicken, and bean sprouts. Ladle some of the soup over the ingredients. Top with the fried glass noodles, fried ground nuts, fried shallots, bergedil, calamansi or lime wedge, and a teaspoon of the soy sauce sambal. Enjoy!
Soto Ayam
Ingredients
For the soy sauce sambal
- ⅓ cup cooking oil
- 1 red chilli
- 4 red Thai chili
- 2 cloves garlic
- ¼ red onion
- ¼ cup sweet soy sauce
- ½ calamansi
For the soup
- 1 red onion roughly chopped
- 3 shallots roughly chopped
- 2 cloves garlic roughly chopped
- 2 stalks lemongrass roughly chopped
- 2 inches ginger roughly chopped
- 1 inch fresh turmeric roughly chopped
- 5 candlenuts roughly chopped
- ½ chicken quartered, including backbone
- 7 cloves
- 5 cardamom pods
- 1 stick cinnamon
- 1 star anise
- 2 tablespoons soup spice mix see note 1
- 2 tablespoons korma spice mix
- 1 bunch celery leaves stalks and leaves separated, stalks cut into 2-inch pieces, leaves finely chopped
- 1 chicken stock cube
- 5 kaffir lime leaves midrib removed
- 8 cups water
- ½ tablespoon pepper powder
- 1½ teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon Cukup Rasa seasoning OR your favorite all-in-one seasoning powder
For serving
- Compressed rice cakes see note 2
- Bergedil see note 3
- Fried glass noodles (soh hoon)
- Fried ground nuts
- Calamansi halves OR lime wedges
- Blanched bean sprouts
Instructions
- Make the soy sauce sambal. In a skillet over medium high heat, heat the oil.
- Add the red chilli, Thai chillies, garlic and red onion and cook, stirring, until soft and golden. Remove all the ingredients from the skillet, and reserve the oil.
- In a small blender jar, add the fried ingredients and sweet soy sauce. Pulse several times into a slightly chunky paste.
- Squeeze the calamansi juice into the mixture, and stir to combine. Set aside for serving.
- Make the soup. In your blender jar, add the red onions, shallots, garlic, lemongrass, ginger, turmeric, and candlenuts. Add enough water to about half of the level of ingredients, and blitz into a fine paste.
- Set a large pot over medium high heat. When the pot is hot, add the chicken. Let cook undisturbed, until browned on each side, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Remove chicken from the pot.
- In the same pot, heat the reserved oil. Add the cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, and star anise. Cook, stirring, until spices are nicely toasted an fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes.
- Add the blended ingredients and cook, stirring, until all the liquid has evaporated.
- Add the soup spice and korma spice powders, and stir to combine.
- Add ½ cup water and cook, stirring, until all the liquid has evaporated and the oil separates. Repeat this step twice more.
- Return the chicken to the pot, and add the celery leaf stalks, kaffir lime leaves, and chicken stock cube. Stir to combine.
- Add the water, and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer and cook, covered, 20 minutes.
- Season with the ground white pepper, salt, and seasoning powder. Adjust to taste.
- Remove the chicken from the pot, and shred the meat into fine strips. Discard the bones.
- Serve the soto. In individual bowls, add single servings of the compressed rice cakes, chicken, and bean sprouts. Ladle some of the soup over the ingredients. Top with the fried glass noodles, fried ground nuts, fried shallots, bergedil, calamansi or lime wedge, and a teaspoon of the soy sauce sambal.
Notes
- This soup spice mix is easily found at stores in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. If this is unavailable where you live, try making it yourself. Many different people may have their own family recipes, here’s one recipe you can try.
- If store-bought compressed rice cakes are not available, blanch a packet of rice vermicelli (bee hoon) in boiling water for 1 minute.
- You can skip the bergedil if you don’t have the time, but they are such a good addition to soto. Check out my recipe for homemade bergedil here.
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