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Soto Ayam

A flavorful herbal chicken soup from Indonesia topped with lots of delicious toppings, also popular in Malaysia and Singapore.
Print Recipe
Prep Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 2 hours
Course Main Course
Cuisine Indonesian
Servings 10

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

  1. 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.
  2. If store-bought compressed rice cakes are not available, blanch a packet of rice vermicelli (bee hoon) in boiling water for 1 minute.
  3. 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.
Keyword raya