Soto Ayam is my favorite Indonesian dish. It is a classic, traditional chicken soup that you eat with boiled egg, rice, longtong, or potato. It's always made with a lot of love, depending on how much time you want to spend in the kitchen ;). But do not worry, with some lifehacks, you can speed up the process, but will result in a loss of flavor. This soup is so nice, you should make enough so you can eat it twice store it in the freezer so you have a nice meal later. Plus, it saves you a lot of time as you don't have to make the broth later from scratch. Win-win! Always make more! We need more Soto Ayam in our lives. After this post, and if you attempt to make it, I bet you feel the same way.
What is it?
The soup is rich in protein, vitamins, and minerals. Depending on what part of the chicken you use, it can also be pretty low in fat. Here's what you need to know about the parts of the chicken. If you don't want to spend -a lot- of time in the kitchen, go for a chicken breast filet. These are already skinless, so, pulling off the meat later is so much easier. If you want a more traditional way of making it, go for chicken drumsticks, or if you want to go nuts (like I did today), go for chicken wings, and if you live in Indonesia, you might use a whole chicken! The parts of the chicken that you use with bone, increase the flavor of the soup. Also, the bones can be used later on to make a super healthy chicken bone broth. I'll be making this chicken bone broth on the side while making my Soto Ayam.
How do you make it?
You need to know, that the Indonesian kitchen mostly consists of a lot of "small" dishes, making one big dish. For example, Nasi Goreng means 'baked rice', and Nasi just refers to a white rice dish. To make Nasi Goreng, you would first need to make Nasi, and usually, a 1-day-old Nasi is the best way to make Nasi Goreng. Which means... you can eat Nasi on day 1, and the following day you can make Nasi Goreng from the leftover Nasi.
The same goes for Soto Ayam. You make a broth, a paste, and a side dish. While this is a complex dish, it is pretty easy to make if you follow the steps and made it before. The timer is about 1-2 hours of being active in the kitchen, followed by some stirring, flipping, and so on for a couple of more hours.
I am currently making this as I write this blog post about Soto Ayam, I thought it would be nice to share a dish you can't resist. It was kind of last minute because lackofcolor most probably caught the flu or something. I couldn't think of a better soup to make her feel better after a bowl or two. This morning, I left the house to do some groceries for the soup. All I needed was garlic, lemon, and 1KG of chicken.
List of Ingredients
Don't ask me for how many people to cook. I'm a big eater, and I misjudge "portions" quite often. 2 liters of soup, is a 1-person dish (for me gheghe).
- Just the chicken + clean broth:
- Chicken, 500 grams - 1KG should be sufficient
- Salt
- Pepper
- The marinade + Soto Ayam
- 1 shallot
- 5 cloves of garlic
- Koriander powder
- Tumeric powder
- Fresh ginger, 3cm
- Ginger powder
- Olive oil, coconut oil, anything but sunflower oil
- Coconut milk, or Santen
- Black Pepper
- Lemongrass
- Lime leaves
- Bay leaves
There is a "rare" nut that you need to add, but these are hard to get, so I left them out. I don't have dees nuts, but maybe you do. Check if you can find candlenuts or replace them with macadamia nuts. I'm all out on both, so I might want to improvise with Cashew (forgive me). It does feel like using Conimex pre-made marinade, that is just ultra disgusting and disrespectful. Yeah... I know a lot of Dutchies who go wild on Conimex until I let them taste ABC ketjap manis. A WHOLE NEW WORLD -thank me later-! Manis means sweet, it certainly does not mean "thick salty ocean water", Conimex... sigh... amateurs. Anyway... Candlenuts or Macadamia Nuts (not from Conimex)!
Gimme the whole course!
Wait a minute... this can never be enough to stuff your tummy. We need side dishes! Do you want side dishes? I'll give you some side dishes! An important note of the Indonesian Kitchen is that you always focus on "one" or "two" main dishes. But any side dishes should never be altering the flavors of the main dish. Boiled eggs can be made in so many different ways as well (lol :D), so you want to keep everything as natural and clean as possible.
- All the side dishes that you can add;
- Longtong or;
- Rice or;
- Potato
- Boiled eggs 1 p.p.
- Rice vermicelli
- Taugé
- Freshly squeezed Lemon juice
- Fresh coriander
- Fried onion
- Kerupuk
All of the side dishes are optional, but at least have a boiled egg, vermicelli, and rice to them. That is the bare minimum that you should add when it comes down to Soto Ayam. If you want to go all-in, add all of them, except choose between rice or longtong. I often had it with both rice and potato, which was pretty delicious.
| **Disclaimer;** Keep in mind, that _every_ Indonesian household cooks differently. Cooking is all about being part of the entire process, taking care of a proper and healthy meal. This includes that you'll have to taste, adjust, and taste again during the whole process. Of course, don't be greedy and taste too much, you'll be stuffed before you're eating dinner. I'll be sharing how I will be making Soto Ayam, but be aware that there are so many other versions that taste differently, and use slightly different herbs. |
Let the cooking begin!
Step 1: Fry the chicken (10/15 minutes)
- Get a big pot that can contain all of the soup and its ingredients
- Add a bit of olive oil to the pan (zero water), and sprinkle the oil with salt and pepper, be generous, but not too generous. This salt is going to infuse the oil, which then will season the chicken, so it will unleash more flavor into the pot
- Put all of the chicken in the pot. Start with frying up the chicken until they turn slightly golden-brownish
- Once all of the chicken (almost) turned golden brown, start boiling 1 liter of water in a kettle
- Add all the water and drown all of the chickens (don't worry, you won't hurt them, they're already dead).
- Bring the pot to a simmer, and make sure it doesn't boil heavily.
Step 2: Make the marinade (5/10 minutes)
While the broth is simmering, it's time to make the marinade! I'll be making 1.5 liters +/- of soup, so the marinade will be for 1.5 liters of soup. If you use 2 liters or more, just adjust accordingly.
Rule of thumbs here:
- 1 liter of soup = 1 tsp of coriander, 1 shallot, 3 cloves of garlic, 2 cm of fresh ginger
- for every 1 tsp of coriander = 1/3rd or 1/2th of Tumeric
For 1.5 liters of soup:
- 1,5 shallot
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 1 + 1/2 tsp Coriander powder
- 1/2 Tumeric powder
- Fresh ginger, 3cm
- 1 tsp ginger powder
- 1/2 grinded Black Pepper
- 3 tsp Olive oil, coconut oil, or anything but sunflower oil
- 4 tbsp of Coconut milk
Set aside: - 1 Lemongrass, chopped in 3 pieces (make incisions)
- 3 Lime leaves
- 1 or 2 Bay leaves
Set aside the whole marinade for now.
Step 3: Skim, sailor! SKIM! (5/15 minutes)
This process kind of depends on what chicken you used. From this point on, here is where you want to check how much time you want to spend in the kitchen. If you use boneless chicken filets, you'd be done in a few minutes. But every piece of chicken on a bone is taking at least 1 or 2 minutes.
- Skim the broth with the chicken in the pot, remove any floating foam, and small chicken parts
That's it. This is super important. I know a lot of people don't do this, I was one of them. But if you have the time to do it, do it. If you don't have time, don't do it. This phase is the make or break of your soup. If you know how to make Udon Noodle soup from scratch, you'll know that this right here is liquid gold. Plus, you do not want to eat stuff that isn't supposed to be there. All we're looking for is water + liquid fat + flesh. Remove the rest.
Once you're done, remove the chicken from the broth, and wash it.
- Skim the broth without chicken in the broth, and remove anything that floats.
Step 4: Peel and throwback thursday chicken (10/30 minutes)
Again, if you've been using boneless chicken, you'd be done pretty fast. The chicken with bone is going to be the most time-consuming part of making the entire soup, but it is going to be worth it!
Chicken with bone:
- Peel the skin of the flesh
- Strip the flesh of the bone into small bits, and dump them back into the broth
- Put the bones and fat aside
Chicken filets:
Strip the flesh of the chicken into small pieces and dump them back in the broth
At this point, and only if you have skimmed well enough, you should start seeing your broth transform into a cloudy clean one. This is the ultimate chicken broth you'll ever make. At this point, you could store the chicken broth in your freezer, but this is the basis of many chicken soups.Bring the broth with the chicken to a simmer; AND SKIM TO PERFECTION!
And now things will start to get crazy! Hopefully, you didn't forget that you'll be making the BEST CHICKEN SOUP ever, so on the double recruit!
| PS: If you want to make the ultra-next-level-best-chicken-bone-broth, start boiling up the bones with fat in a pot on the side. Bring back to a simmer and let it simmer for 12-24 hours. NEXT LEVEL. |
Step 5: Add the magic (5 minutes)
Now is a good time to double-check your work environment. Clean a bit. O, you already cleaned something? Ok... I guess you're the more organized chef than I am. My kitchen is a mess... fml.
It's time to add some magic to your soup. You can start by adding lemongrass, lime leaves, and bay leaves. Remember the marinade you made in Step 2? Before you throw it all in, make sure nothing is floating on top of your chicken broth. This is the last time you'll be able to see that golden cloudy chicken broth.
Once you're in, you're in. Do you understand? Ok?
- Throw in the magic marinade (as described in step 2)
- Stir, and bring back to a simmer for 10-15 minutes
- after 15 minutes, you can turn off the heat
Your Soto Ayam is ready!
But wait, there is more...
Yes... there is more to do... the side dishes! Don't look at me, you wanted side dishes! Ok, so did I... Soto Ayam isn't Soto Ayam without white rice, rice vermicelli, fried onion, a boiled egg, and lemon juice! But of course, there's something more that you can add to the chicken soup.
Side dishes
Choose between:
- White Rice
- Longtong
- Potatoes cut into small cubes
Add:
- 1 medium-boiled egg
Add to garnish:
- Rice vermicelli
- Fried onion
- Fresh Coriander
- Taugé
- Freshly squeezed lemon juice
- Kerupuk
Longtong
Tonight, we're going to eat Soto Ayam together with Longtong. This is rice that is in a tiny bag, that you need to boil for about 30 minutes. The rice in the bag will absorb all the water and will stretch out until it has no room anymore to expand. Because the bag is small, the rice will become one sticky mess, and after 30 minutes you'll have a package of rice. This part isn't that difficult, you only have to check if you have enough water in the pot. The package must be entirely underwater at all times. So, you might have to add some water along the way.
This is what it looks like before you start cooking:
This is how it looks when it's done:
Once it is done, the longtong must have enough time to cool off to the core. If your longtong is still hot when you want to serve it, you'll have a problem. This is how you can cool off your longtong; replace the warm water with cold water, and clean the package with cold water. After 5 minutes, you'll notice that the water has become warm again. Rinse, and repeat 1 or 2 more times. After that, put the longtong in the refrigerator, and let it sit for a few hours, or until you serve it.
When you serve it, cut it into cubes with a hot sharp knife. The knife should easily be cut through the plastic, and have no trouble cutting a thick slice of the longtong. Each slice should be around 2 or 3 cm, this depends on how you would like to eat it. Then cut the slice in 2 or 3 cm so you end up getting cubes.
Rice Vermicelli
Rice Vermicelli is super thin vermicelli, also made from rice. It is super easy to prepare. All you need is hot water, preferably cooked water. Just pour it over a nice chunk of the rice vermicelli, let it absorb the water, and rinse with clean cold water. That's it. You can add the Rice Vermicelli as a garnish on top of the soup.
You can prepare Taugé in the same way. Just make sure that you use hot boiling water.
What a feast! Enjoy!
And there you go... you have made the best chicken soup ever + side dishes! Hope this recipe isn't too overwhelming, but it is absolutely worth all the time that you put into this dish. I think I spend about 3-4 hours in the kitchen today, but I'll be eating this today, and I probably will either eat this tomorrow or put it in the freezer for later.
Soup is the first thing that's on my mind when I'm starting to feel like getting the flu, or something similar (and have to cook). It is so rich in flavor, minerals, and vitamins and has all the other good stuff that chicken soup gives you. This morning, I thought... oh, let's make a nice and good soup for lackofcolor, and write a quick recipe about Soto Ayam and publish it exclusively on Hive, but I had no idea I would end up with this much text. But, as I said; it is well worth it! And if you stuck through the end... thanks for reading!
If you're one of those kitchen heroes, and you decided to make this dish, please let me know if you liked it. If you already know Soto Ayam, please try this recipe as well, because Indonesian Dishes are more or less, always different. My grandparents and father are from Jakarta. My father has had his own catering business, and I've learned quite a lot from him. I don't cook exactly the same way as he does, but there are a few rules of thumb that always stuck with me.
Oh yeah... I know there are some Malaysian, or Indonesian people on Hive. As I'm 50% Indonesian myself, I'm pretty curious how you make an original Indonesian Soto Ayam!
Bon Apetit,
Ruben
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