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It was already on my list to make, but somehow it got a bit delayed: Soto Ayam. I’ve eaten this Indonesian chicken soup many many times during my travels in Indonesia. Traditionally, the chicken soup is eaten for breakfast or lunch. When I told my Indonesian friends that I was going to make Soto Ayam for dinner, they thought it was weird. Soto Ayam for dinner ?! Well, we give it a bit of a Dutch twist, don’t we?

If you eat Soto Ayam in a local warung (eatery), there’s a lot served with it that makes it so delicious. Traditional Soto Ayam is served with lontong. These blocks of pressed cooked rice make the soup extra filling. But bean sprouts, spring onions, parsley, fried onions and sambal are also often included. There are also always plates with lime wedges and prawn crackers.

It seems like a enormous list of ingredients, but luckily the recipe is quite simple. Making the broth takes a few hours, but you don’t have to worry about this during cooking. So it’s simple and delicious!

Soto Ayam Indonesisch recept

Soto Ayam Recipe

Ingredients (for 4 persons)

Broth

  • 1 whole chicken
  • 1.5 – 2 l of water
  • 2 garlic cloves (peeled and halved)
  • 50 grams of ginger (peeled and cut)
  • 3 stems of lemongrass (bruised)
  • 5 lime leaves (djeruk purut)
  • 5 Indonesian bay leaf (daun salam)
  • 0.5 – 1 stock cube

Spice mix

  • 3 candlenuts
  • 2 onions
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 20 grams of ginger
  • 20 grams galangal
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 1 tsp coriander powder
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp shrimp paste (trassi)

Garnish

  • eggs (boiled, 1 per person)
  • lontong (pressed boiled rice cubes)
  • bean sprouts
  • spring onion
  • parsley
  • fried onions
  • lime
  • sambal
  • prawn crackers

Instructions

Put the chicken in a pan and add about 1.5 to 2 liters of water until the chicken is covered. Add the rest of the ingredients for the stock and bring to a boil. Let this boil on low heat for at least a few hours with the lid on the pan.

Then make the spice mix by grinding all the ingredients for the spice mix in a blender or chopping everything finely. Fry this in a frying pan with some oil until you can smell the spices, but don’t fry brown.

When the chicken is cooked, you can remove it from the stock and pull it apart with a fork to make strings. Fry the chicken in a layer of oil over high heat until brown.

Then add the fried spice mix to the broth along with chicken strings. Cook for a while and then spoon into small bowls.

Finally garnish each dish with a boiled egg, lontong, bean sprouts, sliced spring onions, some parsley, fried onions, a wedge of lime and a spoonful of sambal to taste. Serve with some prawn crackers on the side.