Soto Ayam (Chicken Soup)
Soto is a traditional Indonesian soup composed of broth, meat and vegetables. Soto has been said to be Indonesia’s national dish, as it is omnipresent on all islands with a wide range of variations. Soto is available everywhere, from street corners, warungs, to fine dining restaurants and luxury hotels. Soto Ayam is the Indonesian version of chicken soup. It’s always served hot and the chicken is tender, it’s a true comfort food!
I enjoyed eating Soto Ayam on many of the islands that we visited. Whether it had vermicelli, was served with rice, had fried shallots on it or any of the numerous variations, it was always a comfort and a treat.
Serves 2 people
Ingredients
- 1 carrot
- 1 potato
- 1/2 white radish
- 100 gr chicken
- 1 tomato
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- 1/2 litre stock
- 2 shallot
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 cm ginger
- 2 cm galangal
- 1 lemongrass
- 1 fresh bay leaf
- 1 kaffir lime leaf
- 1/2 tbsp celery leaves
Instructions
- Cut the carrot, potato, tomato, and radish into cubes. Mince shallot, garlic, galangal, and turmeric.
- Heat oil in heavy soup pan.
- Sauté the chicken, shallot, garlic, galangal, ginger, turmeric, tomato, lemongrass, bay leaves, and the kaffir lime leaves.
- Add the stock and simmer for 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Substitutions
- Shallots - 1/2 medium onion & 1/2 extra garlic clove
- Galangal - equal amounts of ginger. However finding powdered galangal would be a better alternative seeing as there is already ginger in the recipe.
- Lemongrass - grated ginger and lemon zest. However, since there is already a large call for ginger in this recipe, adding some lemon zest can’t hurt.
- Kaffir Lime Leaf - 1/2 a small bay leaf. 1/4 tsp of lime zest