Soto Ayam

- Indonesian Chicken Soup -

Indonesian chicken soup is absolutely delicious. Not to be confused with Soto Betawi (Batavian beef or chicken soup with coconut milk), Soto Ayam is a clear chicken soup with rice noodles and all sorts of delicious toppings. When you make Indonesian soups, rather than combining everything during cooking and having minimal prep work before serving, Indonesian soups beg you to prepare their various mix-ins separately and add them into the broth just before serving. This makes for a slightly more involved preparation, but also a pretty impressive end product - definitely something you could serve for company.

If you're making this for company, you can even just prepare all the ingredients and have your guests assemble their soup bowls themselves either at the table or at the counter beforehand (like tacos or wraps).

- Soto Ayam -

Ingredients for the chicken stock:

• 1 full chicken, cut into 6-8 pieces (or 4 wings and 4 drumsticks)
• 2 liter water
  
  The spice paste:
• 2 inches galangal (lengkuas)
• 2 inches ginger (jahe)
• 2 inches turmeric (kunyit)
• 1 tsp finely ground black pepper
• 50 g or 15 medium-spicy long red chilis (cabe merah)
• 1 onion or 10 shallots (bawang merah)
• 10 cloves garlic (bawang putih)
• 1 tbsp coriander 
• 5 candle nuts (kemiri)
  
  Non-blended Herbs:
• 7-10 kaffir lime leaves (daun jeruk)
• 4 stalks lemongrass, bruised (daun serai)

Ingredients for the toppings:

• Oil to deep-fry the chicken and kerupuk 
• 2 medium potatoes, peeled, diced and deep fried
• 3 stalks celery, chopped and blanched
• 3 portions rice vermicelli noodles, boiled
• The cooked chicken from before (which will need to be fried and shredded)
• 100 g been sprouts, blanched
• 3 hard boiled eggs, peeled and either halved or quartered
• shrimp crackers (kerupuk ikan or kerupuk udang), deep fried (or you can buy the ready-made ones)
• 1 bunch fresh spring onions, roughly chopped
• 4 key limes (jeruk nipis), halved
• Sambal for Soto Ayam (linked recipe) 

Directions for the stock (this can be done the day before):

1. First make the spice paste: Wash and peel the spices and chilis. Add some water and blend to a smooth puree in a magic bullet or small blender
2. Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a large pot over medium-low heat. Add the spice blend and cook until fragrant. Add the lime leaves and lemongrass and cook a few minutes more.
3. Add the chicken, potatoes and celery, and cook until no longer pink.
4. Cover with water, bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for appx 30 minutes, until chicken is fully cooked and the broth is fragrant. 
5. Season to taste with salt
6. Remove the chicken onto a plate
7. Remove the leaves and strain the broth. Set aside while you prepare the toppings.
8. Prepare the candle nut garlic sambal according to the LINKED RECIPE

Directions for the full preparation:

1. If you have not yet prepared the sambal, do so now
2. Once you have removed the chicken from the broth, deep fry it in oil, piece by piece, and then shred it with two forks
3. If you are using uncooked kerupuk (shrimp crackers), fry them according to the directions on the package
4. Prepare all the other toppings as directed in the ingredients list (some need to be blanched, some are served fresh, potato cubes are deep fried)
   
   Gather your bowls and assemble the soup:
5. Take a bowl, throw in a few pieces of fried potato, blanched celery, some cooked rice vermicelli noodles, shredded chicken, and blanched bean sprouts
6. Ladle some hot broth over all of this
7. Once the broth is in there, garnish the bowl with half of a boiled egg, a few shrimp crackers, a pinch of spring onions, half a key lime (for them to squeeze in), and a spoonful of warm sambal
8. Serve immediately!

Enjoy!