Soto Ayam: Indonesian Golden Chicken Soup with Turmeric and Lemongrass

The Yellow Steam That Changes an Ordinary Chicken Soup

The smell of chicken simmering is familiar in many kitchens. But add turmeric, crushed lemongrass, and makrut lime leaves, and the direction of the steam changes at once. The aroma rising over the pot brings not only the warmth of ginger but also the green scent of citrus and an earthy yellow. Soto ayam is a dish like this: "a chicken soup that is not the chicken soup you know."

Soto ayam is Indonesia's yellow chicken soup. Ayam means chicken, and soto means a soup with ingredients in it; it is eaten with white rice, glass noodles, boiled egg, bean sprouts, fried shallots, sambal, and lime. It sits well beside a fragrant rice like nasi uduk, and next to a sweet-and-salty grilled dish such as sate ayam it lightens the table.

The hard part when making it outside Indonesia is the number of ingredient names. Turmeric, lemongrass, makrut lime leaves, candlenuts, salam leaves, sambal, koya. A row of unfamiliar words tires you before you start. This article separates the ingredients to keep from the ones you can substitute. What you most want to keep the first time is the yellow of the turmeric, the aroma of lemongrass, the clear chicken broth, and the citrus squeezed in at the end.

Knowing the Regional Differences Helps You Decide the Soup's Richness

Soto ayam is not a dish confined to one region of Indonesia. Around Java, Surabaya, Lamongan, Kudus, and Jakarta, each looks a little different. Indonesia Travel presents Lamongan's soto as a dish characterized by a yellow soup and koya (a powdered, garlic-containing topping). For home cooking, take "a clear yellow chicken soup" as the axis first, then adjust to taste with koya and accompaniments, which is less likely to fail.

In some recipes, "put curry powder into chicken soup" is offered as an explanation. It is handy as a shortcut, but if you make curry powder the star, it leans toward curry soup, not soto ayam. Turmeric is for color, ginger for warmth, garlic and shallots for sweetness, and lemongrass and makrut lime leaf for the outline of the aroma. Thinking of the roles separately gives an Indonesian flavor even with few ingredients.

Ingredients (serves 4)

Serves 4, with four soup bowls that make a main dish. The amount assumes serving with white rice. Bone-in chicken thighs are ideal, but it can be made with boneless thighs. Bone-in gives a richer broth, while boneless is easier to shred after cooking.

This dish uses chicken and eggs, and may involve seasonings that contain soy or wheat, and nuts. If you substitute cashews for candlenuts, be careful with nut allergies. Check the ingredient labels of store-bought sambal and fried shallots too.

Shopping: Look Only at the Ingredients You Might Be Unsure About

What is worth seeking at an import grocer or online for soto ayam is not ordinary chicken or eggs. What is hard to find nearby is sambal, fried shallots, kecap manis, and a small food processor to make the aromatic paste easier. Lemongrass and makrut lime leaves can sometimes be found frozen or dried, but if not, substitutes still make a dish that works.

Sambal is a tool to let each person add heat in their own bowl rather than putting heat into the whole pot. If you make a sambal substitute ahead, you can also use it for nasi goreng (in Japanese) and mie goreng.

You can make fried shallots yourself, but in soto ayam they decide the final aroma and texture at once. On a busy day, having store-bought ones stabilizes the result.

The aromatic paste can be made in a mortar, but finely working onion, garlic, ginger, and turmeric every time is a bit heavy work. If you keep cooking Indonesian food, a small food processor can also be reused for the peanut sauce of gado-gado (in Japanese).

Kecap manis does not go into the soup itself, but at eateries in Indonesia it is sometimes used at the table with chili and lime. A small drizzle of sweet soy sauce rounds out the yellow soup. It can also go to sate ayam and nasi uduk, so it is for people who keep cooking Indonesian food.

Method: Don't Scorch the Aromatic Paste, and Aim for a Clear Yellow

With soto ayam, flavor is decided less by simmering time than by the time spent frying the aromatic paste. If you put the paste into the soup still raw, the sharpness of the onion remains. If you scorch it, the clear yellow soup turns bitter. Wake up the aroma over medium heat, and draw out the savor of the chicken over low heat.

A Branching Table for Approaching the Original in Your Own Kitchen

You do not need to gather all the Indonesian ingredients from the first time. Salam leaves, candlenuts, and makrut lime leaves in particular are hard to find at ordinary supermarkets in many places. While protecting the core of the flavor, choose realistic substitutes for your kitchen.

The thing most worth protecting is the turmeric and lemongrass. Without turmeric, color and aroma weaken; without lemongrass, it drifts toward an ordinary chicken-and-ginger soup. Makrut lime leaf is strong, but if you cannot get it, just thinly shaving off lime zest can create the direction of the final aroma.

Koya is a powdered topping often served with Lamongan-style soto. There are methods that grind prawn crackers and garlic to a powder, but at home it is enough to lightly crush 2 tbsp fried shallots, 1/4 tsp garlic powder, and a little white pepper in a mortar. Leaving a few grains gives more texture than grinding it too fine.

Causes of Failure: Cloudy Soup, Weak Aroma, Curry Taste

What you most want to avoid in soto ayam is a vague soup that is merely yellow. Before adding salt, add sourness and aroma. A little squeeze of lime lightens the chicken fat and tightens the earthiness of the turmeric. Heat can be added later with sambal, so there is no need to make the whole pot spicy.

If the flavor is thin, rather than boiling the soup down over high heat, return the chicken and simmer an extra 5 minutes over low heat. Cooking off only the water over high heat tends to bring out the bitterness of the aromatics. On a day when there is too much soup, it is easier to portion and freeze some for rice noodles or rice porridge the next day.

Storage and Eating It the Next Day

If you store it, separate the soup, chicken, glass noodles, bean sprouts, and finishing ingredients. Put everything in together and the noodles absorb the soup and the water from the bean sprouts blurs the flavor. The soup and chicken keep 3 days in the refrigerator and about 1 month in the freezer as a guide. Eat the noodles and bean sprouts within the next day, refrigerated.

To reheat, put the soup in a small pot over medium heat, and when it simmers in 3–4 minutes, return the chicken. Warm the noodles separately by pouring hot water over them, and add the soup after putting them in the bowl. If using a microwave, heat one serving of soup at 600 W for 2 minutes, stir once, and add 30 seconds. Do not heat the egg and fried shallots; add them at the end.

The next day, putting white rice at the bottom of the bowl for soto rice is easy. If you want a rich dish alongside, the vegetables of gado-gado (in Japanese) or the fragrant rice of nasi uduk preserve the lightness of the soup better than a coconut stew like rendang (in Japanese).

FAQ

Q1. Can I make it with curry powder?

You can, but limit it to 1/2 tsp. Curry powder contains cumin, fenugreek, cinnamon, and more, so a lot makes it a curry soup rather than soto ayam. It gets closer if you use 1 tsp turmeric alone and make up the missing aroma with ginger, garlic, and lemongrass.

Q2. I don't have bone-in chicken. Can I use chicken breast?

Yes. With 600 g chicken breast, shorten the simmering to about 20 minutes over low heat. Simmering too long makes the fibers dry, so take it out when it is white at the center, rest it 2 minutes in the residual heat, and then shred. If the savor of the soup is weak, simmering 2 chicken wings along with it gets closer.

Q3. Can I use rice noodles instead of glass noodles?

Rice noodles go well too. For thin pho-style rice noodles, rehydrate 100 g dried, put them in the bowl, and pour hot soup over them. But rice noodles absorb soup easily, so they are not suited to making ahead. Rehydrate them just before eating and store any extra in a separate container.

Q4. Can children eat it without sambal?

Yes. Keep the soup itself mild and put sambal on a separate dish. Adults dissolve 1 tsp at a time at the edge of the bowl and add more if it lacks heat. Even without heat, lime, fried shallots, and white pepper keep the flavor from blurring.

Q5. I can't get makrut lime leaves.

Thinly shave one strip of lime zest and add it. White pith makes it bitter, so use only the green zest. Lemon zest can substitute but its aroma tends to lean Western, so use less. Squeezing lime juice at the end makes the aroma easier to adjust.

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