Indonesian Chicken Soup With Noodles, Turmeric and Ginger (Soto Ayam)

Fabulous, and made few alterations. For two: two chicken legs in my instant pot + 3 cups water, 2 lemongrass, few slices of ginger, salt, 2 dried chiles, 15 minutes, high pressure, natural release.
Filter broth, cool chicken, take meat of bones.

Fry spice paste (no room for measures here), add bean sprouts, cooked noodles, 1/2 lime squeezed pp + cilantro + basil + fried shallots (from store) + chile paste at table.

Superb!

To simplify for a quick weeknight dinner: This is still amazing if you use boneless chicken thighs instead of a whole chicken. Dried kaffir limes also work.

From Nicole: add a bit of palm sugar or sugar in the raw to the broth, as well as some good fish sauce toward the end of cooking. also i probably upped the turmeric and used less cumin that it says here. serve with Thai bird chilies for xtra heat

No kaffir leaves here in rural Alaska. I could mail order them. Didn’t have lemon grass (it is available, but too icy to go to the store)so used juice of half a lemon. No shallots, so 1/2 an onion. It was great even with all the substitutions.

And the halved hard-boiled egg shows up by itself and jumps into the soup.

I found this more delicious the second day, so don't hesitate to make the soup a day ahead and just add the noodles the day-of. I don't think the kaffir lime leaves or fried shallots are optional, nor is a boiled egg, which the recipe overlooks entirely! Be sure to salt to taste before serving. If using thighs only, 1 lb is plenty. Powdered spices were fine!

For2: 2 chicken thighs in my instant pot + 3 cups water, 2 lemongrass, few slices of ginger, salt, 2 dried chiles, 15 minutes, high pressure, natural release. Filter broth, cool chicken, take meat of bones. Fry spice paste, add bean sprouts, cooked noodles, 1/2 lime squeezed pp + cilantro + basil + fried shallots + chile paste at table. Still amazing if you use boneless chicken thighs. Dried kaffir limes works. Add a bit of palm sugar + good fish sauce toward end of cooking. I upped turmeric.

I grew up in Indonesia and have been living abroad for 26 years. I just made this recipe for the first time and there will be many next times. It is so close to my mom's! So good!

It says per serving, but that is actually for the entire recipe.

So that I don't have to use a food processor, for steps 2 and 3, I thinly slice the shallots and garlic, and use one or two slices of ginger. Saute the shallots, garlic and ginger until about fragrant, then add the ground spices (pepper, coriander, cumin, turmeric). Besides beansprouts, shredded green cabbage goes well with this soup. Potato fritters, tofu, and fried tempeh, too.

Wow! I’ve cooked that paste at lease five times now—three times in a cast iron skillet and twice in a small heavy pot. It never burned. I stirred it quite a bit with a small wooden spoon. My only issue was the oil did not separate easily. But when it started to smell great, I took it off the heat and put it into the broth. Delicious.

Awesome if this comes out like the Soto Ayam hawked by Jakarta’s mobile street vendors 50 heard ago. Cured colds, hangovers, existential malaise, and elemental hunger. Can’t wait to try.

In my previous note I said 1 lb of boneless thighs - that was for a half-batch! 2 lbs for the full recipe!

This is delicious. I halved the recipe with no problem. I used fresh Rice noodles and added the celery leaves, parsley and cilantro to the pot at the last minute. I also found that it needed a little bit more kosher salt at the end. This looks like a year-round soup recipe for me. It was nice to be able to find fresh turmeric and use it for the first time. Very flavorful. Will make this often.

Wish all these recipes were adjusted away from whole chickens towards thighs, etc, so it's easier to adjust portions (up or down) to weeknight cooking.