Soto Ayam Medan (Medanese Chicken Broth with Coconut Milk)

Since I'm living in Germany, the homesick feeling force me to cook Indonesian food.  

But then I start to enjoy cooking. I love to cook dishes, which we (I and my husband) missed the most.  One of it is soto ayam medan, which is a chicken broth with coconut milk and lots of spices.  

To make your loved one happy is one of the greatest feeling in the world.  That is the reason  why I try to make this dish as original as possible (containing all of the spices that some are hard to find in Germany). After several trials, even though still lack of some spices, I could make soto ayam that has close taste as the original one. So for you guys, who live in western country, where spices are hard to find.  I will put some spices with ‘***’ sign, which means they can be skipped, if you can’t find it.

Now its time to share!

My soto ayam Medan  recipe (6-8 serves)

Ingredients:

1 kg chicken thigh
1500 ml water

400 ml coconut milk (68%)

2 stalks lemongrass, outer layers discarded, bottom part crushed or 1 tbsp ground lemongrass

6 kaffir lime leaves *** 

6 salam leaves or bay leaves

1 cinnamon stick ***

2 star anise pods ***

3 cardamom ***

3 cloves ***

Vegetable oil 

Salt

Sugar

Spice paste

60-75 gr peeled shallots ( ca. 10-12 asian shallots)
30 gr peeled garlic (ca. 5-6 cloves)
3 candlenuts, roughly chopped
1 inch (2,5 cm) fresh galangal, peeled and sliced or 1tbsp (tablespoon) ground galangal
1,5 cm fresh ginger, peeled and slice or 1 tsp (teaspoon) ground ginger

Ground spices
1 tsp ground cumin ***
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp ground turmeric or 2 cm fresh turmeric, peeled, sliced, grind

Condiments : 

Egg, bean sprout, glass noodles, potatoes, lime, spring onion, fried shallots

Method:

1. Grind all the spice paste to a smooth paste in a mortar or food processor.   Add one to two tbsp vegetable oil or water if needed to keep the mixture turning.

2. Heat cooking oil in a soup pot over medium heat and sauté the spice paste until fragrant.

3. Add lemongrass, lime leaves, bay leaves, cinnamon, anise, cardamom, cloves and chicken. Stir fry until the paste completely coats the chicken, ca. 1 minute.  Then, add water and bring to a boil. 

4. Add 1 1/2 tbsp salt and 1 tbsp sugar into the pot. (#optional: add some chicken stock).

5. Lower the heat and simmer for about 20-30 minutes (#optional: add potato). 

6. At this time chicken (and potato) is tender and cooked thoroughly.  Add coconut milk bring to a boil again.  

7. Take the chicken (and potato) out from the pot. Adjust the seasoning with more salt or sugar ( or chicken stock) as desired and turn off the heat.  The soto soup is done!

8. Shred the chicken meat and stir fry it.

9. Prepare the condiment:

• 6-8 eggs, hard boiled, cut in half
• 100 gr bean sprout, soaked in hot water for 5 min, drained
• 100 gr glass noodles, soaked in hot water until tender, drained
• 250 gr potatoes, boiled cut into small pieces, stirred
• 3 pcs tomatoes, cut into wedges
• 2 pcs limes, cut into wedges
• spring onions, finely chopped

10. Arrange the shredded chicken meat and other condiments in a bowl and serve.


Note:

1. Some ingredients with sign `***´ mean that they can be skipped because some of them are hard to find. Without those spices, your soto will still turn out to be OK.  
2. Actually, I prefer to use less of cumin or not all. Because I don't like the smell of this spice.
3. When it comes to canned coconut milk, there are two types of it. A thicker type is about 48% to 68% coconut Extract. In asian local store in Germany, I can find the thinner types like 6%, 17% and 30% extract.  

If you try this recipe, I would be very happy to hear from you guys.  

Let me know your experience.