Chicken Noodle Soup (Soto Lamongan)

This chicken soup is originated from Lamongan, East Java, in Indonesia. However, throughout Indonesia, there are tons varieties of Soto 😀 Even for Soto Ayam (chicken soup), different island, different style of soto ayam.

Spice Paste

1 large onion, regular or purple one is fine

1 heaping tbsp minced garlic, store bought

1/4 tsp white pepper powder

1 tsp coriander, dry fry (heat/fry without oil)

2 cm fresh turmeric

7 candle nuts, dry fry would be best, but as is is fine as well

Process spices in a food processor or mortal and pestle into fine paste

Heat 1-2 tbsp oil, saute paste until fragrant, set aside

Broth

Fill up a pot with 2000 ml water and drop 600 g chicken breast, bring to boil

Add in 3-7 cloves (I like it stronger, so I like adding the cloves up to 7 pieces)

Drop in 1 thumb fresh ginger, sliced thinly, into the pot

Add in 3 dried galangal and salt to taste

Let water boiled for 5-10 minutes then lower heat to medium and let it simmer for 45 minutes

Stir in sauteed paste into the pot and adjust the flavor (more salt if needed)

Lower heat to low and let cook for another half hour

Take out chicken, let cool then shred/pull apart

Chili Sauce

With a little water, say 1/2 c, bring to boil 10 bird eye chilies, drain

Place boiled chilies into electric blender then add in about 4-10 tbsp of chicken broth with a couple drops of lime juice (freshly squeezed or from bottle)

Process into a fine sauce

NOTE: This is spicy, add more broth to make it less spicier or use less chilies in making sauce

Serving

50 g cellophane noodle or thin pasta such as capellini (the measurement is actually depending how many bowls you’d like to serve or how much portion in a bowl you’d like to have), cook per package instruction (soaking noodle in hot water until soften then drain – if it’s cellophane/glass noodle.

50 g white cabbage, thinly sliced

1-2 green onion, thinly sliced

2-3 Asian celery (they are thin/slim, available at Asian stores), sliced

3 hard boiled eggs, sliced

2 tbsp fried shallots

1 tbsp fried garlic

Tomato, sliced/quartered

Place cooked noodle into a bowl, top with sliced cabbage then followed with chicken

Place some sliced eggs and tomato followed with celery and green onion

Pour soup and serve immediately

Enjoy 🙂