Soto Ayam Santan [ Chicken Soup in Coconut Milk ]

I am a huge fan of sotos. As you might have noticed, soto is classic Indonesian soup, very aromatic and rich in flavour. We can eat it as main meal with a bowl of rice, or as an appetizer. Its all only in the matter of serving portion. Today I decided to make a soto with coconut milk infused and a bit more spices that I  usually put in my sotos.  

Ingredients: 

2 chicken leg piece (thigh and upper thigh)

10 kaffir lime leaves, deboned

3 lemongrass (medium size)

6 cm fresh galangal

5 indonesian bayleaf

1.500 ml coconut milk

1 tbsp salt (adjust to your taste)

½ tsp white pepper

2 tsp sugar (adjust to your taste)

Ingredients to paste: 

6 shallots

4 garlic

2 tsp powdered coriander

¼ tsp caraway seed (jintan)

1 tsp turmeric powder

 ½ tsp powdered kaempferia 

2 cm galangal

3 candlenuts

oil for sautée

Garnish:

lontong

Boiled egg, cut in two (I forgot to put it in my bowl before taking picture)

Boiled mung bean vermicelli

Fresh beansprout 

Fried shallot

Sliced lime

1. Sautée the pasted ingredients with oil until it fragrant then add kaffir lime leaves, indonesian bayleaf, galangal and lemongrass

2. Add coconut milk, stir until it boils. 

3. Add the chicken in, salt, white pepper and sugar. Stir and continue cooking until the chicken is well cooked and tender.

4. Once the chicken is tender enough, turn the heat down to simmer mode. Take out the chicken and shred it with fork. 

5. In the real recipe, fry the shredded chicken with a bit of oil until it turns a bit golden. I didn't do this tho. 

5. Plate your garnish in a serving bowl. I usually start by placing the sliced lontong on the bottom, then boiled mung bean vermicelli, bean sprout and shredded chicken. Then pour the hot soto broth and sprinkle some fried shallot. Serve it with sliced lime on the side. 

Happy Cooking!

PS: I put snow peas in my soto only because I always need something green on my daily diet, its not part of the recipe.