An Indonesian chicken noodle soup, done sort of my way. Light and fresh but also rich in flavour and depth, with a broth that's slippery with sesame oil and collagen. Asians understand soup. Simple, rich and nutritious underneath, topped with many playful textures. Think pho from Vietnam, congee from China, ramen in Japan and soto ayam from Indonesia. It makes you get involved in the bowl.
Serves: 5
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 4 hours (or about 45 minutes with the shortcut in HINTS)
INGREDIENTS
Bone broth
1 chicken carcass
8 chicken wings, each cut into 3 sections
olive oil
salt
6 chicken feet, toenails clipped
2 carrots, chopped
2 celery sticks, chopped
1 onion, sliced into big rounds
1 head garlic, cut in half
2 thumbs fresh turmeric, sliced
½ bunch parsley
a couple of stems each of fresh bay leaves, oregano, rosemary and thyme
lots of pepper
3 tbsp chicken stock powder, plus extra to taste
2.5 litres water
Soto aromatics
2 lemongrass stalks, bruised
6 makrut lime leaves
1 thumb ginger, sliced
To serve
6 boneless skin-on chicken thighs
3 eggs
300 g glass noodles
1 bunch choy sum, cut into 7 cm lengths
2 x 15-piece packs frozen wontons
250 g bean sprouts, washed
1 bunch coriander
2 spring onions, finely sliced
1 small can pickled mustard greens, chopped
½ cup crispy fried shallots
prawn sambal or sambal oelek
sesame oil
extra chilli (optional)
3 limes, cut into wedges
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 220°C fan-forced and line a roasting tray with baking paper.
Toss the chicken carcass and wings with a little olive oil and salt on the tray and roast for 25 minutes, until golden and crispy. Set aside to cool. Delightfully delicious and hard to resist picking at these at this point. Once cool enough to handle, pick the meat off the wings and set it aside for the toppings. The bones and skin go into the pot.
Throw the chicken feet straight into a large pot, raw, with the carrots, celery, onion, garlic and turmeric. Twist the parsley into a knot to kind of bruise the stems and throw that in too, along with the bay leaves, oregano, rosemary and thyme. Add salt, lots of pepper and the chicken stock powder. Add the carcass and the wing bones and skin, then cover with the water.
To get all of the deliciousness off the paper you lined the roasting tray with, lay it over the soup face down, so the steam from the soup, once it starts to simmer, melts all of that delicious kind of umami stickiness left from the chicken wings.
Bring to a simmer and let it go for about 3 hours, stirring occasionally.
Strain, first through a big strainer and then through a cheesecloth-lined sieve, to really remove any of the debris. Taste and make sure it's delicious.
Return the broth to the pot, add the lemongrass, makrut lime leaves and ginger and simmer for 40 minutes.
Meanwhile, prep all the toppings and have them ready. Make sure the bean sprouts are fresh and super crunchy.
Bring a pot of plain water to the boil. Cook the eggs for 8 minutes, then cool, peel and cut in half. In the same water, cook the glass noodles, blanch the choy sum and cook the wontons according to the packet.
Skim the aromatics out of the broth. At this point, it's a matter of making sure you don't reduce your chicken stock too much. You can top it up with water, bring it back up to the boil and season it again with chicken stock powder if you need it. All the good stuff's already in there, so now it's just about balancing out the soup to your liking.
Poach the chicken thighs in the soup for 15 - 20 minutes, until cooked through. They come out with a delightfully jaundice-looking skin. Slice them up.
To assemble the bowl, put in a big pile of noodles, top with the sliced chicken and picked wing meat, some wontons and the greens, then ladle over the steaming broth. Top with a handful of bean sprouts, some coriander, spring onions, pickled mustard greens, crispy shallots and half a jammy egg. Drizzle with sesame oil, add a dollop of the sambal and extra chilli if you like.
You must finish it off with a big squeeze of lime. It really brings all of the flavour together. Once you mix it all together, it becomes this beautiful, rich, slick, slippery soup, but still using a clear broth.
HINTS
Shortcut: if you want a shortcut to this recipe, you can simply add the soto aromatics and a teaspoon of ground turmeric or some fresh turmeric slices to 2.5 litres of ready-made chicken stock and simmer for 40 minutes. That would take a good deal of work out of this particular recipe and is a very suitable shortcut for a weeknight meal.
The chicken feet are where the collagen comes from - they make the broth so deliciously sticky to the lips.
This is usually made with vermicelli noodles, but I didn't have any, so we used glass noodles. Super slippery little suckers, but so fun to eat. Either works.
It's also quite traditional to shred the chicken thighs instead of slicing them.
Wontons are not traditional, but I know my family love them. You can make as many or as little as you think your family will like.
Pickled mustard greens are such fabulous tangy things to add to all types of soup. The first time I ever came across them was in a recipe by Poh, a rich duck noodle soup, and they really do work well with a rich broth because they're tangy and pickly and just so delicious. They're often sold in a vacuum-sealed bag, but I found a little can of them which were just fantastic.
If you have a sad-looking bag of bean sprouts, give them a good rinse and pop them in some icy water, or in the fridge, to get them sprightly again.
Soto ayam is often eaten for breakfast.
NUTRITION (per recipe total - serves 5 - guide only):
Energy: approx. 6,300 kcal (26,400 kJ)
Protein: approx. 350g
Fat: approx. 320g
Saturated fat: approx. 90g
Carbohydrate: approx. 455g
Sugars: approx. 25g
Sodium: approx. 10,000mg
This nutrition information is a guide only and may vary depending on brands, exact quantities, and ingredient substitutions used.