Soto is the name of Indonesian traditional soup which is using lots of herbs and spices and is usually cooked for long hours to release all the juice from the meat so we’ll have delicious broth and soft and succulent meat. The main ingredient for soto is usually chicken, beef or even prawns. There are many variations of soto dishes in Indonesia and one of the very famous soto in Indonesia is Soto Ambengan which comes from the big city of Surabaya, the capital city of East Java. I’ve posted the recipe of Soto Ambengan in this post.
Not so far away from Surabaya City and still a part of East Java Province, there is an island named Madura Island which is also known for its delicious food (my favourites are the duck dishes and Soto Madura which I am going to share below). Although it looks almost the same as Soto Ambengan, there is actually one big difference between the two soto dishes.
For Soto Ambengan, we use more shallots than garlic (150 gr shallots to 6 garlic), while for Soto Madura, we use way more garlic than shallots (15 garlic to 3 shallots). So garlic is the dominant spice for making Soto Madura. I also only used fried garlic to boost the flavour at the end of the cooking process and I didn’t use fried shallots at all. Overall, the taste was quite different and we could tell the differences between the two soto dishes.
One more thing, don’t forget to make poya powder to accompany this dish as poya is a very important condiment for soto dishes from East Java. Poya powder is made from shrimp crackers, fried garlic, salt and sugar blend together until you get fine crumbs. For other condiments and side dishes for Soto Madura, you can see on the list below.
This soto dish was so delicious and we all loved it so much. It was so good that we all had it for lunch, dinner and breakfast. By the way, I marinated the chicken first with turmeric powder, ground coriander and caraway seeds and salt and then stir fry the chicken with other spices before cooking it with water. I really recommend these extra steps as they really boost the flavour of the dish.
Ingredients
- 1 chicken (preferably kampong or free-range), cut into 8
- 5 tbsp cooking oil
- 2 L of water
- 15 garlic
- 3 shallots
- 8 candlenuts, stir fry without oil until fragrant
- 1 thumb ginger
- 2 thumbs galangal
- 2 lemongrass, take the white parts and crushed
- 5 salam or bay leaves
- 8 lime leaves, shredded
- 1/2 tsp pepper, or to taste
To marinate the chicken:
- 2 tbsp turmeric powder
- 2 tbsp ground coriander seeds
- 1/2 tsp ground caraway seed (or substitute with ground fennel seed)
- 1 tbsp salt
To make poya powder:
- 15 shrimps crackers, deep-fried
- 15 minced garlic, fried until golden brown
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
Other (condiments):
- 2 tomatoes, cut each into 8 or you can also use cherry tomatoes
- 6 hard-boiled eggs
- 5 tbsp fried garlic, divided
- 10 green onions, minced
- poya powder
- cooked mung bean sprouts
- bean vermicelli (glass noodles), soaked in cold water for 15 minutes then soaked in hot boiling water for about 30 seconds or until soft
- Perkedel (Indonesian fried mashed potato)
- Emping (bitter belinjo crackers)
- Chilli sauce (check the recipe in this post)
- Lime juice
Method:
- Blend all the poya ingredients in the food processor into fine crumbs and set aside. Keep in a jar or plastic container and store in the bottom of the refrigerator (you can keep it for months)
- Marinate chicken with turmeric powder, ground coriander seeds, ground caraway seeds and salt for 2 to 3 hours in a large bowl
- Using a blender (or food processor), process oil, garlic, shallots, candlenuts and ginger until smooth. Transfer to a large wok
- Add galangal and lemongrass and stir fry until the paste is fragrant and starts to dry (make take 10 to 15 minutes in medium heat)
- Add chicken and stir to mix well with other ingredients. Cook until chicken turns color
- Clean the bowl that you use to marinate the chicken with some of the water and pour the water into the wok. Add the remaining water, salam leaves and lime leaves to the wok and turn to low heat. If using a multi-function cooker like I did, transfer the chicken, spices and water into the pot and press the soup button. Cook until chicken is tender. If cooking on the stove, you will need to add water in the middle of the cooking process
- Once you turn off the heat, add 3 tbsp fried garlic, half of the minced green onions and 2 tbsp poya powder into the pot. Cover for 10 minutes
- Take out the chicken from the pot and let cool before shredding it into bite-size
- How to serve: Arrange bean vermicelli, mung bean sprouts, shredded chicken, cut tomatoes and hard-boiled eggs on serving bowls. Pour the soup into each serving bowl and sprinkle poya powder, more fried garlic and minced green onions. Squeeze some lime juice on top of the soup. Serve with perkedel, emping, and chilli sauce
Making memories in every dish 