Soto Kudus

Soto Kudus ~  Indonesian Chicken Soup, Javanese Style.  “Kudus” is a city in Central Java, Indonesia.  There’re so many varieties of “soto” or soup from different parts of provinces in Indonesia. This particular one is quite easy to distinguish from its dominant garlicky flavours from generous sprinkles of deep fried garlic, delicious clear chicken soup with a hint of ginger, toasted coriander seeds and squeeze of lemon juice…..

One of our weekend eat-out with my family when I was a little, was this great little place near Mayestik Market where they served the best Soto Kudus. It’s so good that my family decided to make it a must-stop restaurant  every Sunday afternoon.  The main thing about the whole dining experience is it’s usually served with a plateful of various kind of skewered yummies as side dish – paru goreng, sate usus goreng, sate telur puyuh, perkedel kentang and my favorite one sumsum goreng telur. Important condiment is also a must for me, chili soy sauce mixed with fried garlic.  It adds an entirely different flavours to the soto.

I find this recipe tastes very close to the original Soto Kudus I used to have, and am still crazy about.

SOTO KUDUS
Indonesian Chicken Soup – Kudus Style

Ingredients:
* 6  pcs chicken thighs
*  4 pcs boiled eggs
*  200 gr bean sprouts, soak in hot water 5 mnts
*  celery stalk/spring onion, chopped
*  2 stalks of lemon grass, bruised
*  2 pcs bay leaves
*  3 tbs of  garlic fried to golden yellow color
*  salt, pepper, sugar to taste

Processed ingredients till smooth:
* 6 pcs garlic
* 6 pcs shallots
* 1 tbs roast coriander seeds
* 1/2 tbs cumin
* 6 pcs roast candlenuts
* 4 cm fresh ginger, slightly roasted

Cooking Directions:
1.)  Boil chicken in 1 ltr of water, lemongrass & bay leaves till tender
2.) Heat 1 tbs of oil, stir fry processsed ingredients till cooked
3.) Pour into the chicken pot, add salt, pepper, sugar & fried garlic
4.) Set aside and cut chicken into bite size strips
5.) Prepare individual bowls with: steam rice, boiled eggs, bean sprouts
chicken strips, pour in steaming soup, sprinkle with spring onions
6.) Don’t forget those tasty chili condiment….  whoa yummy!

Chili for Soto:
* 10 pcs bird’s eye chili or red chili – slice thinly
* 2 tbs sweet soy sauce
* slices of indonesian palm sugar (gula jawa)
* 2 tbs fried garlic – smoothen
* sprinkles of lemon juice
(mix them all together)