Soto Ayam, a taste of home
a gentle Holiday recipe to warm you from the inside
Posted by Christina Zipperlen on December 9, 2025
There are certain foods that feel less like recipes and more like portals: back to warmth, back to belonging, back to something tender inside of us that remembers what it means to be held. For me, Soto Ayam is one of those bowls.
In Indonesia, food is our oldest love language. Care is never abstract, it simmers on the stove, it smells like turmeric and lemongrass, it is ladled into your hands when the world feels heavy. When someone is sick, tired, overwhelmed, or heartbroken, no one asks what medicine you took.
They ask,
“Sudah makan? Have you eaten?”
And more often than not, someone shows up at your door with a steaming bowl of Soto Ayam, our golden chicken soup – fragrant, restorative, and filled with nature’s quiet wisdom.
A bowl that heals what the Holidays stir up
This season can be beautiful… and a lot.
The pace quickens, the expectations grow louder, and the longing for comfort, I mean real comfort, becomes unmistakable. Soto Ayam is my way back.
A reminder that healing does not need to be grand. Sometimes it is as simple as a warm broth, a soft egg, a squeeze of lime, a handful of herbs.
Now, living through my fourth winter away from home, this bowl feels like a bridge between worlds: Bali’s tropical embrace folded into the crisp quiet of holiday season abroad.
It is the taste of community care disguised as comfort food.
It is nourishment that returns you to yourself.
The ceremony of gathering around a bowl
One of the things I love most about Soto is that everyone builds their own bowl. It's communal, playful, full of color.A shared altar of noodles, herbs, eggs, sprouts, and golden broth.
There’s laughter, slurping, the soft sighs after the first spoonful.
It’s the kind of meal that makes strangers friends and friends feel like family.
A ritual of presence in its own way, it is slow, warm, unfussy. Perfect for long winter nights, holiday tables, or quiet Sundays when you need soothing from the inside out in order to prepare for the week ahead.
Recipe:
Soto Ayam — Indonesian Golden Turmeric Chicken Soup
A healing, heart-softening bowl to nourish your holidays.
Ingredients
For the broth:
• 1 whole free-range chicken (around 1.5 kg)
• 2.5 liters water
• 2 lemongrass stalks, bruised
• 5 kaffir lime leaves
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 thumb-sized galangal, smashed
• Salt to taste
For the spice paste:
• 10 cloves garlic
• 10 shallots
• Thumb-sized fresh turmeric
• 2 cm fresh ginger
• 3 candlenuts (or 3 macadamias)
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 tsp ground white pepper
• 2 tbsp coconut or neutral oil
Toppings & sides:
• Shredded chicken (from the broth)
• Boiled eggs, halved
• Glass noodles, soaked
• Blanched bean sprouts
• Cilantro & scallions
• Fried shallots
• Lime wedges
• Sambal or chili oil (optional)
• Steamed rice or rice cakes (lontong)
Instructions
1. Make the healing broth
Add chicken, water, lemongrass, lime leaves, bay leaves, galangal, and salt to a large pot.
Simmer 45 minutes until the chicken is tender and the aroma fills your home.
Remove chicken, shred, and strain the broth.
2. Create the golden spice base
Blend garlic, shallots, turmeric, ginger, candlenut, coriander, and pepper into a smooth paste. Sauté in oil until fragrant and golden, this unlocks all the medicinal oils of the spices.
3. Combine and simmer
Add the spice paste to the broth. Simmer another 20–30 minutes to deepen the flavor.
4. Prepare your Soto bar
Lay out toppings and sides in small bowls, noodles, herbs, eggs, chicken, lime, sambal.
5. Serve
Build your own bowl. Finish with a ladle of hot golden broth.
Add sambal for an immune-boosting kick and lime for brightness.
Notes for Deep Nourishment
• Turmeric + ginger reduce inflammation and warm the body.
• Lemongrass + galangal support digestion and gut balance.
• Free-range chicken makes a more mineral-rich, soothing broth.
• Like all healing foods, it tastes even better the next day.
Soto Ayam is proof that comfort food can also be medicine, a bowl where nature, memory, and love meet.
May this golden soup bring warmth to your table, softness to your season, and closeness, to yourself, to each other, to the rituals that keep us whole.
⏾
