Pho Ga - Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup
Description of the dish
Ingredients
Chicken Broth
2 large yellow onions - peeled and halved
4 inch piece of ginger - peeled and cut into 1/4 inch slices
1 whole chicken - about 3 pounds
4 tbsp fish sauce
1-2 tbsp sugar - to taste
4 whole cloves
2 tbsp whole coriander
2 tbsp peppercorns
1/2 cup kosher salt
2 baby bok choy
Noodles and Toppings
1.5 pounds dried rice noodles
1/2 red onion thinly sliced
1 bunch chopped spring onions
1 bunch Thai basil (can substitute Italian Basil [and mint leaves if possible])
1 cup of cilantro leaves
1 pound bean sprouts
2 jalapenos sliced
2 limes cut into wedges
Sriracha or any hot sauce
Hoisin sauce
Instructions
Broth
Preheat a toaster oven or regular oven (using the middle rack) to 400 degrees. Place the yellow onion halves and ginger on a foil lined baking sheet and bake for 5-7 minutes, flip everything over and bake for the same time. The onions should have some browning on them
Use your largest pot that can fit a whole chicken. Fill it half way with water and bring it to a boil.
Rub coarse kosher salt over all of the chicken, this kind of cleans up any left over bits of feathers and seasons the chicken a bit. Throw salt inside of the chicken as well; rinse the chicken off with cold water. Last, cut the thighs, legs, breasts, and wings off.
With the boiling water, throw all of the chicken parts in; including the carcass. Let it reach a boil again, let it boil for 5 minutes. Drain the pot and chicken, clean the pot, and return the chicken back to the pot.
Put the baked halved yellow onions in the pot along with the ginger. Throw in the whole cloves, coriander, and peppercorns. Fill the pot with water until everything is covered. Bring it up to a boil, then simmer it for 20 minutes. Skim off any fat and scum that rises to the top during this time.
After the 20 minutes, remove and set aside the thighs, legs, and breasts. Leave the carcass and wings in as there shouldn’t be any usable meat on them.
Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the meat and put the bones back in the pot. Let the broth simmer with this for 1.5 hours. After this time is done, remove the big chunks with tongs or a spider. Last, run the rest of a broth through a sieve to remove any spices or chunks left. Put the broth back into the pot, it should be clear and free of any solids.
Add in the fish sauce, sugar and salt to taste. Stir it as you add in some to ensure its dissolved.
Noodles and Toppings
Bring the broth to a simmer and add in the bok choy. Cook for about 5 minutes
Bring another pot of water to a boil (enough for the rice noodles)
Soak the noodles in hot tap water for about 10 minutes and drain them. Throw them into the boiling water for about 2-3 minutes and drain
Plating
Place a handful of red onions at the bottom of the bowls, then the rice noodles, and cooked chicken.
Lay in some bok choy to the side and pour in some hot broth to cover everything
Top with green onions, bean sprouts, jalapeno slices, basil leaves, cilantro, hoisin sauce, and hot sauce. Squeeze a few fresh lime wedges
About the dish
In the world of noodle dishes, there are hundreds, if not thousands of different styles. Pho is my go to for something that is light and fragrant; but still very filling. It is always a dish that has super flavorful broth and fresh herbs on top and throughout it. My take on it here is with chicken as the protein, but there are plenty of varieties of Pho (rare beef, veggie, pork, etc.)
The broth is the star of this dish because so much goes into the preparation. First starting with browning the onion and ginger - doing this makes them take on a whole new flavor. It is very easy for these ingredients to get muted in a broth, so adding color to them before boiling ensures the flavor isn’t lost. The prep for the chicken goes a long way as well. Always working to make sure the broth is clear will keep you from having a fatty and heavy soup in the end. I wanted this to have some cooked veggies in it as well, I opted for baby bok choy. Regular bok choy is equally tasty, but with pho I think it is important to have enough room to get every ingredient its equal share. So much flavor can be packed in here.
The toppings! The fresh herbs play such a huge role with pho in my opinion. They are not always cooked and you get that fresh flavor in every bit. I used two different onions, green and red. Fresh bean sprouts, and in this rare case cilantro PASTE. For some freakish reason, I could not find fresh cilantro when I went grocery shopping that day. The flavor is still there, but admittedly a step down from fresh cilantro. I included some fresh jalapenos, seeds and all to give this a kick. Last some hoisin sauce and Louisiana hot sauce. Hoisin is great for marinating meat, but gives this broth a savory deep flavor on top of all the acidity and bite of the fresh ingredients. Thankfully I was not sick when making this; but pho is an absolute comfort food when you have a cold. The steam helps your sinuses and the citrus soothes a sore throat.
