Pho Ga - Chicken Vietnamese Noodle Soup

Pho is such a fun and interactive dish. Although this recipe boasts several processes, it's well worth the effort, and as it makes a fair bit, you can enjoy pho for a couple of days succeeding, if it lasts that long!

1 whole organic chicken

1 whole onion, unpeeled and cut in half

10cm chunk of ginger, unpeeled

Broth spices:

2 tbs whole coriander seeds

4 whole cloves

2 whole star anise

2 tbs sugar 

2 tbs fish sauce

small bunch of coriander stems only, tied in bunch with twine

1 packet dried rice noodles

Place ginger and onion on a small baking sheet. The top of the onion should be about 15cm from the oven’s heating element. Leave to colour at a high temperature for 15 minutes. Turn the onion and ginger occasionally, to get an even char. The skin should get dark and the onion and ginger should get soft. After cooling, rub to get the charred skin off the onion and use a butter knife to scrape the skin off the ginger. Slice ginger into thick slices.

Fill a large stockpot with water and boil. With a sharp cleaver, carve the chicken breast meat off and reserve. Segment the rest of the chicken into workable sections. The more bone that is exposed, the more marrow goes into the broth, which equals more nutrients and flavour. You can even whack several places along the bone just to expose more marrow. When the water boils, add chicken sections (not breast) and boil on high for 5 minutes. Strain the broth. Carefully remove all meat from the bones and set aside.

To the broth, add the chicken breast, onion, ginger and all of the broth spices, cover. Turn the heat to high and let come to boil, then immediately turn the heat to low. Prop the lid up so that steam can escape. After 15 minutes, remove the chicken breasts, shred  and set aside. With a large spoon, skim the surface of any impurities in the broth. Skimming every 20 minutes ensures a clear broth. Simmer a total of 1-1/2 hours. Taste and adjust seasoning with more fish sauce and or sugar.

Strain the broth, discard solids. Prepare noodles as per directions on package. In each bowl, ladle the broth over the shredded chicken and rice noodles. My favourite part of this dish is having a selection of accompaniments on the table for everyone to pick and choose from.  You can keep the soup simple and just add bean sprouts, herbs and lime or you can get a little creative and add a rainbow selection of whatever takes your fancy.