Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup

14 April 2020 Bookmark • 0

Vietnamese chicken Noodle Soup is one of the conventional dishes of Northern Vietnamese cuisine. Light but flavorful, easy but sophisticated, this aromatic noodle soup can warm your coronary heart and soul.

I can percentage with you how to cook genuine Pho Ga Hanoi with natural, real elements, as well as the way to serve and consume it like a Vietnamese. Instructions for classic stovetop approach and strain cooker method are protected.

Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup

The bird meat must be gentle, moist and juicy. It have to nonetheless keep the right amount of firmness – a sign that the beef is simply cooked thru. Overcooked, fall-off-the-bone and flavorless chicken meat has no place in a bowl of true pho ga.

I've been playing round with this recipe for months, making it every week and experimenting with one-of-a-kind spice blends and ratios of components.

In case you discover your pho broth too bland, possibilities are you either did not use enough chook bones, did not simmer long enough or brought too much water. I for my part suppose there is no want to add rock sugar which artificially sweetens the broth, however I’ll leave it up on your flavor to decide.

INGREDIENTS :

1 whole chicken (about 3-3.5 lbs)
3 thumb-sized pieces of ginger, peeled and sliced in half vertically
5 large shallots, peeled
1 small piece of cassia bark, or 1 cinnamon stick
2-3 star anises
1 tablespoon coriander seeds (or 3-4 cloves)
1 black cardamom pods, cracked open
2 teaspoons salt (plus more to parboil the chicken)
2-3 tablespoons fish sauce
9 cups water
pho rice noodles

To serve:

scallions
half an onion, sliced very thinly
freshly cracked black pepper
birds-eye chili pepper, sliced
lime wedges

INSTRUCTIONS :

Prepping steps

Add boiling water to a pot large enough to fit in the chicken. Add a pinch of salt and chicken to the pot. Let it boil for a minute, then remove the chicken and discard the liquid.
In a pan over medium heat, dry roast the ginger and shallots until fragrant and lightly develop colors. Set ginger and shallots aside.
Reduce the heat to medium low. Add cassia bark/cinnamon, star anises, coriander seeds and black cardamom pod (if using) and toast just until fragrant. Be careful not to let them burn. Put spices in a spice pouch.

Stovetop Method

In a clean pot, add chicken, ginger, shallots, spice pouch, 2 teaspoons of salt and 9 cups of water. When it starts to boil, skim off any foams and lower heat to a gentle simmer.
Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the chicken is just cooked through. You can test by using a meat thermometer, or inserting a chopstick and see if the juice runs clear. Remove the chicken from the stock pot.
Put the chicken in an ice bath to stop the cooking. Then take it out of the ice bath, separate the meat from the bones. Add the bones back to the pot. Continue to simmer the broth for at least 45-60 minutes, or more until flavors are concentrated to your liking.
Before serving, taste the broth and flavor with 2-3 tablespoons of fish sauce to taste.

Pressure Cooker Method

Add 1 piece of ginger and half the shallots with the chicken to your pressure cooker. Add 2 teaspoons of salt and 6 cups of water. Close the lid and valve, pressure cook on High for 3-4 minutes (depending on the size of the chicken).
Slowly release the pressure manually. Remove the chicken from the pressure cooker, put it in an ice bath to stop the cooking. Then take it out of the ice bath, separate the meat from the bones. Add the bones back to the pressure cooker.
Add the remaining ginger, shallots and the spice pouch to the pressure cooker. Pressure cook on High for 20-30 minutes (the longer the better), and let it release pressure naturally.
Once pressure cooking is over, taste the broth and see if you can add some more boiling water without diluting the flavors. Before serving, flavor with fish sauce to taste.

Putting together

While the broth is cooking, shred or slice the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Prepare pho rice noodles according to package instructions.
Separate the white and green parts of the scallions. Thinly slice the green parts while quickly poach the white parts in the broth. Also slice the onion very thinly.
Add pho rice noodles to serving bowls, top with chicken meat, scallions and thinly sliced onions. Top with freshly cracked pepper. Bring the broth back to a boil and then ladle broth into serving bowls.
Serve immediately with birds-eye chili and lime wedges on the side.