Pho Ga - Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup, Step-by-Step Recipe

Step-by-step recipe

1. At first glance the ingredients may seem simply fantastic and out of reach. Do not despair, everything can be bought. Cook yourself a delicious first course, it is worth it.
2. Chicken stock for the soup
3. Since we decided to make the soup with chicken, we cooked chicken stock as the base. For this we bought a small young chicken, just enough for a few bowls of soup. Put the whole chicken into a large pot, add half a peeled onion, a carrot and, if you have them, a piece of celery root and a parsnip. Pour in 2 l of cold water and set over the heat.
   
4. When the water comes to a boil, a little foam will start to form. Skim it off with a spoon. Cook the stock for about 1 hour at a gentle simmer. It must not boil hard, otherwise it will turn very cloudy. When the stock is done, take the chicken out and cover it with an upturned bowl. Let the chicken cool. All the vegetables from the stock can be thrown away, they do not go into pho ga.
5. Preparing the vegetables for pho
6. To go into the soup at serving, we picked a good green lime: its juice is added to the stock, and the wedges are served with the soup at the table. Half a large young onion that has not yet turned sharp and pungent. Sprigs of mint and cilantro, green onions, a hot chili and a young green cucumber.
   
7. A rather interesting and unexpected addition to the Vietnamese soup is mung bean sprouts. Behind that slightly formidable and handsome name is the small green bean also known as green gram. Its sprouts are a frequent component of Asian dishes. Mung beans sprout to the right stage in just a day. If all else fails, good supermarkets sell ready sprouted legumes, peas for example. They are quite suitable for the soup.
   
8. Prepare a plate for all the vegetables meant for assembling the Vietnamese chicken soup. Peel the cucumber and cut it lengthwise into thin strips. Cut half a white onion into very thin strips. If the onion has already become sharp and “fragrant”, cover it with ice water for 10 mins, then squeeze it lightly. Finely chop the green onion tops. Simply tear the cilantro with your fingers, quite roughly. Arrange all the vegetables in small piles on the plate.
   
9. Prepare one more plate, for the vegetables and herbs that are served separately with the soup at the table. Pick the mint leaves off the sprigs and put them on the plate. If the leaves are large, tear them in half. Add the lime wedges and the hot chili cut into rings. It makes sense to prepare all the vegetables for assembling and serving while the stock is cooking.
   
10. Preparing the noodles for the soup
11. Rice noodles are an accessible ingredient sold everywhere. In Asia cooks prefer freshly made noodles. Here it is easier to buy a pack of dried ones, enough for making soup 3-4 times. It is best to buy thick, firm white rice noodles that are slightly translucent.
    
12. We decided to add ginger, a little garlic and lemongrass to the stock in which the rice noodles will cook. Lemongrass, or Cymbopogon (also called citronella grass), is a plant of the grass family often used in Asian cooking. Its pleasant lemony taste and smell come from essential oils. To get the most flavor out of it, cut the stalk lengthwise into thin strips. Dried lemongrass can be used as well. Peel the ginger and cut it into strips. Peel a few cloves of garlic and chop them coarsely.
    
13. Add the ginger, lemongrass and garlic to the stock. Add a star of star anise as well. Pour 1-2 tbsp of soy sauce into the boiling stock: it is salty enough that the soup needs no extra salt. Squeeze in the juice of half a lime, the stock should be noticeably tart. Cook the stock for 10 mins. Then discard the ginger, star anise and garlic. The lemongrass can be kept for assembling and serving.
    
14. Strain the stock and bring it to a boil. Drop in the rice noodles and cook them until done. The cooking time is usually given on the pack and comes to 5-6 mins.
    
15. Assembling pho ga
16. I read somewhere that in Vietnam the soup is served in specially designed bowls with several compartments. Here things are a little simpler, and all you need for serving are large, deep bowls. Put the rice noodles on the bottom of the bowl. A spaghetti spoon with teeth along the edge is handy for this.
    
17. Cut the chicken lengthwise into four parts and chop it into cubes together with the bones. Lay the chicken pieces on top of the noodles, along the side of the bowl, so that the middle stays free.
    
18. In the center, on the rice noodles, place the cucumber strips, the white onion and the lemongrass from the stock, if you decided to keep it. Lemongrass is rather coarse, but its core is perfectly edible and keeps the lemony flavor. Add the cilantro and top with a few of whatever sprouts you have.
    
19. The Vietnamese soup is ready for the stock. This is best done right at the dining table, bringing the stock in a tureen with a ladle. Carefully pour the stock into the bowls so that the liquid comes above the rice noodles. The chicken pieces, herbs and vegetables should remain visible.
    
20. Serving pho at the table
21. Vietnamese chicken pho ga is served very hot. Perhaps one of the explanations for its name is the French word feu, meaning fire. There is something in that, it sounds plausible at least. Serve the mint leaves and the sliced hot chili on a separate plate. The lime wedges can go into a small cup or bowl, and one wedge can be placed in the soup on top of the herbs.
22. At the table, once the stock has been poured over the pho, squeeze the juice of the lime wedges into it. To taste, naturally. For my taste there can be a lot of lime juice, I liked it that way. Everyone adds mint leaves and fresh hot chili to their own bowl as they prefer.
    
23. The recipe for Vietnamese pho with chicken is not difficult at all. As we found out, all the components for the soup can be bought. The soup is simple to cook and very tasty. Despite the fresh chili, it is not hot at all.