Chicken Pho Fall
You guys like that pun?
Before we dive into this post, allow me to briefly explain the different types of noodles in Vietnamese noodles dish.
Most Vietnamese noodles are made out of rice. A few has tapioca or all-purpose flour. Rice noodles come in different shapes and sizes for the type of dish it would be in. For instance, the noodles on the left are phở noodles. They're flat, best fresh for phở, and only used for phở. Phở noodles in the north tend to be wider than the south's. The ones on the right are round and are the most common noodles. They're called bún. They're used in soup and dry noodles dishes. Depending on the dish, their thickness varies.
Now, phở.
When people speak of Vietnamese food, phở will pho sure come up (OK, done with the pun). Some labels it as Vietnam's national dish. I'm not enough of a Vietnamese cuisine expert to know if that's accurate. It's definitely very popular in Vietnam. You can eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But then, that's true for every Vietnamese dish.
Phở is great and all, but it's not my favorite Vietnamese noodles dish. My favorite was Bún Riêu, a noodles dish with pork/chicken broth and shrimp or crab "meatballs." Bún Riêu is served with thin, round rice noodles. My parents used to make it for me for my birthday for years until I became allergic to shrimp. Sadly, they don't make it with crab. Maybe I can convince them to try ; ) I think it was about that time that I fell in love with Bún Bò Huế, a spicy beef noodles dish served with thick, round rice noodles. It has a ton more spices and flavor than phở; thus, infinitely better.
Anyways, Bún Riêu and Bún Bò Huế are for another day. Today, we'll make chicken phở because it's relatively quick and easy. So when I said phở isn't my favorite...chicken phở is quickly becoming my go-to Vietnamese noodles dish. It only takes about two hours to make! Beef pho takes 5-6 hours. And it's perfect for this fall weather.
I explained to my roommate how to make this as I was heading out the door for work and she successfully made it, so hopefully you won't be intimidated to try. My directions are pretty detailed but it's really not hard at all.
Chicken Phở
Serves: 5
Ingredients:
1 whole chicken
2 chicken back bones
4" knob of ginger, split in half length-wise
1 sweet onion, split in half
2 tbsp coriander seeds
5 whole cloves
2 whole star anise
1 cinnamon stick
Cheese cloth or large tea ball
Salt
Fish sauce
Rock sugar (optional)
Accompaniments: phở noodles, lime, sliced jalapeños, sliced green onions, chopped cilantro, Thai basil, culantro, bean sprouts, hoisin sauce, and Sriracha
Directions:
Boil water in a large stock pot. While waiting for the water to boil, prep the whole chicken by rinsing it with cold water, rub a generous amount of salt all over the chicken, and then rinse it again thoroughly. The salt helps clean the chicken. Set aside.
Char the ginger and onion on a grill or on a hot pan. The charring process brings out their flavor. Char them until they're somewhat blackened. They don't need to be completely blackened.
When the water is boiled, put the chicken and back bones in for about 5 minutes. Remove them from the hot water and rinse them in warm water. This step prevents the broth from getting murky later.
Boil water in a large stock pot again. If you have two large stock pots, you can boil them at the same time at the beginning and have the second pot ready to make the broth.
Add the chicken, breast down, back bones, ginger, onion, and salt in the second pot of water. Once the water is boiled again, reduce the heat to low to simmer the broth. Remove any gunk. Having a clear broth is important.
While the broth is doing its thing, toast the spices in a hot pan until they're fragrant. Put them in a spice bag or tea ball. Set aside.
After an hour, use a meat thermometer to check if the chicken is cooked. Once it's cooked, remove the chicken from the broth and set it aside to cool.
Add the spice bag and keep the back bones in to continue cooking the broth for another 30-45 minutes. At this point, taste the broth and add more salt, fish sauce, or rock sugar, if necessary. Depending on the type of chicken and back bones you get, they might make the broth sweet enough and you won't need the rock sugar. If it does, add a small piece or two of rock sugar at a time. I prefer to add about 1/2-1 tbsp of fish sauce into the broth to give it more flavor. I recommend making the broth a tiny bit on the bland side so whoever is eating can add more fish sauce or salt to their bowl later to fit their palate.
After 30 minutes, taste the broth and see if it's flavorful enough. If it doesn't taste quite right, it probably needs more time or MORE FISH SAUCE. When in doubt with Vietnamese food, add fish sauce...pho real.
When the chicken is cool to handle, carve the chicken. Cut the meat into slices. You can even shred it into thick pieces...doesn't really matter.
Assembling your perfect bowl of chicken pho:
Cook the noodles in single batches, following the package instruction. The noodles are a bit sticky when they're cooked so you don't want to make a bunch at a time only to tear them apart later. You can cook them in these little handy mesh skimmers.
Top the noodles with some chicken, green onions and cilantro. Then, add the broth and freshly ground black pepper. If you want, add bean sprouts, Thai basil, culantro, sliced jalapeños, Sriracha or hoisin sauce.
Enjoy and let me know how it turns out!
By the way, I'm not an experienced recipe writer, so if something sounds confusing, leave me a comment below and I'll clarify.