I had a cold that just would not quit. I was congested every morning and night like clockwork and although I did not feel badly I was sick of not being able to breathe! So I decided to amp up the age old remedy of chicken noodle soup and make an adaptation of Vietnamese chicken noodle soup, Pho Ga.
Authentic Pho Ga starts with a labor intensive broth which is the backbone of the soup but I do not have a million hours to make a beautiful, clear Pho Ga broth, so I cheated and amped up boxed stock with a couple of tricks.
Continue reading for the entire nasal clearing recipe!
Gather:
For marinated chicken:
4 boneless chicken breasts
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup fish sauce
3 teaspoons sugar
black pepper
1/4 cup canola oil
Pho broth:
2 onions, quartered
2, 4" pieces ginger
2 Tbl whole coriander seeds (i ended up using ground and cutting it in half)
6 whole cloves
3 star anise
3 quarts store-bought chicken stock
1 quart of Pacific soup starter, Chicken Pho (or just one more quart of chicken stock)
2 Tbl fish sauce
1 Tbl sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 pound dried rice noodles or vermicelli
2 teaspoons canola oil
cilantro
small red onion, thinly sliced
bean sprouts
thinly sliced red jalapeno
lime wedges
siracha
Do:
Marinate the chicken by combining all of the marinade ingredients into a ziploc bag and add the chicken. Let marinate for at least 30 mins or up to 2 hours.
To prepare the broth, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Put 1 piece of ginger and the quartered onion on a baking sheet; roast for 30 mins until the onions are softened and browned. Remove and let cool. peel the skin from the onions and ginger and coarsely chop the ginger.
In the dry pot heat the coriander seeds, cloves and star anise until fragrant. Tie up in a small piece of cheese cloth. Add the roasted onions and ginger (plus the other knob of ginger, peeled and chopped), chicken broth, fish sauce, sugar, salt and pepper, and bring to low boil. Reduce heat to simmer for 1 hour. Pour through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl to discard the solids, then return the broth to the pot until serving.
Grill the chicken and set aside under foil to keep warm. Prepare the noodles according to the package.
To serve the soup, ladle the broth over the noodles, top noodles with chicken slices and serve with all of the accompaniments. Enjoy your sweet, spicy and warming faux Pho Ga!
adapted from food52 recipe
