Pho ga

(makes 4-5 L, serves 8-10)

Vietnamese chicken noodle soup

Adapted from Steamy Kitchen

Since being pregnant and realising that I probably shouldn't be eating beef pho (although after awhile I have just decided to order cooked beef rather than rare beef), Paul decided he would make me chicken pho soup! Whilst he had time off earlier in the year, he was making this practically every week, trying to perfect it! This was awesome coming into winter and great comfort food when I wasn't feeling so great. Traditionally pho doesn't seem to come with any vegetables, so we've added some bok choy to make it a more well-rounded meal. We did try just putting the bok choy into the soup when lazy, but it seems to dilute the soup, but that is up to you :) Now I've made a batch to freeze for post-baby, so all we have to do is get some chicken, vegetables and noodles and it should be a quick, nutritious meal! 

Prep time: 30 min
Cooking time: 3-4 hours

Ingredients
4 kg (approx 8) chicken carcasses
1 brown onion
3 inch stem of ginger
2 tbl whole coriander seeds
4 whole cloves
3 whole star anise
2 T sugar (or rock sugar)
3-4 T fish sauce

To serve:
1 kg chicken breast
2 bunches bok choy
2 cloves garlic
2 kg thin rice noodles
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
1 stem shallots, finely chopped
coriander, mint, basil (as desired)

Special equipment: 10L pot (to fit all the chicken bones in!)

Method
1. Clean the carcasses, break them up so they don't take as much space and place in the large  10-litre pot. Fill with boiling water and boil for 5 minutes then rinse out the carcasses and re-fill with water, leaving about 2cm gap to the top and bring to the boil.
2. Meanwhile, cut the onion in half and remove the skin. Place the onion and the ginger under the grill for 15-20 minutes until char-grilled. Let it cool then remove the outer layers.
3. Place the onion, ginger, coriander seeds, cloves, star anise, sugar and fish sauce into the large pot. 

4. Simmer for 3-4 hours. 

5. Drain the bones and spices.
6. Bring soup back to the boil and add the chicken breast (cut into halves or thirds for even cooking) and poach for 20-30 minutes (depending on the thickness of the meat). Remove and shred or thinly slice the meat.
NB. Can also season the soup at this point as desired - using fish sauce, sugar or soy sauce.

To serve;
7. Wash and cut the bok choy into bite-size pieces. In a wok, briefly stir-fry bok choy with 2 cloves garlic until softened.
8. Remove the rice noodles from the packet and rinse under warm water to loosen and remove any excess oil.
9. Assemble the noodles, bok choy, chicken, sliced onion and shallots into each bowl.

10. Pour the boiling soup over and garnish with coriander, mint or basil as desired.