Pho Ga!

In September, 2008, after marrying my husband and moving to Honolulu, Hawaii, I was introduced to a wonderful food called Pho. It's a Vietnamese soup dish comparing to our chicken noodle soup in the sense that it's our comfort food when not feeling well.

After moving to Kodiak, Alaska, no restaurants here serve Pho, so I needed to find a recipe that took into account that many ingredients, you can't find in normal grocery stores. I searched far and wide on the internet and tried a few different recipes and they all turned out terrible. Then my husband got me a Vietnamese cookbook which gave a recipe for Pho Ga (Chicken Pho) that I tried and it comes super close to the real thing. It's time consuming yet easy, and I'm going to take you step by step through the recipe with pictures and some slight modifications that I have made to make it better (in my opinion and others who have also eaten it)

But first I must give props to the book and its author: "Into The Vietnamese Kitchen" By: Andrea Nguyen. Not only is her Pho recipe the best I've ever tried, but there's also many more recipes in it that are absolutely perfect, and if you're into Vietnamese cooking or dining, this is a must-have for cookbooks.

Also keep in mind that the following recipe that I am giving incorporates my modifications to the original recipe from the book.

Now...let's cook some Pho!

Before we begin, I must let you know of some ingredients you need that many normal kitchens may not have already:
1. Stock Pot. Don't even bother starting this recipe if you don't have a pot large enough to fit 6 quarts of water, a whole chicken, and other smaller ingredients.

2. Fish Sauce can be found in the Asian section of most grocery stores. Don't smell it from the bottle and don't get it on your fingers. I'm warning you now. It smells like rotting feet, but trust me when I say it's a VERY essential ingredient.
3. Rock Sugar...or Rock Candy. This can be found in most Asian grocery stores. I get my supply in Oregon. I haven't tried the Asian store here in Kodiak, so I'm not sure if it can be found here on island or not.

Aside from the stock pot, here's your grocery list:
Fish Sauce
Rock Sugar/Rock Candy
Fresh Ginger Root (at least 4 inches long)
3-4 Yellow Onions
Whole Coriander Seeds (in the spice section)
Whole Chicken (Don't toss the neck or parts stuffed inside the chicken)
Salt
Black Pepper
Whole Cloves (Also in the spice section)
2 bunches of fresh cilantro
Rice Noodles
1-2 bunches of green onions
OPTIONAL GARNISHES: Choose some of your favorites...but you do need to use some
Fresh Cilantro (already listed above)
Green Onions (also already listed above)
1-3 fresh limes
Fresh bean sprouts
Sriracha Sauce (found in the asian secion of most grocery stores)
1-3 Fresh Jalapeno or Serrano Chile Peppers (I use Jalapeno)
Fresh Mint (I don't use this, but I wanted to include it in the recipe)
Fresh Thai Basil (I don't use this either, but I wanted to include it in the recipe)

Now that you have all of your ingredients, let's start this recipe. I make it for Jeremy and I every once in a while. Bear in mind that it makes A LOT and the broth freezes very well. One pot lasts Jeremy and I quite some time when I freeze the broth we don't use after a meal or two.

Also, keep the whole day open to make this. I usually start it at noon to be ready by 5. Make sure your chicken is thawed, and now you can start heating up your outdoor BBQ grill. Charcoal grills works the best, but either will work. If you are using charcoal, you don't need much. Just get it hot to last 10-20 minutes

First thing's first: Take 2 of your yellow onions and your fresh ginger root. Cut the ginger in half lengthwise and use the broad side of a knife to cut little bruises into the ginger. Don't be shy, bruise away. Also, cut the root-like ends off your onions. Don't peel it. You want the tough skin...trust me.

Now put them - as is - on your preheated grill.

Next, take 2 Tablespoons of Coriander Seeds and put them in a small pot or pan on the stove on medium heat. Keep a close eye on it as you don't want it to toast too much. Roll the seeds around the pan for a few minutes until a nice aroma is coming from the pan. Remove from heat and set aside for later.

Check on your onions and ginger. Rotate as necessary. The onion skin should be getting a nice char color on it. It's fine if some of the skin flakes off. Basically you want the onions and ginger to soften up and get juicy...especially the onion. When done, remove from grill and bring back inside for later. You're done with the grill now. :) Once the ginger cools down, peel off the outer skin and discard. Cut the onions in half.

Now for the hard part. And it's really not that hard. Start a medium-large pot of water on to boil. Take your chicken and rinse it off real well. Detach the wings, remove the neck and "parts" from the inside of the chicken and set aside. I also like to take the tail fat off the bottom side of the chicken. Discard the fat, but you will need the wings, neck, and other parts.

Take the wings, and neck, and chop them into 2-inch segments. I like to save the turkey neck from Thanksgiving and use that as well. It may sound disgusting, but I also like to use the heart, liver, and any other parts that the butcher stuffs into the carcass before selling.

After chopping the pieces into segments, place into your pot of boiling water and par boil for 2-3 minutes to release the impurities.

Keep an eye on the pot so it doesn't boil over. :)

After par boiling the pieces, drain and rinse with warm water.

Now, add 6 quarts of water to the stock pot and place the chicken breast side up in the pot along with the par boiled chicken parts.

Cook until a nice boil starts. Skim off the fat from the top. If you don't have a skimmer, a slotted spatula will work just fine.

Now to add the goodies. After you have skimmed off as much fat as you can, add your grilled onions and ginger, the toasted coriander seeds, 1 &1/2 Tablespoons of salt, 4 Tablespoons of fish sauce, 1 oz of rock sugar, 10 whole cloves, and 1 bunch of cilantro (be sure to take the binding off the cilantro).

Cook, uncovered, on a gentle simmer for 30 minutes.

I like to add about another quart of water and a couple squirts more of fish sauce. I know the fish sauce smells horrid and not like something you want to ingest, but you really can't taste it in the soup...I mean, the taste is completely unlike the smell once it cooks with the chicken and other ingredients.

After 30 minutes are up, remove the whole chicken. Remove the legs/thighs, and cut the breast pieces off.

Set aside and return the carcass to the soup mixture and simmer for 2-3 hours.

At this time, you can start to prep the ingredients for the body of the soup. Take another one of your yellow onions (1 or 2 depending on how many people you are serving - I find one large onion is plenty for 4 adults.) Peel it and cut it in half and slice it super thin - as thin as you can - and put it in a bowl of hot tap water and let it soak for at least 30 minutes.

You can also get your plate of chicken and start slicing it into bite-sized strips. For a much leaner soup, I like to take off the skin. It should peel right off. Super easy!

You can also start to prep your garnish plate. From the optional garnishes listed near the top of this post, choose some of your favorite veggies. I personally like using fresh cilantro, green onions, lime wedges, bean sprouts, and fresh jalapeno. Fresh bean sprouts work the best, but if you live in a secluded place like I do where fresh produce isn't always an option, canned bean sprouts will also work. If you use green onions as a garnish, only use the green part...save the white part for later.

I also like using a combination of Sriracha sauce and hot chili sauce.

Now you can soak your noodles. I use Orchids brand, but any rice noodles will work as long as they are very thin noodles.

You'll want to soak them in a bowl of tap water for about 15-20 minutes. Also, you can get a medium pot and fill it almost to the top with water and put it on to boil.

Now you can start straining out your broth. You can use a cheese cloth or a strainer, just be sure all you're straining through is liquid. Since I don't have a second stock pot, I just use a large mixing bowl to put the broth in until I can empty out the stock pot, rinse it, and return the strained broth to keep hot. Basically strain out the broth and discard everything else. If you want to, you can keep some of the parts like the neck and wings...I also like to keep the liver and heart for a little exotic tasting treat.

After your broth is strained, return it to the stove to keep it hot.

When you prepped your garnish plate, you saved the white parts of the green onions, right?

Chop those up and add them to the strained broth as an added extra treat.

Your pot of water should now be boiling. Take a strainer and your rice noodles and - in small quantities - put the noodles into the strainer and dip it into the boiling water for 10-15 seconds. Repeat until all your rice noodles are cooked.

Remember your bowl of soaking onions? Drain the water out of it. If you want to, you can dip the onions in the boiling water like you did with the noodles, but I like a bit of crunch to stay with the onions. You are now ready to serve! Make sure your broth is very hot! On the verge of boiling is preferred.

To assemble the bowls, take a little bit of noodles, a few pieces of chicken, and some soaked onions and put it in your bowl. Dip some hot broth over it until it's soup!

Garnish to your liking and voila! Pho Ga!

Enjoy! And thanks for reading!

Side note: This is a very lean and healthy soup. If you would like to make it even leaner, refrigerate the prepared broth overnight and there will be a thin layer of hardened fat on the top that you can skim off. Then just reheat the broth and serve as described above!

Best served in the company of great friends. :) Thank you Tschida family for coming over! :)