Food

Every Tuesday, we stop by a local Vietnamese restaurant that specializes in pho – that ethereally fragrant brothy soup that’s filled with wonderfully tender rice noodles, thinly sliced meats, herbs, limes and chiles. From time to time, I make pho at home, too, often it’s as easy as this Quick Pho, but often enough, I take the time to make Pho Ga, or Chicken Pho.

Savory and fragrant, chicken broth has long held a sacred role in kitchens across the globe. The writings of 10th and 12th century physicians extoll its value, and some of the earliest cookbooks reserve whole sections of their manuscripts for healing foods, which, invariably include broths intended as first foods for babies or to nurse the ill and convalescent back to health. Traditionally prepared bone broths are sacred foods.

Fragrant with the rich aroma of ginger, coriander and star anise, this Vietnamese-style chicken noodle soup is deeply aromatic and utterly soothing. Serve it over tender rice noodles, topped with plenty of fresh herbs and chiles.
Ingredients
1 whole chicken
2 chicken feet, if available
1 (4-inch) hand ginger
1 bunch cilantro
2 large shallots
8 large green onions
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
2 star anise pods
2 cloves
2 tablespoons fish sauce (I like this brand)
1 (8-ounce) package traditional flat rice noodles (find organic rice noodles here)
1 white onion, thinly sliced
2 jalapeno peppers, sliced about ⅛-inch thick
2 limes, quartered
Mung bean sprouts
Hoisin (I use this brand.), for the table
Sriracha (I use this brand.) or homemade fermented hot chile sauce, for the table

Instructions
Parboil the chicken and chicken feet by first tucking them into a stock pot. Cover the bird with water by 2 inches. Bring to a boil over high heat, and allow the chicken to boil for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat, drain off the liquid and rinse any foam or scum off the chicken. Wipe out the pot. Place the chicken and its feet back in the pot.
Split the ginger crosswise. Stem the cilantro, reserving both the stems and the leaves. Cut the shallots in half lengthwise, and then separate the white and light-green parts of the green onions from the dark-green parts.
Add the ginger, cilantro stems, shallots, and root tips of the green onions to the stock pot with the chicken, and then drop in the coriander, star anise and cloves. Pour enough water into the stock pot to cover the chicken by two inches. Bring the contents of the pot to a boil over high-heat, and then immediately turn down the heat to medium-low. Simmer for thirty minutes, and then remove the chicken from the pot. Cut the chicken breasts from the bone, slice them thinly and set them in an airtight-container in the fridge. Return the chicken to the pot, and continue simmering it a further 2 hours. Strain the broth, discarding the solids. Wipe out the stockpot, and pour the strained broth back into the pot. Keep it warm over low heat while you prepare the other ingredients.
Soak the flat noodles in hot water for 10 minutes. While they soak, bring a pot of hot water to a boil. Plunge the soaked noodles into the boiling water about 20 to 30 seconds, until tender, and then drain them. Chop the dark green parts of the green onion very thinly.
Arrange the noodles, sliced chicken breast, sliced green onions and sliced white onion in your bowls.
Arrange the sliced jalapeno, mung bean sprouts, and remaining herbs on a platter.
When you're ready to serve the soup, ladle hot broth over the contents of the boil. At the table, allow guests to add additional herbs, and a squeeze of lime, hoisin or sriracha as they like.