Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe (Phở Gà)
In one of our previous recipe, we’ve made the famous street food, Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup, Pho Bo. In this recipe, we will make another version of this popular street food, Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup, Pho Ga. The main ingredient is, of course, chicken and optionally, chicken bones. For the herbs, you can find them at most Asian markets: cinnamon sticks, star anise, cardamom pods, cilantro seeds, cloves, etc.
You’ll need a big pot, big enough for a whole chicken. You can also use pressure cooker to speed up the process.
Also, check out our recipe for Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup, Pho Bo.
Check out our youtube channel for more short cooking videos, https://www.youtube.com/NPFamilyRecipes.
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Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup (Phở Gà)
Ingredients
- 4 lb whole chicken (cleaned)
- 2 lb chicken bones (optional)
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp chicken powder
- 1 oz rock sugar
- 1 gallon water
- 1 yellow onion (peeked)
- green onions (thinly sliced)
- cilantro (chopped)
- 1/2 yellow onion (thinly cut)
- banh pho rice noodles
- bean sprouts
- 3 lime (wedged)
- 3 thai chile (sliced)
- chili sauce
- hoisin sauce
For the spices
- 3 cinnamon sticks
- 3 star anise
- 3 cardamom pods
- 1 tsp cilantro seed
- 1 tsp clove
- 1 yellow onion (cut in half)
- 3 oz ginger (sliced)
- 3 shallots
Instructions
- Cloves and cilantro seeds
- Roast cinnamon sticks, star anises, cardamom pods, cilantro seeds, and cloves until fragrant. Put into a tea bag and set aside.
- Grill yellow onion, ginger slices,and shallots until they look a little burned. Then remove the burn and peel off the outer layers of yellow onion and shallots.
- Cook the chicken bones, if used, for 10 minutes to remove any dirt. Then wash them carefully with tap water.
- Place the bones and chicken into a large pot and fill with water. Then add all the roasted spices, grilled yellow onion, ginger slices, shallots, salt, chicken powder, rock sugar, and peeled yellow onion into the pot. Skim off the foam to get the clear broth. Cover and simmer for 1 hour.
- After an hour, remove the chicken from the pot and place it into the icy water. Cut the chicken into bite-sized slices. Then discard all the chicken bones, spices, yellow onions, ginger slices, and shallots.
- Cook the Banh Pho noodles following to the instruction on a package. Rinse and drain well.
To assemble a soup bowl
- Place the chicken slices into a noodle bowl. Then ladle the hot broth over the noodles. Top with yellow onion slices, chopped green onion and cilantro. Sprinkle with ground pepper. Add a little fish sauce to taste, if desired. It can be enjoyed with hot chili sauce, hoisin sauce, lime juice, Thai chili slices, and bean sprouts.
