Pho Ga (Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup)

Well I did it! At least I think I did....I attempted Pho. After discovering this little Restaurant In Vernon, BC, I  became inspired to try my own Pho at home. It wasn't as good...Ha, but it tasted great and was fun to do!

I didn't follow any recipe in particular, I more just searched and found 2 or 3 I thought sounded good and came up with what I thought would be good.

Here is a link to one site I used, Click Here, I essentially quadrupled the recipe to make a 20 qt stock pot, I was serving 10 adults and numerous kids. I used all the stock ingredients listed and added coriander seeds as well. I also just used 7 chicken legs with backs attached instead of a whole chicken.

For the stock I didn't char the onion or the ginger like almost all of the sites say to do....But I started with those in water and the chicken, I lightly toasted all the spices and placed in cheesecloth and popped it into the broth. I brought to a boil and simmerd for 1 hr, I then removed all the chicken pieces and set in a bowl to cool, keep broth on a low simmer. Once the chicken was cool to handle, I removed all the meat, and added all the bones back to the broth. I simmered the broth, adding more of this and that, mainly salt...for 2 hrs. Through out the process I skimmed off any foam, and removed all the bones, spice bag, onion and ginger before serving.

I used thin rice vermicelli noodles. I cooked to package instruction. I kept in a bowl until serving time. Then came the fun part! Assembly! In each bowl I added the cooked noodles, a few pieces of chicken, a few cut up green onions and some cilantro.

 I then ladled the hot broth and served with suggested side options (bean sprouts, cilantro, lime, green onion, basil, jalapeno)

All the pictures of the Pho were the next day supper with Just the family, I added broccoli to the stock and peppers to the bowl before serving.

It was delicious, the kids had a blast using chopsticks and it was fairly easy to do! I think it will become one of the meals on the Munk family rotation!

Go Pho!

Cory