Pho Ga (Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup)

By GERLIE M. UY

My First serving of Pho Ga...
The coriander leaves should have been left in the stock
while it boils and should not be served....

*Stock
1 native dressed chicken
4 liters water
3 cinnamon sticks
1 stalk Coriander with roots
1 thumb-sized ginger,crushed
3 cube Pho Ga stock (use 1-2 chicken stock)
fish sauce
2 liters hot water

*Noodles
Rice noodles
Hot water

*Garnish:
Chopped spring onions
mongo sprouts
celery leaves
coriander leaves
quail eggs
calamansi or any citrus (I used dalandan)
chili sauce
fish sauce

How To:
Clean whole or sliced chicken and add in 4 liters water in a pot. Add cinnamon sticks, coriander roots and stem with some leaves, and crushed ginger. Let boil until chicken is tender and water is reduced to about half.
Remove the chicken and set aside in a bowl. Separate the flesh from bones and sliced into strips, if preferred. Chicken may be served as is.
Remove other solids (or leave it with the stock).

In a large bowl, place the dried rice noodles. Put hot water and stir until the transparent noodle turns into white color.

Arrange the garnishes in separate bowls.
Just before serving, add 2 more liters of water and bring to a boil. Add Pho Ga cube stock, adjust the taste with fish sauce.

In a bowl, arrange the noodles, then the garnishes, add the hot stock. Squeeze citrus, add fish sauce or chili sauce just before eating.

Enjoy Pho Ga.

For more info on Pho, here's the link of wikipedia. And for some trivia, The word "pho" was added to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary in 2007. I made an attempt on Pho Bo or Beef Noodle Soup in the past; here's the link.