Quick Chicken Pho

A hot steaming bowl of chicken pho is one of the most delicious and comforting meals to have when its cold outside. This quick version is made with store bought chicken stock which makes it super easy and suitable to make on weekdays.

Course Breakfast, Dinner, Lunch

Cuisine Vietnamese

Keyword Chicken Pho, Pho Ga

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 30

Total Time 45

Servings people

Calories 840kcal

Author Scruff

Equipment

3L Pot

Ingredients

4 chicken thighs fillets or 2 breasts, cleaned
500 gm dried rice noodles (generous servings) or 1 kg of fresh rice noodles

Soup Ingredients

2 L low sodium liquid chicken stock
1 cup water
1 onion, cut in half
30 gm ginger, thinly sliced
2 tsp sugar
cracked pepper, to taste
2 tbsp fish sauce or to taste
1 tsp chicken bouillon powder or to taste (Optional)

Aromatics

3 star anise (whole)
1 tbsp coriander seeds

Garnish

2 stalks spring onions, finely chopped
1/4 red onion, finely sliced
10 sprigs coriander roughly chopped (optional)

To Serve (Place on the Table)

125 gm bean sprouts, rinsed
1 lemon, cut into wedges (optional)
6 sprigs Thai basil (optional)
2 birds eye chilli or jalapenos finely chopped (optional)

Condiments (Place on the Table)

Sriracha / chilli sauce (highly recommended but optional)
hoisin sauce (highly recommended but optional)

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Prepare all your ingredients.
Add the chicken stock and 1 cup of water to a stock pot on medium high heat. Allow the pot to come to a boil.
In a small fry pan on medium heat, add the coriander seeds and whole star anise. Toast the aromatics until fragrant. Wrap them up in a cheesecloth / chux cloth or tea bag.
In the same fry pan, dry fry the onion halves and sliced ginger until their is a bit of char. Once done, add them to the stock pot.
When the soup is boiling, add the chicken, sugar, pepper, chicken bouillon powder and toasted aromatics. Give the pot a stir and wait for stock to come back to a boil.
Once boiling, turned down the heat to medium low and let the pot simmer partially covered for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, take out a piece of chicken and check if its done. If yes, then take out the rest and let it cool. If not, leave the chicken in the pot until done.
Put the lid back on the pot with a small gap for the steam to escape and continue to simmer on low until needed.
Tear up the chicken into bite sized pieces and leave in a closed container until needed. Prepare all your herbs / veg and the noodles as directed on the packaging.
When everything is prepped, add the fish sauce to the pot and taste check. Adjust the seasoning according to your taste. (Note 1)

Bowl Assembly

Turn up the heat to medium high on the stock pot and fish out the star anise and ginger.
Divide the noodles into the bowls and put the chicken pieces on top. If using fresh noodles, please refer to note 2.
Ladle over the boiling stock and add all the garnishes on top.
Serve

Notes

If you want to add more salt and flavour to the stock then use fish sauce. If you need to dilute the stock to make more or toned down the flavour then add boiling water. However, the stock will be diluted further once you add the noodles and herbs. So, it is perfectly fine for the stock to be on the saltier side at this stage.
If you are using fresh rice noodles, then divide the noodles into bowls. Pour boiling water into the bowl and move the noodles around for 10 seconds and then strain. The noodles are now ready for the soup.

Nutrition