Authentic Pho Ga (Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup)

🧂 Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken

  (about 3-3.5 lbs)
• 3 thumb-sized pieces of ginger, peeled and sliced in half vertically
• 5 large shallots, peeled
• 1 small piece of cassia bark, or 1 cinnamon stick
• 2-3 star anises
• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds

  (or 3-4 cloves, please see Notes if using cloves)
• 1 black cardamom pods, cracked open
• 2 teaspoons salt

  (plus more to parboil the chicken)
• 2-3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 9 cups water
• pho rice noodles
• scallions
• half an onion, sliced very thinly
• freshly cracked black pepper
• birds-eye chili pepper, sliced
• lime wedges

Instructions

• 1 Add boiling water to a pot large enough to fit in the chicken. Add a pinch of
  salt and chicken to the pot. Let it boil for a minute, then remove the chicken
  and discard the liquid.
• 2 In a pan over medium heat, dry roast the ginger and shallots until fragrant and
  lightly develop colors. Set ginger and shallots aside.
• 3 Reduce the heat to medium low. Add cassia bark/cinnamon, star anises, coriander
  seeds and black cardamom pod (if using) and toast just until fragrant. Be
  careful not to let them burn. Put spices in a spice pouch.
• 4 In a clean pot, add chicken, ginger, shallots, spice pouch, 2 teaspoons of salt
  and 9 cups of water. When it starts to boil, skim off any foams and lower heat
  to a gentle simmer. 
• 5 Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the chicken is just cooked through.
  You can test by using a meat thermometer, or inserting a chopstick and see if
  the juice runs clear. Remove the chicken from the stock pot.
• 6 Put the chicken in an ice bath to stop the cooking. Then take it out of the ice
  bath, separate the meat from the bones. Add the bones back to the pot. Continue
  to simmer the broth for at least 45-60 minutes, or more until flavors are
  concentrated to your liking.
• 7 Before serving, taste the broth and flavor with 2-3 tablespoons of fish sauce to
  taste.
• 8 Add 1 piece of ginger and half the shallots with the chicken to your pressure
  cooker. Add 2 teaspoons of salt and 6 cups of water. Close the lid and valve,
  pressure cook on High for 3-4 minutes (depending on the size of the chicken). 
• 9 Slowly release the pressure manually. Remove the chicken from the pressure
  cooker, put it in an ice bath to stop the cooking. Then take it out of the ice
  bath, separate the meat from the bones. Add the bones back to the pressure
  cooker.
• 10 Add the remaining ginger, shallots and the spice pouch to the pressure cooker.
  Pressure cook on High for 20-30 minutes (the longer the better), and let it
  release pressure naturally.
• 11 Once pressure cooking is over, taste the broth and see if you can add some more
  boiling water without diluting the flavors. Before serving, flavor with fish
  sauce to taste.
• 12 While the broth is cooking, shred or slice the chicken into bite-sized pieces.
  Prepare pho rice noodles according to package instructions.
• 13 Separate the white and green parts of the scallions. Thinly slice the green
  parts while quickly poach the white parts in the broth. Also slice the onion
  very thinly.
• 14 Add pho rice noodles to serving bowls, top with chicken meat, scallions and
  thinly sliced onions. Top with freshly cracked pepper. Bring the broth back to a
  boil and then ladle broth into serving bowls. 
• 15 Serve immediately with birds-eye chili and lime wedges on the side.

Nutrition Info