Ingredients
- **Spices
- 2 tbsp coriander seeds
- 2 tsp fennel seeds
- 3 whole star anise
- 1 whole black cardamom pod
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 5 cloves
- **Aromatics
- 4 inch ginger knob
- 2 white onion
- 2 shallot
- **Broth
- 6-8 cups water
- 1 whole uncooked chicken
- 1/4 cup Squid Brand fish sauce
- 2-3 pieces rock sugar
- 1 tbsp chicken stock powder
- 1 tsp msg (optional)
- **To serve
- 1 packet bahn pho rice noodles
- 1 long red chilli
- 1-2 cups bean sprouts
- 1 tbsp sriracha (and/or hoisin depending on preference)
- 2 spring onion (green part only, sliced)
- 2-3 sprigs coriander
- 1-2 sprigs mint
- 2-3 sprigs Thai basil
- 1 lime (cheeks cut off)
Method
- For the broth, remove the skin and clean the root of 1 of the whole white onions and the 2 whole shallots. Clean the ginger. Then carefully toast them all one at a time over an element or hot pan, rotating occasionally, to give a blistered char on all sides. Add to the slow cooker.
- Break down the chicken, separating as many of the bones from the meat as possible. Add the drumsticks, wing bones, thigh bones, and carcass to the slow cooker. Reserve any boneless meat pieces in the fridge that you would like to serve in the pho later, such as the breast or thigh meat.
- Add the water, chicken stock powder and fish sauce to the slow cooker basin. Turn the slow cooker to low, add in the rock sugar, gently stir then cover and cook for 8-12 hours. Make sure to occasionally remove any scum as it rises to the surface.
- Remove the onion, shallots and ginger after around 3 hours to prevent these from making the stock taste bitter. (Alternatively add these aromatics for the final 3 hours of cooking).
- Once your stock has been cooking for around 8-12 hours and with 40 minutes remaining until you would like to serve, toast off your spices in a dry pan, agitating regularly to prevent burning. Add to a muslin cloth, then wrap and tie up.
- Once you are 30 mins away from serving, strain the chicken bones from the broth with a strainer over a wok or stock pot, that can catch all of your clear chicken broth. Then place the stock pot onto the gas stove over a medium heat and add in your spice cloth bag to the broth. Bring to a simmer.
- Once simmering, add the chicken thighs or breasts that you want to serve. Cook for around 10-15 minutes. Exact cooking time will depend on the size of your chicken pieces.
- Put a second pot of water on to boil. Once the water is boiling and there is around 10 minutes remaining until you would like to serve, add your Bahn pho noodles to the pot. Cook the noodles for 1 minute less than the instructions recommend. Remember the noodles will continue to cook once you plate up the dish.
- While the noodles cook, thinly cut your second white onion into half ring slices and leave in cold water until serving to remove the harsh flavour.
- Prepare your toppings for the bowl. Rinse the bean sprouts, chilli, coriander, mint, spring onions and Thai basil and chop to your liking.
- Strain your noodles and add to your serving bowls.
- Once the chicken meat is cooked through, remove from the broth and slice into bite size pieces. Place the chicken atop your noodles.
- Taste your broth flavour and adjust if needed. Here you can add more fish sauce or add in msg if needed.
- Remove the spice bag from your broth and ladle into each bowl, just covering the noodles.
- To garnish, top with your favourite herbs, for my bowl I used coriander, Thai basil, spring onion and mint. Add as much of the bean sprouts, chilli, lime and sriracha as you like to your bowl before serving.
- Serve and enjoy your soothing hot bowl of phở gà!
Product used in recipe
- Squid Brand - Fish Sauce
