Vietnamese Chicken Soup with Green 'Noodles'
Cook Time 1.5 hours
Servings 6
Ingredients
1 tablespoon cooking oil (preferably coconut for health reasons or go with veg)
1 large brown onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, fine dice (plus extra if you think you’re getting a cold!)
1 large knob of ginger, fine dice or minced (plus extra if you think you’re getting a cold!)
3 litres of water
3 cinnamon sticks, broken in half
6 star anise
4 dried red chillies, broken in half (get these babies in the Asian section)
1 large whole free-range chicken (about 1.5 – 2kg)
1/2 cup fish sauce, plus extra to taste
LOADS of Asian greens (pak choy, buk choy, chinese broccoli), diced into thick strips – I would buy at least 3 – 4 big bunches of greens.
2 – 3 limes, juicy juice only
Method
Place a large saucepan or stockpot over medium – high heat, add oil, when oil is hot add onion and sauté for about 3 – 5 minutes, until onions are translucent and soft. Add garlic and ginger and continue to cook for 1 – 2 minutes.
Add water, cinnamon, star anise and dried chillies to the saucepan. Bring to the boil. Once water is boiling, add chicken. The amount of water should just cover the chicken, add a little more if need be. Let the water come to a gentle simmer then turn off the heat completely and allow the chicken to sit in the water for about 50 minutes. (This allows the chicken meat to be tender and moist) Skim surface of any impurities or excess oil that comes to the surface.
Remove the chicken from the water, reserving the stock. Allow the chicken to cool then remove the meat from the chicken and shred.
At this stage you can either pick out the spices or strain the stock, I like to just pick out the spices and keep the chillies in the soup along with the diced onion, ginger and garlic
Bring stock to the boil, skim for any impurities that come to the surface, add diced greens (make sure you add diced stalks too) and then turn down or off the heat.
Add chicken back into the stock, season with fish sauce. Taste and see if it needs more fish sauce. Squeeze fresh lime juice over soup when serving in big bowls.
