Sunday, September 25, 2011


It was too easy to make....but don't tell!

I grew up not wanting to cook. To be honest, I thought cooking was too time consuming and I just don't know if I have what it takes. But when I moved away from home, cooking became a necessity because eating out was too expensive for my poor wallet. I always look to find recipes and food that is easy to make without compromising the taste. Today I made Chicken Pho and for twenty dollars this recipe can feed up to 8 people. 

Pho is a Vietnamese soup made with broth from beef or chicken and enjoyed with rice noodes. It can be very time consuming, making a good broth can take up to five hours for beef noodle soup. The Chicken Pho only took me one hour.







First step I always take is to char the spices because doing this will bring out a richer aroma and sweetness in the ingredients. Pictured here are some charred ginger. You can roast these in the oven but I like to just do what's quickest so I just pop them on top of my stove.








When you make any kind of Pho, you'll need the main spices. I went to the store and bought a ready packed spice bag for about $1.50. Brought it home took everything out and toasted them in a pan. I have star anise, cloves, coriander seeds, cardamon seeds, and cinnamon sticks. I like to use less of the fennel seeds and coriander seeds. Once you roast these guys on your pan, the smell of the Pho shop instantly hits your nose and happiness ensues. Not pictured here, but I also cut my onions in half and char those as well.







After the spices and ginger has been charred nicely.  I take everything but the onion and put them inside the mesh bag that the spices came with. This keeps them from falling out all over your soup.







Get out your soup pot and pour water into it. Let it boil and add your thawed chicken parts. I just used the chicken thighs and legs that I bought at the store, I promise you, you do not need the whole chicken for this. Then let your chicken cook for five to ten minutes so you will not be washing away the flavor. You'll want to take the whole pot and dump out the broth and wash your chicken again. We do this because it helps the broth look clear and get rid of alot of the froth.







Now that the chicken has been washed, go ahead add water in your soup pot to cover at least half of the pot. Let the water boil and then add your chicken meat with the seasoning and the onion. After about ten minutes, I take the chicken out and shred the meat. If you want more flavor, then add the chicken bones back into your broth. Let this baby cook for another forty minutes on medium heat.  Add fish sauce and sugar for seasoning of the broth. And the hard part is done. If you want a deeper richer broth, you set it simmer in a medium to low heat for longer. But I find this makes the broth deeper in color and gives a more richer broth similar to the beef pho



Get our rice noodles ready by boiling them up in hot hot water and draining them afterwards. If you want to make these noodles before hand, I would recommend adding a little bit of canola oil to the noodles. Doing so will prevent them from sticking together.






Ta-da! Pho is one of those things that you cannot just describe because it is that good. Too good for words. It's perfect right now for the oncoming fall as the rain starts coming back and the wind gets chilly while I enjoy my perfect warm bowl of happiness. I got tired of watching Anthony Bourdain eating Pho so I decided to just make it. Best decision ever! I hope you'll try it out too and let me know if you have any questions I can answer.


Saturday, September 24, 2011