Chicken Noodle Pho

This aromatic pho style chicken soup is full of nourishing goodness on a cold winter's day. I make it with lots of green herbs, onion, and bean sprouts but you could also add shredded lettuce or any other vegetable that takes your fancy.  The chicken broth base is scented with lemongrass, ginger, and garlic and then finished off with fish sauce and lime juice.

This chicken pho soup recipe is influenced by many wonderful chicken noodle soups that I have eaten across Asia, but especially in Vietnam.

I am a devotee of Vietnamese pho and have spent many hours trying to recreate the taste of Hanoi street food in my kitchen. If you love beef pho, please take a look at my cheat's beef bone broth pho recipe. Traditional pho is made with rice noodles but I often make this with shirataki or 'zero-carb' noodles so that it becomes a super low-calorie supper.

To get the full health benefits and maximum flavour from this Asian chicken noodle soup, I recommend making your own chicken stock or aka chicken bone broth from scratch. Bone broth is full of collagen, glycine, and easy-to-access trace minerals and one of the best foods you can eat for your guy. It was traditionally given to help recuperation from illness and I was always given it as a child. I worked it into my own children's baby food and make sure they eat it regularly to this day. It is really quite easy and can be frozen in batches to save time. Here is the recipe for my super collagen chicken stock aka chicken bone broth. I make it with raw chicken for this soup but a traditional roast chicken stock like my mother and grandmother always made will also work. At the very least, buy a prepared stock and not those nasty stock cubes as they have zero nutritional value.

Ingredients

Serves 2

• 2 poached chicken breasts, shredded

• 500ml chicken stock or chicken bone broth.

• 2 stalks lemongrass, white parts only

• A clove of garlic

• A large thumb of ginger, peeled and thickly sliced

• Juice of a wedge of lime

• 1 tablespoon fish sauce or more to taste

• A bunch of green spring onions or scallions, chopped

• A handful of beansprouts  or silver sprouts

• A bunch of fresh green herbs such as coriander, that basil, and mint

• Lime wedges  to garnish

Dipping sauce

• 1 red chili, finely chopped

• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped

• 1 teaspoon sugar

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 tablespoon lime juice

Method

• Combine the dipping sauce ingredients to give the flavours time to mingle.

• Slowly. warm the chicken stock with garlic, lemongrass, and ginger so that they release their aromas to scent the broth.

• Meanwhile, shred the chicken meat with a knife and fork.

• Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions but be careful not to overcook as they will continue to cook in the soup.

• Season the soup with fish sauce and lime to your personal taste, alongside the dipping sauce.

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