Second Attempt at Pho Ga

Ingredients: Rice noodles, mung bean sprouts, basil, lemon (1), chicken dark meat, red onion (1), yellow onion (1), ginger

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Broth Preparation

1) Chop red onion into quarters. Chop white onion in half and save one of the halves. Lay chopped onion and ginger on a sheet pan and roast in an oven until charred

2) Add charred ginger and onion as well as the following whole spices: fennel seeds (1 tbsp), whole cloves (1 tbsp), black cardamom pod (2). Toast until the spices smell aromatic

3) Add various accumulated chicken scraps (mostly bones or carcass) and deglaze with water. Then add 1 tbsp each of the following powdered spices: star anise, cinnamon, coriander. Also add 2 tbsp of sugar

4) Boil on high heat until the broth is boiling, then drop to the lowest heat setting and simmer for several hours (up to a day)

Bowl Preparation

1) In a pot, boil some water and then drop rice noodles. Cook until noodles are soft. Cook in batches if preparing a larger quantity

2) On a sheet pan, lay chicken dark meat and add oil and salt. Roast at 400C for 1 hour (less if deboned). After chicken is done roasting, shred meat from the bones and deposit the bones, chicken drippings, and grease into the broth

3) In a bowl, add the rice noodles. On top of that add shredded chicken, basil, bean sprouts, cut lemon wedge, and sliced yellow onion half rings

4) Pour hot broth over the bowl contents to serve

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Remarks

– I think the broth came out better than last time but definitely had a large amount of dissolved collagen which caused it to have a thicker texture / gelatinized at a low enough temperature. This did not affect the taste which I thought was good by itself by gets watered down by the noodles

– Smaller lemon wedges added nice acidity without taking over the broth

– I prefer the method of making the broth from chicken scraps in one go as opposed to making chicken stock first. The chicken scraps I had were mostly chicken dark meat bones alongside carcass and bones from cooked cornish game hens

– The additional of chicken fat will add grease to the broth. You can de-fat it when the fat solidifies in the fridge

– I did not any significant char on the onion or ginger with the oven. I'll try using tongs and the open flame on my stove next time

– I followed this recipe as closely as possible