Simplest Phô on earth!

Phô is the dish/ soup which everyone MUST try when coming to Vietnam but how simple is it to make your own? On the streets they boil the chicken carcasses for hours on end dispersing the flavours into the liquid. I tried to do the same thing for a few less hours and it makes the most tasteless stock on earth, you feel yourself reaching for the Swiss Bouillon stock cubes…

But then I finally came up with this recipe which works extremely well with leftover roast chicken, and you can throw in whatever ingredients you happen to have lying around!

STOCK:

1 chicken carcass

2 star Anise
1 carrot - diced
1 celery stick - diced into larger chunks
1/2 an onion
Black pepper
Water - enough to cover the chicken (roughly around 1-1.5 litres)

If it's not tasty enough add a stock cube (chicken).

INGREDIENTS FOR PHÔ:

1 inch fresh ginger finely chopped
1-2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1/2 or more birds eye chilli - to taste
1 bunch of spring onions - just the green part
Roast chicken left overs OR 2 roasted legs skin removed; chop into small pieces
Fresh coriander to season
A little butter and olive oil for frying
Rice, glass, or egg noodles

METHOD:
Heat the butter and olive oil in a pan and fry the  ginger, garlic, chilli and spring onions till soft.
Add chicken stock and bring to the boil
Add chicken
When it is boiling add enough noodles for each person, these usually take 2-4 minutes to cook but check the packaging just in case.
Lastly add the chopped coriander.

SERVING:
I really recommend it with the traditional condiments of chilli sauce, lime, peanuts and soy sauce. You can eat it with crunchy bread as well.