I’ll tell you more about my Nashville trip in tomorrow’s post…. but I’ll give you a sneak peek by letting you know this: Angela’s new husband, Jamie, was very likely scarred by our behavior.
In our normal fashion, Angela and I spent Friday night being girls: hot tubbing and drinking wine, singing at the top of our lungs to Kelly Clarkson in the kitchen, being ridiculous as always, and poor Jamie would always walk in during the most inopportune moments of girl talk.
Really not sure why I don’t have a hot tub.
Despite the craziness of Friday night, he also would have gotten to see us at our best on Saturday had he not gone to the Vanderbilt game. We love to cook; we love to hang out in the kitchen and spent Saturday doing just that.
Strangely, there were no shots of the chefs during the cooking process, but here’s one of us after we got prettied up for the night!
Angela and I had pre-planned to make homemade pho during my visit. She had been taught how to make it by a friend from Laos, and I had recently fallen in love with pho at a restaurant in South Denver.
What also made this recipe fun was that I got introduced to a WHOLE BUNCH of new ingredients that I’d never cooked with before! Including these Asian long beans… SO GOOD! Denver H-Mart…. here I come!
Homemade Chicken Pho
From AMRPRB
SOUP INGREDIENTS
1 box reduced sodium chicken broth
2 cups water
1 onion, peeled
4-5 star anise
small chunk of ginger, peeled
1 lb. chicken tenderloins
1 bag fresh rice stick noodles
salt
pepper
white pepper
TOPPINGS FOR YOUR SOUP
1 bunch of scallions
1 lime, quartered
bean sprouts
lemongrass
basil
hoisin sauce
asian beef paste
siracha sauce
fried garlic flakes
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Place broth, water, onion, ginger, and anise in a large pot and bring it to a boil. Note: Peel the ginger and the onion, but place both in the pot whole. The ginger can be cut into smaller chunks, but keep them on the larger size as you will remove them.
My first time ever cooking with Star Anise….
Angela made a double batch. Thus, the 2nd onion.
2. Once your broth is boiling, add chicken tenderloins to the pot. Cut chicken into small pieces. Cover and boil at medium-high for 20-30 minutes, until the chicken has cooked through. Season the broth with salt, black pepper, and white pepper. Note: Angela is an Italian cook… she just shakes it in, so I don’t have quantities here. My aunt used to do the same thing. So, that being said more salt, a few shakes of white pepper, and just a smidge of black pepper… that’s how I saw it.
3. While chicken boils, use this time to prepare your “pho accessories.” Chop your scallions, quarter your limes and wash your veggies. Note: There are many, many different things you can add to your pho. Angela’s preferences are what we added (less the basil and lemongrass), but many pho restaurants also include jalapenos and other tasty add-ons.
4. Once you’ve confirmed your chicken has cooked through, remove the ginger chunks and the star anise from the stock. You won’t be eating those. Also remove the onion and slice it!
These yummy onions will become toppings for the soup. Angela suggests making it this way so people can add as much or as little onion as they’d like.
5. Next, it’s time to make the noodles. Bring a pot of unsalted water to a boil on the stove.
Here are the noodles we used. Fresh rice noodles… you find them in the refrigerated section at the Asian food store. This huge bag allegedly serves 8.
Cook each portion of noodles separately. Remember, the noodles will cook down significantly.
Use one of these wire sieves to cook the noodles quickly. Note-to-self: Must buy one when I get home!
6. Once water has boiled, place the noodle basket on the stove and whisk the noodles with your chopsticks. Each batch cooks up in just about 30 seconds! Once done, place noodles in the bottom of a deep bowl.
Quickly stir with chopsticks.
They look like this when done
7. Ladle soup onto the noodles.
Doesn’t that look amazing?
8. Add your toppings: bean sprouts, hoisin sauce, lime juice, garlic flakes, siracha sauce, and beef paste. Note: Less is more when you’re flavoring it for the first time. You can always add more!
Not really sure what beef paste is, but ok… I’ll add it.
Before I stirred it up…
9. Serve with chopsticks and an asian spoon and ENJOY!!!
That looks insanely delicious… wish I had a bowl now!!!
I am so not graceful with my noodle eating…
And… we totally found the bottom of our bowls.
I LOVED this recipe, and I LOVED this soup. I cannot wait to get home and make it myself! If you’re a pho fan and interested in trying it at home… try this! So good!
She also gave me some instructions for making the beef with the yummy Asian meatballs. Oh yeah… can’t wait to make that too!
Lastly, as I write this post in Virginia, the fam is interested in trying this. It just might be dinner tomorrow night!
Per 1/5 serving of soup with 3/4 cup cooked rice noodles
(sauces and add-ons not included):
CAL 224; CARB 29g; FAT 1g; SAT FAT 0g; PROT 26g; FIB 0g; SUG 1g
WW Points+: 6; WW Smart Points: 4
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