Vietnamese Chicken Pho (Phở Gà)

What is Phở Gà?

Phở gà is Vietnamese chicken noodle soup: a clear, fragrant broth made by simmering a whole chicken with charred onion and ginger and toasted spices like star anise, cinnamon, and white peppercorns. It is lighter than beef phở but just as comforting.

The whole chicken does double duty, flavoring the broth and giving you tender shredded meat to top each bowl. Serve it over fresh rice noodles with green onion and cilantro, plus Thai basil, bean sprouts, and lime on the side. The broth is ready in about an hour.

Vietnamese Chicken Pho (Phở Gà)

Print Recipe

Ingredients

• 4 lb whole chicken
• 1 tablespoon white peppercorn
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 4 star anise
• 1 medium rock sugar
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 large white onion
• 4 slices ginger
• 2 tablespoon fish sauce
• fresh rice noodle
• green onion for garnish
• cilantro for garnish

Instructions

• In a 6 qt pot, add your cleaned whole chicken and fill the pot ¾ full with water. Bring to high heat and wait for it to come to a boil.
• While waiting for the pot to boil, char the whole onion and ginger. Remove skin once cooled. Wash off any remaining char to prevent broth from getting dark in color.
• In a separate small pan, over medium-low heat, toast your aromatics (cinnamon sticks, peppercorns, and star anise). Once the peppercorns begin to pop, turn off the heat and allow to cool. Add all the aromatics into a tea infuser or spice bag.
• Once the pot with the chicken begins to boil, remove the foam that collects at the top.
• Add the onion, ginger, cinnamon sticks, and tea infuser with spices to the pot with the chicken. Add the rock sugar and 1 tablespoon salt. Lower the heat to medium-low and allow to cook for 1 hour.
• After 1 hour, the chicken should be fully cooked. Remove the entire chicken and submerge in a bowl of cool water to prevent the chicken from browning.
• Remove the leftover onion, ginger, spices from the broth with a strainer and toss. Season the broth with 2 tablespoon fish sauce.
• Once the chicken cools, shred the meat into a separate container.
• Cook the rice noodles according to package instructions.
• Assemble your bowl with noodles, shredded chicken, green onions, cilantro, and black pepper. Ladle the broth over the noodles.
• Serve hot with side of Thai basil, beansprouts, and lime for garnish.