Making Pho

I started off by taking the left-over chicken I roasted and used the carcass to make bone broth. I made bone broth which I slow cooked for two days prior to making the Pho. I included onions, garlic and ginger in the broth. I shredded the left-over chicken and kept it in the fridge until I was ready to make the Pho. There’s so much value in one chicken. You can get a roast dinner, nutritious and gut healing bone-broth from the carcass, chicken salad, chicken curry or any way you want to eat chicken really but I was able to get two full dinners for two plus broth for the Pho and a couple of days bone broth supply from one chicken. I try to buy free range or organic.

Making the Pho was so easy as the broth was already made. I just added the star anise, Himalayan salt and pepper, cinnamon sticks, honey, tamari and miso paste. I added the chicken to the broth to let it absorb all the flavours from the herbs and let it cook for one hour on low setting. I combined the black rice noodles at this point which was a mistake as they were completely over cooked and had broken apart into pieces. So, I would recommend adding the noodles about 15 or 20 mins to go in the slower cooker or just cook them separately.  

I actually forgot to add the paste until the end but it didn’t need it as it was already full of flavour. I threw in scallions, basil leaves and a lime wedge at the end when the Pho was served in the bowl.

I know some people use fish sauce, cloves, hoisin and sriracha sauce. These are all fine to use but I just made my own version.  Feel free to experiment. This was my first time making this so I pleasantly surprised with how flavoursome and savoury it turned out.

Ingredients

• 1/2 (3-inch) whole cinnamon sticks
• 2 whole star anise
• 2/3 whole cardamom
• 1 tablespoon
• Tamari
• 1 tablespoon honey
• Basil leaves
• Lime wedge
• Scallions
• Bone broth
• Organic Miso paste
• Black rice noodles
• Pinch of Himalayan salt and pepper