Tonight was the perfect night for soup. I'm recovering from a cold. M had a late lunch and wasn't super hungry. Thus my plan was realized to fake it in our kitchen and make "pho". I didn't snap any photos of the finished product as it disappeared too quickly. Here's what you need to make your own impasta (hachachachacha). The following serves two for dinner or three for a light lunch.
Ingredients:
32 oz container chicken stock (I like Pacific Natural Foods' broth if I haven't made stock, and I often don't)
1 cup water
2 tsp rice vinegar
1/3 package thin rice noodles or cellophane noodles
1 Tbsp oil
1 boneless skinless chicken breast
1/4 onion sliced thin (red or yellow works)
1 nub ginger sliced thin (approx 1 tsp)
Garnish
1 lime, rolled and quartered
1 jalapeno, sliced thin
small handful fresh basil leaves
medium handful fresh cilantro
1 cup green cabbage, fat chop (I didn't have bean sprouts and I wanted something slightly sweet and crunchy)
Method:
In a 2 - 3 qt saucepan, heat broth, water and half the sliced ginger over medium low .
While broth heats, heat oil in small frying pan over medium heat.
Add good dash of sea salt, and saute onions and remaining ginger until just browning.
Move aside onion mixture and add chicken breast to the pan. Cook until seared on one side, then flip and repeat.
Cover and cook over medium low heat until the thickest part of the breast is 155-160 degrees.
Once broth is at rolling simmer (just shy of boiling) add noodles and remove from heat.
Set aside chicken to rest for several minutes, then slice thinly.
Add any juices from chicken pan, the sliced chicken & splash of rice vinegar to the broth.
Prepare a plate of all the garnish - this is the best part of the soup.
Dish out bowls of noodles (which have magically cooked in the passing minutes), chicken & broth.
Add torn basil, cilantro, jalapenos, cabbage (or other veggies) and squeeze that lime.
Dig in and be sure to slurp because it makes dinner more fun.
This yummy first attempt didn't have the complexity that a lot of pho broth has, since I didn't cook porkbelly or do anything much except open a carton and cook some aromatics. It did pack a nice amount of warmth and was a definite success, even if it's one I'm ready to improve upon. M and I are committed to getting back into the kitchen since cooking at home more is the only way we're going to pay for our home's seemingly endless remodel. Here's to this being the first of many meals we'll be sharing soon. Thanks for reading!
