Vietnamese Chicken Soup with Bok Choi and Noodles
I haven’t been cooking Asian for a while, but recently I was making a large amount of chicken stock and decided to use some of it to make the recipe below. It’s from Hot Sour Salty Sweet, a cool travelogue-type cookbook that gives a great background on the cuisines of Southeast Asia, from Vietnamese to Thai to Laotian to South Chinese. This soup is from Vietnam and is called canh ga.
The bok choi in this soup goes very well with the chicken stock, and makes this simple soup tasty and satisfying. I used sweet potato noodles (made from that vegetable’s starch), which worked well because they’re thick and firm, and went well with the bok choi. We didn’t have any fish sauce in the house, so I seasoned the soup with oyster sauce instead – nice funky flavor to lift it up and make it a little special.
Heat & Knives
The Recipe
Source: Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia
2 chicken legs or 1 chicken breast (approximately 1 pound)
6 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
2 ounces cellophane noodles, soaked in warm water for 20 minutes and drained
5 to 6 stalks bok choi or Swiss chard, thoroughly washed
3 tablespoons Vietnamese or Thai fish sauce
salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper
Rinse the chicken, remove and discard the skin and fat, and place in a large pot. Add the broth and water and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, half-covered, skimming off any foam that rises to the surface, for 30 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.
Remove the chicken from the broth and let sit for a moment, until cool enough to handle. Discard the bones, shred the meat, and set aside. If you have time, chill the broth and then skim off the fat; if not, strain the broth into a saucepan through a colander lined with two layers of cheesecloth. (The soup can be prepared ahead to this point and the chicken and broth stored separately, once cooled, in well-sealed containers in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.)
Meanwhile, using scissors, cut the soaked noodles into 3- to 4-inch lengths; set aside. Cut off the bok choi or chard stems and set aside for another purpose. Slice the leaves lengthwise in half and cut crosswise into 1-inch slices.
When ready to serve, heat the broth to a simmer. Add the fish sauce, taste for seasonings, and add salt if you wish. Divide the shredded chicken ammong six soup bowls. Add the cellophane noodles and greens to the simmering broth and bring to a vigorous boil. Give the soup a good stir, then ladle the hot soup over the chicken, distributing the noodles and greens among the bowls. Grind black pepper generously over each bowl and serve at once.
Note: This soup can be served Vietnamese style over cooked rice: Allow at least ½ cup cooked rice per person. Place the rice in large soup bowls, add the shredded chicken, and ladle the soup over.
