Vietnamese Chicken Pho

You know that age old question, "what came first the chicken or the egg?" This post kind of reminds me of that question. Since becoming a food blogger it seems I'm always now on the look out for cool, photogenic, unusual vessels to photograph food in or with. And these bowls that I found at Crate & Barrel after Christmas came first before the soup was ever a thought. But ever since I bought them I've been on the search for a great Asian style soup to make to put them to good use. 

Actually ever since I made the chicken & shrimp wonton with lemongrass broth a few weeks ago I've kind of been on a yummy, fragrant broth craving kick. I was searching for flavorful broth to make and I came across this recipe for Vietnamese Chicken Pho Ga on Kim's Rustic Garden Bistro blog. When I saw the broth had anise and cinnamon stick I figured this was a broth worth making. 

I started making the broth and realized this was going to be at least a 2 hour commitment. Cooking the chicken in a bath of onions, garlic, anise and cinnamon brought an immediate wonderful aroma to the kitchen.

The broth cooked and cooked and became wonderful. I  pulled the chicken off the bone and then shredded it and made the noodles. 

Creating the soup was like layering a bowl of yum. I started with the cooked noodles.

Then layered on the shredded chicken, sliced onions, spinach, Thai basil and sliced green onions.

Then I ladled the broth over each bowl and topped them with some fried quail eggs and crushed red peppers. 

The pho was excellent. It sadly lacked a bit of salt. The broth tasted perfectly seasoned on it's own but I guess once poured over all of the other ingredients it kind of lost it's potency. 

It was great and the quail eggs were just a nice added treasure in the soup. 

I'm sharing the link to Kim's blog so you can check out the recipe and give it a try yourself.

Rustic Garden Bistro