My chicken noodle soup

I've been making this soup for something like 15 years now. It's never exactly the same but each time it's excellent. It takes a lot of inspiration from Phở gà, a Vietnamese soup loaded with star anise, lime, cinnamon, soy sauce noodles and tender chicken.

The perfect chicken noodle soup

While this has a lot of ingredients and methods found in the makings of Phở, the inclusion of celery, carrots, leeks and mushrooms are callbacks to the memories of my mother's chicken noodle soup. Like everything else, this soup is great the night you make it but it truly shines the next day, after it's had time to fully incorporate all the flavors overnight.

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts, fat trimmed off (you can also use boneless chicken thighs)
• 64oz Vegetable broth
• 1 red onion, diced
• 1 leek, sliced thin
• granulated sugar
• 2 cups of mushrooms, sliced - I prefer shitake and oyster for soup, but buttons or baby bellas will work too, experiment!
• 2 carrots sliced, you can also use "baby carrots" whole, just add them when you add the broth to ensure they cook fully
• 6-8 stalks of celery, sliced
• 1 serving of your favorite asian noodles, pre-cooked slightly less than how you normally like. I prefer udon, but ramen and soba work well too
• 2-3 cups of bean sprouts
• 5-6 leaves of basil, chopped
• 1/2 cup cilantro chopped
• lime juice
• 1-2 limes sliced into wedges
• fish sauce
• soy sauce
• fine kosher salt
• 2-3 star anise pods
• 5-6 cardomom seeds
• 1 tsp whole black peppercorns
• 1 tsp whole cloves
• 2 sticks of cinnamon
• extra virgin olive oil
• sriracha (optional)
• plum sauce (optional)
• mint leaves (optional)
• 1-2 jalapeno, sliced (optional)

Equipment

• a large stock pot
• a ladle for serving
• spoons for tasting
• a large spoon or spatula for stirring
• cheese cloth and twine for a bouquet garni
• chopsticks (for eating the noodles)

Directions

Start by toasting the cardomom, cinnamon sticks, star anise, peppercorns and cloves in your stock pot on low heat. Once you can smell the spices without putting your head near the pot, remove them and set them aside.

Add the olive oil to your pot and season your chicken breasts with the fine salt. You want to get a good amount so that a bit of a crust will form on the chicken when it makes contact with the oil. Sear the chicken until it develops a nice golden brown coloring, about 6 minutes on each side, then remove the breasts from the pot and put them aside.

There should be a good amount of "frond", brown bits of salt and chicken fat on the bottom of your pot, if the pot is looking slightly dry add a few more splashes of oil and then add in your onions and leeks. Work your spoon or spatula through the vegetables for the first few seconds as they cook. They'll release some of their water which will help pickup the frond from the pan bottom, adding more flavor to the soup.

While the onions and leeks cook, assemble your bouquet garni of the toasted spices from earlier. I usually wrap these in cheesecloth and twine, but you can also use a tea diffuser for the smaller spices and add the cinnamon sticks in whole, just remember to fish them out at the end!

After the onions are translucent (2-3 minutes), add your vegetable broth, bouquet garni, mushrooms, carrots, 1/2 of the basil and cilantro and the chicken breasts back into the pot. Increase the temperature to medium and bring the soup to a simmer. This doesn't need to be long, 25-30m will do. This will ensure that the chicken and carrots are cooked. Reduce the temperature back down to low and remove the chicken breasts for the last time. Place the breasts on your cutting board so they can rest. You should also remove the bouquet garni at this point.

Now we taste the soup, adding lime juice, soy sauce, fish sauce, salt and sugar in small bits. Each time stirring and waiting a few moments for the flavor to develop. Once you're happy with the taste add the celery and begin cutting your chicken breasts. You can do this however you prefer, i usually roughly chop them, but any method will do. Once you've finished chopping add the chicken back to the pot and give it a good stir. Give the celery 5-6 minutes in the pot to get a little tender and then you are ready to serve.

On a plate or platter assemble the rest of the basil and cilantro as well as the mint leaves, jalapeno slices and bean sprouts. Next to the platter, place the sriracha and plum sauce.

Assemble your soup! You can do this whatever way you like, I usually place the noodles in the bowl first, then add the plum sauce, a good amount of sriracha and then I ladle the soup over the top of it. This allows the soup to mix with the sriracha and plum sauce and filter down through the noodles.

Add any of the accoutrements that you like, give your bowl a good stir with your chopsticks or spoon and enjoy!