Lemongrass-Chicken Noodle Soup

"Bun bo hue" is the most popular beef noodle soup in the central part of Vietnam,. My lazy version for this soup uses chicken and ready-made stock to speed up the cooking time. Because I am allergic to beef, this recipe is an excellent alternative for me.


Ingredients:
Soup flavoring
6 qts homemade or quality store-bought chicken stock
7 lemongrass pieces about 7 inches each, bruised
1 white onion, cut up
1/2 lemon, cut up
5 cloves garlic, mashed
2 tbs whole black pepper
4 hot dry chilies
A few basils and mint stems, bruised
Ingredients to make color
2 tsp Korean chili powder
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
2 shallots chopped
2 garlics, minced
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 hot dried chili
3 tbs oil

To serve with
2 cooked chicken breasts cut into strips, 1 inch thick
White onion, green onion and cilantro sliced
Cooked rice noodles (follow the instructions on the package)
Vietnamese salad (dia rua song) with a variety of cilantro, mints, fish mints head lettuce, and white cabbage and beansprouts
Directions:
In an 8 qt pot, add all the flavor ingredients. Bring to a boil. Turn heat to low and simmer for one hour.

 In the last 10 minutes, add the chicken. Bring back to a boil. Cover and turn the heat off. This procedure is to flavor the chicken with the broth.

Drain the broth through a sieve.
To make color for the soup:
In the same stock pot over low heat, add oil, shallots and dried chili powder. Sauté' for a few minutes. Add chopped tomatoes, sugar and salt.

Let it cook until tomatoes release their color. Pour the broth back into this mixture and bring to gentle boil. Season the broth with fish sauce or salt if needed.

To Serve:

Place the noodles on the bottom of a serving bowl. Place on top a few chicken strips, sliced white onions, green onions and cilantro.

 Ladle the broth on top and serve with Vietnamese salad plate.