Pho Ga

This recipe is all the things I love - quick, easy, and tasty! "Pho Ga" is basically a Vietnamese soup with chicken and rice noodles.

Here's what you'll need:

• Chicken (100 - 200g per serve)
• Garlic (1/2 - 1 clove per serve)
• Ginger (about 1/2 as much as the garlic)
• Peanut oil
  
• Chili flakes (optional, but good for some spice)
• Chicken stock/broth (about 500ml per serve)
• Rice noodles
• Corriander (or "cilantro" for the Americans)
• Mung beans ("bean sprouts")
• Escallots (optional)

And here's what you do:

1. Throw some water on to boil - enough to cook your desired quantity of noodles.
2. While you're waiting, cut the chicken into thin slices, crush the garlic, and crush (or chop into tiny pieces) the ginger. Ideally, if you have a mortar and pestle, you could use it to mash the ginger, garlic, and chili flakes into some sort of paste.
3. By now the water should be boiling, so turn it off, and put the rice noodles in, then cover it up. Let them sit there until the end of the preparation.
4. Throw some peanut oil into a large wok. Cook the chicken, garlic, ginger, and chili flakes for about a minute - enough so the outside of the chicken looks fairly cooked, but not cooked right through.
5. Add the chicken stock, and bring to the boil. Once it's boiling, the chicken will take about 8-10 minutes to cook through.
6. While you're waiting on the chicken to cook, wash your mung beans, seperate the corriander leaves from the stalks (chuck the stalks out), and cut up the eschallots.
7. When the chicken is just about cooked, pour in a little bit of fish sauce for flavour. Drain and serve the noodles, then spoon the chicken soup over the noodles and then garnish with the corriander, eschallots, and mung beans.
8. Eat, and enjoy!

Note: Best served with lots of Tuong Ot Sriracha on top!