Chicken pho with sweet and sour berry sambal
This wonderfully fresh tasting chicken broth is packed with oriental flavours, shreds of chicken and fresh crunchy vegetables then topped with a taste exploding spoonful of naturally sweet berry fruits mixed with chilli and rice wine vinegar
Serves: 4
Ingredients
- 1.2 litres good chicken stock
- 1 bunch spring onions, thinly sliced
- 1 carrot, thinly sliced
- 1-2 red chillies, halved, deseeded
- 5cm piece root ginger, peeled, thinly sliced
- 3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 2 small fresh or dried kaffir lime leaves
- 2 tsps Thai fish sauce
- 1 tbsp ketjap manis or soy sauce
- 500g boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 200g choy sum, leaves shredded, stems cut in bite-sized pieces
- 300g chilled cooked rice noodles
- 100g beansprouts, rinsed
- handful coriander leaves, roughly torn
- Sweet and sour berry sambal
- 225g strawberries, sliced
- 175g raspberries
- 100g caster sugar
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 2-3 red chillies, roughly chopped with seeds
- 2cm piece root ginger, peeled, finely chopped
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
Method
- Add the stock to a large saucepan then add the white spring onion slices, carrot, chilli, ginger, garlic, lime leaves, fish sauce and ketjap manis or soy sauce. Bring to the boil stirring, then add the whole chicken breasts, cover and simmer gently until is cooked through. While the chicken pho simmers, add all the sambal ingredients to a saucepan, heat gently until the sugar has dissolved then boil rapidly for 10 mins until the fruit is soft and pulpy. Spoon into a dish and leave to cool.
- When the chicken is cooked, lift the pieces out of the pan with a draining spoon then tear into fine shreds on a chopping board. Add the choy sum leaves and stems to the broth and cook for 2 mins then add the bean sprouts and coriander and cook for 1 min.
- Divide the noodles between 4 deep serving bowls, top with the chicken shreds then ladle over the broth. Top with spoonfuls of the sambal to taste. Any leftover sambal can be kept in a screw topped jar in the fridge up to 2 weeks.
