Serving size: 6-8 good sized soup bowls
Ingredients:
• Chicken – one whole chicken or you can use drumsticks, breasts, or thighs. The amount should be about the equivalent of one whole chicken. I recommend some drumsticks and breasts because the drumsticks will have skin and bones to flavor the broth and the meat from both will be the perfect balance of dark and light meat for the soup.
• 2 stalks of Lemon grass chopped up into 3 inch pieces
• 2 cups Rice flour
• 2 cups Glutinous rice flour
• 2 cups of HOT water (I usually put it in the microwave for about 2-3 minutes right before using)
• Approximately 1 cup of Tapioca starch
• Salt and Pepper
• 3 quarts of water for making chicken broth (or more if you want a less dense soup)
Garnish options:
• Minced Green onions
• Chopped Cilantro
• Fried garlic
• Hot chili in oil
• Black pepper
Instructions:
Thoroughly clean the chicken. If you’re using a whole chicken, chop it up into four quarter pieces – taking all the skin off. Bring the 3 quarts of water to a boil, add the lemon grass, and cook the chicken while you prepare the rice noodles.
For the rice noodles, with your dough hook attached to the mixer, combine the rice flour and glutinous rice flour in the bowl. Pour in the two cups of hot water and mix right away. You want the dough to have a similar consistency to play dough. Once the dough ball forms on the hook and looks like it may start to separate from the hook, stop the mixer and take out the dough.
Dust a clean surface with some tapioca flour. Hand-knead the dough a few times to incorporate any extra rice flour from the bowl and the dusted tapioca flour into the dough and form into a ball. Roll the dough into a flat quarter inch thick piece. Cut the dough into pasta strips of your choice. Long or short, thin or wide, they taste the same. I’ve even seen some people cut the dough into triangle pieces, the size of wonton wraps. Lightly coat them with the tapioca starch.
By this time, the chicken is cooked and ready to be shredded. Turn the heat off and take the chicken out for shredding. You’ll want to discard all the bones and also the lemon grass from the stock. I like to use a mortar and pestle to mince the meat up a little more sometimes.
Skim the fat and all the impurities from the top of the chicken stock. Heat up the stock to a boil. Add the noodles and let cook for about five minutes. Add the meat back into the soup. Add salt and black pepper to taste.
Serving tips:
This soup gets thicker as the noodles cook or stay in the hot liquid throughout the day so you’ll want to serve the soup right after cooking.
Garnish as you wish with minced cilantro, green onions, a dash of black pepper or more, and some hot chili and fried garlic.
Enjoy!