The aromatics

1. Pre-heat your oven to 170C (350F)
2. Roast the onion and ginger for 1 hour.
3. Let cool. Slice the onion in half and the ginger into 1/2 inch pieces.
   

The chicken

1. In a heated 5ltr pot, add the oil. Add the onions, cutside down, and the ginger. Cook, without moving, until charred—about 4 minutes.
   
   
2. Add the coriander, star anise, cloves, cinnamon stick, and cardamom. Stir and cook for 1 minute more. Add the chicken, fish sauce, and sugar and immediately pour over water to cover the chicken and the salt.
   
   
3. Bring to a simmer and poach for about 20 minutes (breast side down if needed). Flip the bird and continue to poach until the chicken reaches about 13c in the breast and 75c in the thigh - about 10 minutes. Use an instant read thermometer - there's no other safe way to do this. The chicken will continue to cook after you remove it from the broth so give yourself some room. You are going for a final internal temperature of 75c in the breast and 80f in the thigh.
   
   

Set the chicken aside to cool enough to handle. Remove chicken from the bones. You don't have to be perfect. You have lots of chicken.

The broth

1. Remove and discard the 1/2 inch piece of ginger. Keep the stock and green onion in the pot.
   
2. Return the chicken bones to the pot along with the roasted ginger and onion.
   
3. Add the brown sugar.
   
4. Let simmer 3-4 hours, loosely covered.
   
5. Strain. You should have about 10 cups of broth. If you have less, add some water to make up for evaporation.
   
6. Refrigerate until ready for use. If you refrigerate you can skim the fat and reserve. That way you can add a tsp or so per bowl as they do in Vietnam.
   
   

When ready to serve heat the broth to just below a boil and add the fish sauce. This is where the final seasoning happens. Your broth may still under-salted. Decide for yourself. Start adding salt a half a tsp at a time. You want it pretty salty - adding in the chicken and the noodles blunts the saltiness some.

Cook the noodles

• Here's a trick to cook rice noodles for pho. Soak your rice noodles in cold water for about 30 minutes.
• At the same time, bring a large pot of water to a boil.
• Put the soaked noodles in a big strainer and drop it into the boiling water.
• Stir the noodles and start checking them for texture after about 30 seconds. They should be done in under a minute. You want them slightly toothy as they will cook a bit more in the broth.
• When you have them how you want them, pull the noodles and divide into 4 bowls.
• Top the noodles with the chicken and sprinkle with spring onions and sliced shallots.
• Pour 1/4 of the broth into each bowl.

Serve with the garnishes on the table to let people flavour their pho as they like it.

You can buy fried shallots but I like make them. Thinly slice the shallots. Heat about an inch and a half of vegetable oil in a pot or wok. Fry the shallots in batches (on medium heat). You want to cook them about 3 minutes. Pull them before they get to the colour you want. They will continue to cook after they come out of the oil. Blot them on a paper towel. Sprinkle with a bit of kosher salt.

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