On Friday, the weather forecast mentioned that it’d be super cold over the weekend. When I drove back home from work, it was started to rain already.

When K came back home, his mom gave him 3 whole chicken. Personally, I hate cleaning up a whole chicken. It has way too much fat and since it was conventionally raised, I had to trim lots of the fat away. Usually, the easiest way for me to cook chicken was just bake the whole thing. But my convection oven broke recently and I’m such a noob of using the big oven, so baked chicken was totally out of the option.

When I was cutting up the chicken – separated the dark meat and white meat parts, an idea popped in my head.

I’d use the white meat part to make Pho broth so I could satisfy my pho craving and I’d remake the Caramelized Chicken that I made a while back for the legs.

Pho-inspired Broth
Ingredients:
2 chicken breast bones
Chicken breast meat -cut into cube – lightly season with salt and pepper
2 star anise
1 white onion
3 cloves
3-5 cloves of garlic
1 jicama – thickly sliced

Directions:
1. Blanch the chicken bones to remove the impurities (dip the chicken bones into boiling water for 1 minute – remove and discard the water)
2. Fill the pot with water (not too much, just enough to cover the chicken bones) – boil the bones with the rest of the ingredients
3. Simmer for about 1 hour

4. Strain the soup and discard the rest of the ingredients.
5. Boil the chicken breast meat in the broth – season with salt accordingly
Since I’ve been craving for pho but didn’t have any in my pantry at the moment, rice noodles did the trick as well.

Technically, it’s not primal/paleo but it’s not like I consume this every single day. Besides what can beat a nice hot noodle soup in this cold weather?

Soak the rice noodle in cold water until soft

Boil them for about 1 minute then immediately soak them in cold water to stop the cooking process. Soggy rice noodles taste nasty.

Enjoy the rice noodles with pho-inspired broth, topped with veggies – YUM! Add some lemon squirt if you’d like 🙂

Pan Fried Caramelized Chicken Legs (modified from this)
Ingredients:
2 chicken legs and wings – trim off excess fat as much as possible
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp ground coriander
4 shallots
3 stalks of green onions – separate the green and the white part
1/2 white onion
1/2 freshly squeezed lemon
1 Tbsp avocado oil
1-2 Tbsp coconut aminos

Directions:
1. Mix all the herbs/spices & salt together

2. Rub everything on the chicken (make sure to rub underneath the skins as well) – marinate for 4 hours or overnight

3. Line the steamer with paper towel – steam the chicken on high for about 30 minutes

4. Mince the shallots, green onions and onions


5. Heat up the skillet with 1 Tbsp avocado oil for medium high
6. Pan fry the chicken legs until golden brown – turning occasionally

7. Remove chicken from the pan, saute onion mixture until fragrant – season with salt, coconut aminos and lemon juice accordingly

8. Top off the cooked chicken legs with the caramelized onion mixture

Ready to be devoured! For an extra kick, squirt some lemon juice on the chicken 🙂

I actually like this version better than the baked version. When I baked the raw chicken in the oven, the shallots/onions always got way too burned and the chicken took much longer to cook (about 1 hour or so). By steaming the chicken until cooked, it keeps the chicken moist and lining up the steamer with paper towel made cleaning a breeze as well. Just wrap and throw away the paper towel. The steamer doesn't get too much grease either!

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