Vietnamese Chicken Pho

1: In a 6 qt pot, add your cleaned whole chicken, rock sugar, salt, and 16 cups water. Bring to high heat and wait for it to come to a boil.

2: While waiting for the pot to boil, char the whole onion and ginger. Remove skin once cooled. Wash off any remaining char to prevent broth from getting dark in color.

3: In a separate small pan, over medium-low heat, toast your aromatics (cinnamon sticks, peppercorns, and star anise). After 3 mins, turn off the heat and allow to cool.

4: Once the pot with the chicken begins to boil, remove the foam that collects at the top.

5: Add the onion, ginger, cinnamon sticks, and tea infuser with spices to the pot with the chicken. Lower the heat to medium-low and allow to cook for 1 hour.

6: After 1 hour, the chicken should be fully cooked. Remove the entire chicken and submerge in a bowl of cool water to prevent the chicken from browning.

7: Remove the leftover onion, ginger, spices from the broth with a strainer and toss. Season the broth with 2 tbsp fish sauce. Remove any excess fat from the broth.

8: Once the chicken cools, shred the meat into a separate container.

9: Cook the rice noodles according to package instructions.

10: Assemble your bowl with noodles, shredded chicken, green onions, cilantro, red onion, and black pepper.

11: Ladle the broth over the noodles.