Summery Chicken Pho Salad
When it's blistering hot, make this cooling Hanoi-style pho salad and turn it vegan if you like!
Happy Father’s Day to all you brave souls who’ve parented and thoughtfully fulfilled your roles as Dads. My father passed away several years ago and when my mom assembled a little shrine for him, she included a goofy greeting card Rory and I had given him. It said “Dad in Chief”. He loved it.
May you enjoy a terrific celebration today.
Summer is an easygoing cooking season and I don’t want you to sweat it for pho. It may be hot where you are so why am I pitching you soup now?
Because pho is year round food in Vietnam, a place where summertime temps and humidity can make you feel lightheaded. Years ago when I was on a press trip to Hanoi in June, locals apologized for the extreme 105F temperatures and humidity. I basically think of Vietnam’s summers as being hot or hotter.
People in Vietnam have clever ways to deal with the summer heat. With regard to pho, there’s a Hanoi specialty that you need to know better — phở trộn, which is basically a pho salad. Trộn means to mix and is a term often used to described a tossed salad-y dish.
Not heard of it, yet? You won’t find phở trộn (“fuh trohn”) at most pho restaurants abroad. In Vietnam, it’s made in Hanoi by a handful of pho joints. That said, the places that specialize in phở trộn are very popular, especially with Millennials and Gen Z-ers.
At Pho Hanh in Hanoi’s Old Quarter, starting around 7pm, phở trộn fans crowd the sidewalk area by the shop, which operates out of a closet size space. Seated at low plastic chairs and tables, the diners scarf down bowls filled with tender pho noodles, succulent poached chicken, crunchy veggies, peanuts and shallot. They generously add a tangy soy sauce dressing that’s got a mild garlicky bite, mix it all up with spoon and chopsticks. As they eat the salad, they chase it down with sips of tonic-like chicken pho broth.
I know all that because I was one of those diners, though I’m a Gen Xer. 😁
There are many renditions of phở trộn but the one I enjoyed most is Pho Hanh’s. Their’s was a chicken noodle salad (phở gà trộn) that was light and refreshing, yet satisfying. The broth tasted like my homemade, full of coriander and ginger notes.
As a twist on a classic, it tasted familiar yet was different. After trying it, I was so excited, I went back to my hotel room and jotted down notes so I could replicate it in California. There’s a recipe for it in The Pho Cookbook, which won a James Beard Award in 2018 to underscore the noodle soup’s might!
This past week, after Trang suggested a summery, cooling rice noodle salad for PTFS, I revisited my recipe to see if it needed changing.
The recipe remains excellent but I rewrote it for PTFS so you can make a quick pho (no long simmer involved!) and you can also add more veggies without compromising big flavor.
Check out this video preview of how my (and soon to be your!) Chicken Pho Salad is assembled:
To equip you with knowledge to easily make this terrific dish, here’s the following information:
Supermarket friendly recipes requiring no Asian market shopping unless you want to
The 2 recipes for (1) a fast chicken pho base and (2) chicken pho salad allow you to break up the work. You can use the pho base to make pho noodle soup, if you want too.
Pointers for a Vegan Pho Salad
Tips for advance prep, ingredient selection, and shortcuts
Both recipes in text plus a downloadable PDF
Let’s make pho-nomenal Phở Gà Trộn!