Notes from the Test Kitchen

pho-inspired chicken & rice soup

Pho is our healthy comfort food. After a long day of travel, or a cozy night at home in the midst of event season, it’s the dinner we choose when we crave the indulgence of takeout but also want to eat clean. Best of all, the whole 👏 family 👏 agrees! 👏

Pho is one meal where we all happily eat together. We get out the chopsticks and “fun spoons” and everyone doctors up their soup as desired. I’ve noticed that the complexity of the bowl has a direct correlation with age—the youngest slurps just broth and noodles, the middle adds chicken and hoisin, the oldest adds basil, scallions, and Sriracha. A story of maturity as told through pho.

When I lived in Atlanta, I frequented the Vietnamese restaurants along Buford Highway (shoutout to Lee’s Bakery and Nam Phuong). While Charleston has a few options, they’re not close by and we’ve found that the takeout version ends up more expensive and less satisfying than we hoped. So I decided to attempt a shortcut semi-homemade pho-inspired soup as an alternative. (For reference, this recipe cost me less than $30 to make, instead of our $75+ family takeout bill).

Lee's Bakery with my nephews, then with two of my own 7 years later

The first step might surprise you: char the onion and ginger until they’re nearly blackened. It feels wrong, but keep going. That smoky sweetness is a backbone of pho’s deep flavor. After that, it’s simple. Let store-bought broth simmer with those charred aromatics and distinctive hard spices, then stir in shredded rotisserie chicken before bringing everything to the table for mix-ins. Basil, cilantro, bean sprouts, scallions, jalapeño, Sriracha, hoisin, lime—choose your own adventure. My neighborhood grocery doesn’t carry rice vermicelli, so I often serve it with sushi rice, straight from my beloved rice cooker.

charring the onions & ginger

A Note about Originality & Appropriation

A few years ago I spoke on a panel at the FAB conference about cultural appropriation in recipe writing. The criticism is that dishes with deep cultural roots are often adapted or published by white authors in ways that simplify or shift the recipe to fit a mainstream palate, without acknowledging the history, context, or people who have cooked and nurtured the dish for generations.

My perspective is that credit and context matter. Recipes don’t appear out of thin air—someone, somewhere, made them first. So I believe we should name our influences, honor the traditions they come from, and avoid presenting adaptations as “improvements” or as the definitive version.

the vegan pho at Lee’s (my inspiration for including cabbage)

At the same time, I believe that cooking is a shared, ever-evolving experience. Food moves across homes, neighborhoods, and memories. We carry recipes with us because they mean something to us. So while this isn’t an authentic pho, it’s a simple family recipe that reminds me of my many trips to Buford Highway. I hope it reflects the affection I feel for the Vietnamese restaurants that first introduced me, and then my kids, to those unique, comforting flavors.

So here’s the pho-inspired chicken soup that I make at home when I’m craving those bright, warming aromatics, but don’t have access to the real thing. A humble stand-in until our next visit to Mr. Lee.

the recipe: Pho-Inspired Chicken Soup