Traditional Vietnamese Nước Dùng Gà
Nước Dùng Gà·(nook yoong gah)
SNACKS
Naturally AIP / Vietnamese Traditional. This isn't a precious, four-hour Sunday project. In Vietnam, the highest compliment you can pay a broth is that it is trong veo—crystal clear—and ngọt thanh, meaning naturally sweet and clean, built on a bruised knob of ginger and Red Boat fish sauce. By rapidly blanching the bones to remove impurities and deeply charring the aromatics to build a complex Maillard-reaction sweetness, you create a deeply savory, gelatin-rich broth that rivals any complicated soup. The Wednesday afternoon slump is notoriously brutal. A hot mug of this golden broth mid-morning or late afternoon is a revelation, stabilizing your energy and delivering bioavailable collagen without a single elimination trigger. The active work takes exactly ten minutes; let the stove do the heavy lifting, then pour it straight into a travel thermos and get through the rest of the afternoon.
Ingredients
- chicken frames, backs, or wings3 lb
- fresh ginger1 large piece
- shallots3 large
- coarse sea salt1 tbsp
- cold filtered water3 qt
- AIP-compliant fish sauce2 tbsp
Method
- 01
Char the aromatics to build complex sweetness.
Place the whole piece of ginger and the unpeeled shallots directly on the grate of a gas burner over medium-high heat, or on a foil-lined baking sheet directly under your oven’s broiler. Let them roast, turning occasionally with tongs, until the skins are blackened and they smell deeply fragrant.
- 02
Blanch the bones aggressively to remove impurities.
While the aromatics char, place the chicken bones in your largest soup pot, cover them with cold tap water, and place over high heat. Bring to a rapid, rolling boil and let it boil aggressively for exactly three minutes to force the gray foam and coagulated proteins to the surface.
- 03
Rinse the bones and reset the pot.
Carefully dump the contents of the pot into a colander in the sink, rinse the bones thoroughly under cold running water to rub off any dark bits, and wash out the soup pot to ensure no gray scum is left on the sides.
- 04
Build the broth with clean bones and fresh water.
Return the clean bones to the clean pot, roughly smash the charred ginger with the flat of your knife, halve the shallots, and add them to the pot along with the coarse sea salt and the three quarts of cold filtered water.
- 05
Maintain a lazy, passive simmer for at least an hour and a half.
Bring the pot to a boil over medium-high heat, then immediately drop the heat to the absolute lowest setting to maintain a lazy, occasional bubble; a rolling boil will emulsify the fats and turn the broth cloudy.
- 06
Strain the finished broth and season with fish sauce.
Let the broth simmer uncovered for up to three hours, skimming off any minor foam, then carefully remove the bones with tongs, strain the liquid through a fine-mesh sieve into jars, and stir in the fish sauce while warm.
Notes
Always start your final simmer with cold water.
Cold water slowly extracts the proteins and collagen from the bones as the temperature rises, resulting in a richer, far more gelatinous broth than if you were to start with hot water.
Check the label on your fish sauce for strict compliance.
Many commercial fish sauces contain added sugar, hydrolyzed wheat protein, or chemical preservatives. For Core AIP, the ingredient list must read only anchovies and sea salt.
Do not scrape the fat cap off when storing.
This broth will keep in the fridge for up to five days and solidify into a firm jelly. The fat seals the broth to keep it fresh and is a vital source of energy during the elimination phase—leave it intact until you reheat it.
From AIP 10 Minute Meals.