Hot and Sour Chicken and Rice Noodle Soup

Heat half the vegetable oil over medium high heat in a wok or large soup pot. Cut raw chicken breasts crosswise into 1/2 inch thick strips. Season meat with salt and pepper. Add chicken to hot oil and saute until cooked through. Remove to a plate and let rest while preparing the rest of the soup. While chicken is cooking place noodles in a large bowl and cover with cold water. Let noodles soften in water for 15 minutes while preparing rest of soup.

Cut onions into 1/4 inch wide slices. Peel garlic and slice thin. Trim ends from lemongrass and remove outer layer or two. Using the dull end of a chef's knife, whack lemongrass many times down the length of the stalk to slightly crush and bruise, this will help release the flavors during cooking. Cut stalk into 4 inch long pieces that can easily be removed from soup later. Rinse cilantro and remove stems from leaves saving stems. Chop stems into 1 inch long pieces. Once chicken has been cooked and removed from pan, add remaining oil.

To oil, add onion. Saute for about 2 minutes to soften. Add garlic and saute another minute. Add cilantro stems and lemongrass and saute for about 1 minute.

Meanwhile, slice mushrooms 1/2 inch thick. Peel sweet potato and cut into 1/2 inch cubes. Trim ends from bok choy and slice crosswise 2 inches thick. To pot add chopped and sliced mushroom, bok choy, and sweet potato. Saute for a few minutes to wilt bok choy. Add chicken stock and bring pot to boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until sweet potato is tender.

While soup is cooking, slice green onions on an extreme diagonal, peel and great carrots, and roughly chop cilantro leaves. Set aside for garnish. When potatoes are almost ready, add chicken back to pot to reheat.

Add lime juice, fish sauce and chili sauce or to personal taste to finished soup. Remove any visible pieces of lemongrass. Drain noodles in a colander. Place a handful of noodles in the bottom of each soup bowl. Ladle hot soup on top of noodles in each bowl. Garnish each bowl of soup with about a tablespoon each of grated carrot, sliced green onions, and cilantro leaves.