Ingredients:

• 1 onion - minced
• 3 stalks celery - minced
• 2 carrots minced
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 1 bunch cilantro stems
• 1 qt chicken broth
• 1.5 qt water
• 1/2 chicken
• 12 white pepper corns, ground.
• 5 kefir lime leaves
• 2 dried thai bird chillis (whole)
• 2 bunches dinosaur kale (maybe 2 pounds? 30 leaves?) chopped into 1-1.5 inch squares and cleaned.
• 1 Tbsp fish sauce
• Kosher salt (I used 2.5 tsp, but it was unsalted stocks)
• 8 oz rice stick noodles (broken into small ~3-6 inch pieces).
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves

Steps:

1. Sweat the onion, celery, carrots, and cilantro stems for 5 minutes in about 1 tsp salt
2. Add the garlic, and sweat for 5 more minutes.
3. Add the chicken, chicken broth, and water. Bring to a boil, and simmer on low for 1 hour.
4. Remove the chicken (set aside)
5. Remove the lime leaves, and bird chillis (discard)
6. Add the kale. Return to a boil, and then simmer on low for 45 minutes.
7. While the kale is simmering once it's cool enough pull the meat off the chicken and add it back when the kale has less than 20 minutes left.
8. After the kale is tender return the stock to a rolling boil, and add the rice stick noodles, and most of the chopped cilantro. Boil for ~10 minutes / until the noodles are tender.
9. Add the fish sauce, additional salt if needed, and serve.

Notes:

Angela really liked it. I wanted a little more heat.