Place a whole chicken in a saucepan filled with cold water, ensuring the water covers the chicken by a little more than a centimetre. Bring to the boil and skim off any foam. Roughly chop the vegetables and add them to the soup along with the spices. Leave the soup to simmer for 1½–2 hours until the chicken is tender. Remove the chicken and leave it to cool. Strain the vegetables from the soup, turn up the heat and reduce the soup by about two-thirds. Season the soup with fish sauce, lime juice and ginger juice to taste.
Remove the meat from the chicken.
Chop the shiitake mushrooms, kale, celery, carrots and coriander. You can also finely chop the coriander stalks, as they have a lovely, strong flavour. Brown the shiitake mushrooms in sesame oil in a very hot frying pan, and the rest of the chopped vegetables in a little fish sauce. Stir-fry for about 20 seconds.
Cook the rice noodles according to the instructions on the packet. Place the cooked, hot noodles in a soup bowl, arrange a little chicken and the fried vegetables on top, then pour the soup over. Sprinkle with fresh coriander and chives. Serve immediately.
