What the Pho?!
I’ve been working hard perfecting the techniques and recipe for Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup, or Pho, just for you. It’s taken years of kitchen experiments, eating out and scouring for good recipes. Of all the cookbooks that I own, the best recipe that I’ve found for Pho is from:
Andrea Nguyen’s 
Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, which is one of the most comprehensive books on the cuisine of Vietnam. The book also won nominations for a James Beard Foundation award and two International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP). Definitely a must-have book for Asian food lovers.
So, let’s get right to the Vietnamese Beef Pho Recipe!
The dish is pronounced “fuh” and not “foo” or “foe” or “puh”
Yeah, Pho is cheap eat out…but to be able to make a home made version? Pretty Pho-king amazing, if you ask me.
Pho Spices
It’s best if you can get each spice separately, but I do find that the spice packets are pretty convenient. They cost less than $2.00 and even come with a mesh bag to put all the spices in. Spices include cinnamon sticks, cloves, coriander pods, star anise and cardamom. Whatever you do, don’t use the Pho spice paste that comes in a jar or can. Nasty stuff, that’s Pho-sho’.
Best Bones for Pho
Leg and knuckle bones are the best to make the stock. See that wonderful yellow marrow below in the photo? That’s pure flavoring that makes your Pho taste full, meaty and rich. But let’s say that you can’t find leg/knuckle bones. Go ahead and use whatever beef bones your supermarket has and just supplement with some oxtail bones or a pound of beef meat (rump, chuck, brisket, etc.) for extra flavor.
Bones are parboiled first for a good 10 minutes in rapidly boiling water – this gets rid of the yucky impurities like blood particles and extra fat. You’ll see gray foam float up to the surface as you boil. After 10 minutes, dump out all of the water, rinse out your pot, rinse the bones, and refill with clean, cool water. I know it’s an extra step, but this will give you the pure, clean-tasting broth.
This is just after blanching – the golden gelatinous goodness is where all the flavor and body is.
Charring Onions and Ginger
Charring or roasting the onions and ginger gives you a wonderfully mellow and naturally sweet flavor. I used to char over an open flame on my stovetop with a pair of tongs, but that got pretty tiring. Plus, metal tongs + long time over flame = very hothothot hands. So now, I just raise my oven rack to the highest position and turn my broiler on. See how golden the ginger gets?
Damn Scumbag!
So here is my broth boilin’ away with the mesh bag of spices, charred ginger, charred onions and beef bones. You can see floating bits of fat and the damn scumbag.
Fat & marrow bits = good eats. Try to keep that in the broth!
But gotta get rid of the scum! I use a very, very fine mesh strainer designed just for scum. heh. A scumbag strainer. Can you imagine if I had a line of cookware and tools – “Steamy Kitchen Scumbag Strainer.” Straining the scum keeps your broth pure and clean. The lower the simmer, the less scum you have.
A note on broth simmering time – I simmer the broth for 3 hours. According to both Andrea Nguyen and Corinne Trang (author of Authentic Vietnamese Cooking and former editor and director of Saveur’s test kitchen) – all of the flavors in the bone have been extracted after 3 hours.
Thin Sliced Meat
You can use a thinly sliced flank steak, london broil, sirloin, eye of round or tri-tip. Instead of beef slices, you could use beef balls (Bo Vien) found in the freezer section of your Asian market. The secret to cutting meat is to cut across the grain. You want your beef slices as thin as possible, and I always throw the whole chunk of meat in the freezer for 15 minutes to make it easier to slice thinly.
Pho Noodles
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Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup typically uses rice noodles. You can buy them dried or fresh. I love the slippery softness of fresh noodles (look in the refrigerator or freezer section) Most restaurants will use dried, flat rice noodles. Look for ones that are medium thickness and flat like these. |
Pho-tastic Condiments
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On the tables of every Pho restaurant, you’ll see these two condiments, Cock Sauce (Sriracha hot chili sauce) and Hoisin Sauce. You can squirt and slather as much of these two condiments as you want…but I’m a purist.If I’m going to spend a couple of hours carefully crafting a rich, flavor-packed, clean soup – I better taste every damn drop. Condiment sauces just get in the way.
Sometimes, I’ll squirt a bit of each sauce in a little dish and dip my meat in the sauce as I take a bite. You ask….why do we call it Cock sauce? See that rooster on the bottle? |
Pho Vegetables and Herbs
Fresh mint, cilantro, basil, bean sprouts, limees, sliced chili peppers are just some of my favorite accompaniments. Set a plate at the table and your guests can pick and choose what they like.
Great Pho-tograph of fresh vegetables and herbs
PrintVietnamese Pho: Beef Noodle Soup Recipe
Pho-Shizzle, My Bowl-o Noozle!!
Adapted from my favorite Vietnamese cookbook: Into the Vietnamese Kitchen
serves 8
Sometimes, I omit the 1lb of beef meat in the broth (you’ll see I’ve made it optional) – as I’ve found that as long as I have good bones, the broth will have enough flavor to not need the extra beef meat.
THE BROTH
2 onions, halved
4″ nub of ginger, halved lengthwise
5-6 lbs of good beef bones, preferably leg and knuckle
1 lb of beef meat – chuck, brisket, rump, cut into large slices [optional]
6 quarts of water
1 package of Pho Spices [1 cinnamon stick, 1 tbl coriander seeds, 1 tbl fennel seeds, 5 star anise, 1 cardamom pod, 6 whole cloves - in mesh bag]
1 1/2 tbl salt
1/4 cup fish sauce
1 inch chunk of yellow rock sugar (about 1 oz) – or 1oz of regular sugar
THE BOWLS
2 lbs rice noodles (dried or fresh)
cooked beef from the broth
1/2 lb flank, london broil, sirloin or eye of round, sliced as thin as possible.
big handful of each: mint, cilantro, basil
2 limes, cut into wedges
2-3 chili peppers, sliced
2 big handfuls of bean sprouts
Hoisin sauce
Cock sauce (Sriracha)
Char: Turn your broiler on high and move rack to the highest spot. Place ginger and onions on baking sheet. Brush just a bit of cooking oil on the cut side of each. Broil on high until ginger and onions begin to char. Turn over and continue to char. This should take a total of 10-15 minutes.
Parboil the bones: Fill large pot (12-qt capacity) with cool water. Boil water, and then add the bones, keeping the heat on high. Boil vigorously for 10 minutes. Drain, rinse the bones and rinse out the pot. Refill pot with bones and 6 qts of cool water. Bring to boil over high heat and lower to simmer. Using a ladle or a fine mesh strainer, remove any scum that rises to the top.
Boil broth: Add ginger, onion, spice packet, beef, sugar, fish sauce, salt and simmer uncovered for 1 1/2 hours. Remove the beef meat and set aside (you’ll be eating this meat later in the bowls) Continue simmering for another 1 1/2 hours. Strain broth and return the broth to the pot. Taste broth and adjust seasoning – if you want a little more flavor, add a few dashes more of fish sauce, large pinch of salt and a small nugget of rock sugar (or large pinch of regular sugar).
Prepare noodles & meat: Slice your flank/london broil/sirloin as thin as possible – try freezing for 15 minutes prior to slicing to make it easier. Remember the cooked beef meat that was part of your broth? Cut or shred the meat and set aside. Arrange all other ingredients on a platter for the table. Your guests will “assemble” their own bowls. Follow the directions on your package of noodles – there are many different sizes and widths of rice noodles, so make sure you read the directions. For some fresh rice noodles, just a quick 5 second blanch in hot water is all that’s needed. The package that I purchased (above) – needed about 45 seconds in boiling water.
Ladling: Bring your broth back to a boil. Line up your soup bowls next to the stove. Fill each bowl with rice noodles, shredded cooked beef and raw meat slices. As soon as the broth comes back to a boil, ladle into each bowl. the hot broth will cook your raw beef slices. Serve immediately. Guests can garnish their own bowls as they wish.
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Crock Pot/Slow Cooker Pho Recipe
Don’t have time to man a stove? Use your crock pot or slow cooker!
Vietnamese Chicken Pho (Pho Ga) Recipe
Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup (Pho Ga)
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Pho-Lovers Pho-Ever
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this is a great recipe.. funny website!! “cock sauce= sriracha sauce… hahahha.. lol.. love it. and “scumbag” is great too. fun and easy instructions. good job! thanks for sharing your recipe! i love bone marrow.. i actually scoop it out and eat it in my pho.. tastes like foie gras!! =]
You have a wonderful way of explaining stuff. So much fun. I am now really in the mood to make this wonderful beef Pho. Diana…I sometimes spread the marrow on toast. It´s something close to heaven, I believe! (Ok, only once a year or so)
I love pho and had eaten pho numberous times at different places, including Vietnam. Nothing beats my mom-in-law’s pho. She cooks well. Her recipe matches closedly to yours. For the ginger and onions, she just microwave them for like 40 sec. That’s easier than roasting. As for spices, she bought them separately. She uses a slow cooker and left it overnight with all her ingredients. In the morning, her pho is unbelievable tasty. Happy cooking.
Pho is such a great comfort food and I made it earlier this year by using daikon radishes as the noodles. It added some crunchy goodness and was a lot of fun. http://www.austinfarmtotable.com/2009/03/pho-magic.html
I’ve made this twice now, using this exact recipe, and it’s awesome. Don’t forget to toast your spices, too. Thanks for a great recipe!!
If you make it to Lincoln Nebraska any time, make sure you stop in to Pho Nguyenn… it’s amazing!! (27th & Q streets)
hey there!! i LOVE pho but im trying to figure something out. at the restraunt i go to alot they started putting this vegetable or noodle or something in it and i cant figure out what it is. they dont know really good english just the basics so they dont really understand when i ask them what it is. its long and flat looking like a noodle,pale too. it has almost spiney like things on it and it has a very distinct taste…..almost kinda lemony. its not sawgrass or lemongrass so does anyone know what it is? thanks very much.
Take a photo next time you go! We’ll help you solve the mystery….
Thanks very much for this recipe. I’ve never made pho from scratch; instead I’ve always used canned broth or pho base paste from a local Asian market.
My new partner is on a reduced sodium diet so I decided it was time to find a recipe. Yours looks delicious, and the clear instructions are also excellent. I can’t wait to make this — with less salt, of course. Thank you very much for sharing this.
April Roberts- what you’re describing sounds like the lining of cow stomach… also know as tripe.
Hi April Roberts and all the folks that love Vietnamese cuisine,
Google ‘Vietnamese herbs’ and you will come across a site compiled by WhiteOnRiceCouple that shows photographs and descriptions of pretty much every possible herbs and spices used in Vietnamese cooking. I am intrigued by your mystery ingredient as well April Robert. How is it served? Is it in cooked in the broth or sprinkle on top as garnish? Is it presented in the same plate as the ubiquitous garnish plate with herbs and beansprout? You piqued my curiosity…
I’ve used your recipe now three times and love it! Thanks! A Vietnamese almost-cousin-in-law recommended your web site to me.
I use oxtail instead of knuckle or leg bones. After about 2-3 hours of simmering, I take the nuggets of meat off the oxtail and return the bones to the pot.
I’ve added some pre-made beef or chicken stock to the broth toward the end because my broth wasn’t flavorful enough (good organic kind that’s not too high in salt).
I also add thinly cut tripe to the top of the bowl of steaming pho – it adds crunch. Has to tripe that’s prepared for pho from our Vietnamese market near by. It’s very clean, thin and white.
Thanks for what looks like a very tasty recipes.
I have made beef stock like this in the past for french onions soup and found that browning the bones a hot oven for 30 min to an hour really ups the taste, although probably not “original” in the cuisine. Also, never let the stock come to a boil, it will stay much clearer in the long run.
Now, off to the butcher to order my bones.
Thanks again.
CalvinD49
how can I find tendon, tripe, fat brisket, etc. Please.
April Roberts-
The description you you put down ” its long and flat looking like a noodle,pale too. it has almost spiney like things on it and it has a very distinct taste “…….I could be wrong, but are you talking about beef tripe? or it could be dicon?…….
Interesting recepe, but we always order vegetable pho with egg noodle
Do you have any recipes. The pho we get at the restaurant has baby bok choy,
broccoli,carrot,bamboo shoots,and other vegetables, and has fried tofu also.
They bring us a dish with fresh bean sprouts,sprigs of basil,sliced jalapeno peppers,
and weges of lime. Not sure if the broth is chicken,beef, or pork.
We don’t text.
Thank you
I made the Pho soup and my family loved It !! I recently moved from California to Germany and have not found any good Pho restaurants here in Germany. We are so happy my family especially my German husband to have this recipe. It was absolutely YUMMI !
Thank you so much for posting your recipes online it was fantastic.
Nicole Kretz
Ron-You can always make the pho as is, but also add some of the sliced vegetables that you’ve mentioned for a couple of minutes to cook.
Might also like this one: http://steamykitchen.com/139-vietnamese-chicken-noodle-soup-pho-ga.html
just add the vegetables to boil at the last minute.
jaden
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