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
{ 211 comments… read them below or add one }
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Alicia–In Vietnam, phô restaurants are named by “Phô” followed by the street name. So it is common to see restaurants named “Phô [## road]” or in this case, “Phô Pasteur” for the location on Pasteur Street. In short, the name of the spice mix is a location (and also a mediocre phô restaurant in Boston).
As recommended above, you’re best off purchasing your own spices. Lemongrass is great in some dishes, but not for phô (savvy store owners have to make a living somehow). Most of human sense of taste is related to smell, so avoid mesh bags made of plastic in the broth (which give it that “mesh bag” smell). If in doubt, use cheesecloth or even a large strainer for tea (metal).
Hope it goes well!
Thank you for the recipe! I order this every chance I get from a my local thai restaurant. yes, I know this is a vietnamese dish but the thai is just as wonderful and the same ingredients. Of course I’m not a true asian connoisseur who has had the opportunity to try the soup in Vietnam, I just know that I enjoy immensley the lovely spices and herbs in that velvety broth of goodness.
With this recipe posted above I’m now going to make my own pot of Pho. Thank you for this recipe again and wish me luck!
Generally Ido not post on blogs, but I would like to say that this post really forced me to do so! really nice post.
Yes!!! Went to the asian market yesterday and found all the ingredients to make this and your mom’s egg rolls. Thank you so much. Love your site!
Amazing website!! I have never been to vietnam but was introduced to pho soup in 2003 and have never looked back, made it once, but this recipe with amazing photos has inspired me to have another go!! can’t wait! will let you know!
i just made it and it’s delicious. I like all pictures that demonstrate the steps and help me a lot! Thank you very much!!
You RoCk!! I CANNOT Wait to try this…. my mouth is watering!! Thanks for posting this and having a great sense of humor at the same time
I love this and make loads of it usually in the winter. I freeze the broth in large, single serving containers. I usually simmer it for about 12 hours or so as I don’t like to leave it unattended overnight but if you say 3 hours is enough, I’m MORE than willing to try it. Also, I have tried buying frozen knuckle bones from Asian markets and unfortunately, they usually don’t have a “sell by” date on thier packaging.
If you’re reading this and have not tried to make this, you must try it. The smell that fills the house is amazing!
This looks really good,I”m going to have to try this someday,I’ve had pho,but wondered what was in it.I believe I allready have a few things in stock allready.*I hardly post in blogs*
This is one of my favorite dishes at some of my local Asian restaurants. I particularly love to eat it when I’m feel a cold coming on.
And it must absolutely include Jalapeno slices for me.
I had always wondered what the recipe was. I can’t wait to try it myself.
Thanks!
This is one of the best article about Pho, Pho-sure I will keep following your website and the wonderful work you provide for us. I find your writing very comprehensive, methodical yet whimsicle and captivating. Alejandra Cortez (my daughter’s mom) is opening the FIRST ever Pho establishment in Baja California and she will use your article as her mantra. Again, thank you for all your work.
There is nothing like pho and getting it right at home has seemed an impossibility until now. These directions make it sound so absolutely easy that I can’t wait to try it. I’m truly glad to find this blog.
I was directed here from a different site. This is the way I normally cook pho, cept I usually simmer for a bit longer. I would say pretty much your method of doing things is almost spot on to mine.
For the raw beef though, I would recommend eye round, its what most restaurants and grandmothers use.
PS, remove all reference of play on words using the word “pho”
kthxbai.
Thanks for the recipe! For a white girl like me who is not well versed in Vietnamese cooking this was perfect! It was so very detailed and the pictures were also very helpful! Thanks and wish me luck!
Thanks for this recipe!!! This was pretty easy to make and tasted absolutely delicious. Any one should try it if you have the time! Thanks again!
Very authentic recipe! We love Pho but we moved recently and have just one French-Vietnamese restaurant in the area and the pho gets kind of pricey so I decided to try it at home. Easy to make and delicious. Thank you! Once again, very authentic!
Great recipe. We made a quick and reduced calorie version of this last night and it turned out well. The augmented recipe can be found at http://www.cibusvitae.com/archives/14-Quick-Pho.html. Thanks again!
I’m making it this week. I have never made beef pho, only chicken. So same concept except with beef bones. Can’t wait. Great post!
I use to make pho with that jar of “pho” flavoring and can tell you that it was aweful compared to this recipe. I threw those things out.
I made this at a friends house and although I cooked it in a relatively short amount of time compared to what the recipe says, it still turned out marvelous! Thanks very much for what I think is a very good, authentic recipe!
Hello.. just want to know if you just used one cardamom pod. I plan to make the soup this week.
Love the play on words with the letter ‘Pho’. Especially Pho-king amazing.
It is 1:45 am now . So hungry while reading the post
Thanks a whole lot for this, I’m from El Salvador and we have a similar soup sans the noodles and this is just awesome similar yet different and I love it a whole lot, I been eating restaurant Pho for too long I’m gonna be adventurous and make my own soon.
my friend gave me a recipe that his mother uses. it included everything that you mentioned plus an apple. i was pretty intrigued. i haven’t tried it because i’m never home. have you ever used an apple in your pho?
hehehe thank for the easy to follow recipe with a great sense of humour
. I’ll be confident making pho for my in-laws next week, my first time, finally hubby will get to try my long waited pho i told him century ago i would make.
I can’t believe you use such words as “beef balls” and “cock sauce”….there are better and more elegant ways to describe those food items you know.
Wow, I had no idea people are coming to my blog looking for elegancy. ~jaden
this was very well done and entertaining. i like your style.
I only do very basic cooking but you made this recipe sound very doable for someone like me! My dad and I simply love the Vietnamese beef noodle soup available at a restaurant that is a 10min drive from my place! I’m gonna try out this recipe as a part of my birthday gift to my dad!
great! happy bday to your dad! ~j
Hi, I cant understand how to add your site in my rss reader. Can you Help me, please
In your RSS reader, add “http://steamykitchen.com/blog/feed” ~j
My friend tells me that vinegared onions are often added to pho before it comes to the table. She loves them so much, she orders a seperate plate of vinegared onions, and adds them to her bowl.
Is this authentic? And, if so, how do you make the onions?
yes! they are. slice onions super super thin and soak them in white vinegar. I love them too. ~j
I’m making the broth right now. I put the onions and ginger under the broiler, but it was taking FOREVER to char them. So, I whipped out my handy creme brulee torch, and finished them off in seconds! Also, I do have some optional beef (the thin end of an eye roast). Instead of putting it in the pot at the beginning, I’m going to put it in at the 1 1/2 hour mark so I don’t have to refrigerate it in the middle. Does that sound OK to you?
Sounds great! You are so swift with that torch! Love it.
will you be slicing the eye roast for serving? If so slice superthin, and put the raw slices in each serving bowl. When you pour the hot broth into the bowl, the slices of beef will cook.
If you’re using the roast to flavor the broth than you can add any time to the pot. ~j
Hi, I tried this Vietnamese pho recipe and taste beautiful. The aroma of the broth fill up my kitchen
. I used beef meatball instead of sliced beef. My kids love it.
Great! Thanks for letting me know! I’m glad your kids loved it. ~j
This recipe is so helpful, but there are still some things I have questions about, things that aren’t intuitive to me. If anyone knows the answers, please help!
—
—How do you identify a ‘good’ knuckle bone? The bones I find don’t have that yellowish color in the marrow like in the picture above, they are more greyish brown. (also, do you leave the fat on it or take it off before cooking?)
— my broth ended up being pretty cloudy, unlike the tasty clear broths in pho joints in seattle. I parboiled it, strained it constantly, but it was still murky. Could it have to do with the beef knuckle that I bought?
I wonder if pho joints just use pre-made beef broth or if they really go through the painstaking broth making process. Also, do they use MSG? My flavor just wasn’t as robust. I’m now here in rural idaho so I have to count on myself to make it good (thankfully SLC has good asian markets)
Thank you for this post. As a professional cook with over twenty years in the restaurant industry it is always a pleasure to find a passionate and well trained individual who is willing to share one of their favorite recipes. I think the emphasis on fresh herbs, and finding bones with marrow (read ‘love’) is a key for this dish.
Almost every cuisine i have explored has some type of slow cooked soup that essentially equates to ‘comfort food’. Certainly your pho is an excellent representation of one of the most aromatic and wonderful of these dishes.
I am a Pho addict and have spent soooo much money at the local Pho shops that I decided to make it myself and….
Oh My Damn, This Recipe Was Awesome! The bones give it such a great flavor and the ingredients were spot on. I used a beef roast for the meat and it worked great. Miss Jaden, I am dedicating myself as your Pho slave!!!
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for sharing your Pho Wisdom with us! :0)
just stopped by to say i really liked your site – you’ve obviously put some hard work into it!
Hello I am really a Pho addict and I would like for someone to give me a real easy recipe and shrimp is my choice of meat. I eat Pho for lunch almost twice a week and I love it some much I hate to get up from the table to come back to work. So now I would like to make it for myself at home. Please help
Has anyone tried using the consomme technique? I like a very clear broth and whipped egg whites are great for reducing particulate and don’t affect the flavor of broths.
No, I haven’t – seems like a lot of work! You’ll have to tell me how it goes. ~j
I am making this soup for the first time today. I’ve varied the recipe slightly by brulee-ing the onions and ginger in olive oil and pan roasting the bones for 35-45 minutes in a 475° oven. Then I added the browned bones, onions, ginger, salt and 2/3 of the spice blend. Once my stock has simmered for 3 hours I will strain and add 1 lbs of ground chuck mixed with 8 slightly whipped egg whites an the remaining 1/3 of the spice blend. Then simmer very low for 30-45 min and serve soup as recommended. I’ll post my results later.
Oh your legend Andrea my ability of cooking and eat Vietnamese food great relied on my strained relationship with my mother and I love pho!
So this is definitely going to save me a few quids at the restaurants which it goes without saying is my only refuge when when mum and me are having a blue which way too often
but more over it’s been the bane of my existence that I’m a Vietnamese chic who can’t cook Vietnamese, pho or anything really – except finger foods to be honest – kind of like an Italian who can’t cook pizza or anything well would feel undoubtedly defunct – of course if your of the later I do sympathize with you – Ironically I’m Vietnamese who cook better Italian then Vietnamese.
Though in mum’s defense she has begrudgingly taught me how to cook but cultural and personality gaps are too wide and with so much angst in the kitchen I refuse to go through the torture ‘love is suppose to go into good food not angst’ – we really do epitomize the analogy of You Can’t have too many Cooks in the Kitchen.
While there’s other Vietnamese cook books – let’s face it they all kind of lack the authenticity and the ones that are authentic are written in Vietnamese and no I don’t read Vietnamese either
you see my delma and I lost my Woman’s day Vietnamese Cookbook too and they didn’t bother printing updated version either – bastards! I will be ordering a copy if it’s available to Australia otherwise it’s great that some of your recipe are accessible online that it self and narrowing the cultural divide!
Many Thanks for your Enterprising Spirit
please contact me if you need any pointers on how to get out there I’m a Business Developer and of course I’ll be more then happy to helping you get it out complimentary to all that appreciate good Vietnamese cuisine and all the ‘defunct Vietnamese chics’ as I do have contacts with all the publishers globally and I suspect in your neck of the woods as well so forward me a email address and I will steer you in the right direction.
Sue Beverly Hills Sydney & RIC OPTIMAL AUSTRALIA ricsupport@live.com
Thank you for such an easy to follow recipe (the humor was also appreciated). I was able to create an even more tasty version of my weekly addiction. I look forward to trying more of your recipes!
I looooove asian food and love to try my hand at cooking recipes I enjoy! I just recently became a pho addict, and this recipe is wonderful. My boyfriend hates to try new food and he loves it……oh, and I have to say I enjoyed the pho-humor on the site!
Great recipe thank you. delish making it as i write. Phee Phi PHO Phum!!! Denise
LOL!!! too cute! ~j
you are the pho-king pho king man. (unless you’re a lady)
Lovely, lovely recipe! My husband and I are pho crazy and tonight’s meal with your recipe was fantastic! (Or should I say pho-ntastic….) I do have a comment and question. I noticed your recipe adds just beef. We really like tripe and tendon too, so I made sure Chinatown in Chicago had a special visit from me today to find these two ingredients. I wasn’t sure how long to cook them, so I threw them both in the broth for 2 hours. Tendon was maybe a little overdone, tripe seemed like it needed much less time. Any experience cooking with these tissues? This was my first attempt.
Your site is great, Jaden. I’m always looking for food that is fresh, Asian, and all around fun.
hey! i have also never posted on a blog, but this is awesome! Browsing thru your site has made me soooo hungry!! I adore pho, and i love that at the local viet rest, it is always packed but silent except for noodle slurping….ahh, heaven. The broth always makes my eyes roll back in my head, i swear.
on condiments…does anyone know what the jar of hot chilis w/oil in it is? It tastes roasted, and a *tiny* dribble of the oil makes it amazing. I brought some home in a tiny take out container, yum.
And now, i can make pho! I have looked at other recipes/websites, and the recipes just never seem right. The combo of ingredients, photos and YES the humor is perfect! Keep on rockin!
KICK IT UP A NOTCH!
Okay, I won’t ruin a great thing. This recipe is exactly the way I have made Pho for years with the exception of the cardamon and I add one more item: 6-10 whole dried thai chili. This dish is so wonderful on a cold day that when we add the dried chili, it warms the soul even more.
Now, my wife is Lao and I have had many of her aunties Pho (which the Lao call “Fir”, but the Lao version is very bland as served since they prefer to add much of the fish sauce and soy sauce at the table.
But, they do have one unique add to the meal. Have fresh Thai chili at the table. After a spoon of broth or bite of noodle, bite a small piece of the chili. To westerners, it may seem harsh at first but, over time you will find the experience actually accentuates the taste. Yummmm yummmm. Another rush of warm. Try it, but remember a tiny bite of the chili.
Oh! One other helpful hint. To slice the beef super thin, as suggested here, place your beef in the freezer for 1-2 hours before slicing. The beef will be firm and with a sharp knife, you can slice perfect thin slivers.
Thanks Erica. Great recipe! Oops, add some sliced spring onion and fried garlic to your veggies too.
P.S. RE: A Previous Post: MJ needs to get out more. Culture doesn’t ring the door bell at the Penthouse…..Beef Brain, HA!
Thank you for the wonderful recipe! A group of us (myself and some friends) are going to try this next month. I was so glad to see that you had star of anice in the recipe, as my dad (Santa Claus…YES REALLY! That is his legal name) says that that is the ingredient that makes the soup! My dad has a website if you want to check him out. I believe it’s santainmarysville.com….then you can see that I’m telling the truth!
Of course in the restaurants I always add nuoc mam (Can’t remember the spelling, but it’s Fish sauce…which you want the lighter colored as the really dark colored is really really strong!) and fresh lime as well as some chili/pepper sauce. Not the one that is dark and oily, and not the one that is a lighter red with no peppers. It’s closer to the one that is lighter red, but has peppers in it. By the time I get done “doctoring” it up, it usually has a red ring around the bowl…but will clean up or rather drain your whole sinus cavity and give your lips a little zing!
the lips stinging is the BEST! love spicy spicy. ~jaden
I just tried your recipe and it turned out reall really good! My boyfriend loved it! Thank you soo much for sharing such an awesome recipe with us!
Great post on a popular Viet noodle dish. I especially enjoyed your illustrations. The article itself is a very nice recipe, but done in such unconventional manner that it’s also a fun read even if one has no intention of cooking pho him/herself
For help pronouncing pho correctly, here’s a helpful article on Pho Pronunciation.
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