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
{ 219 comments… read them below or add one }
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Great recipe!! I tried a very similar recipe once before but used ox tails instead of beef bones. It lacked body so I think the marrow in the bones is the key to your recipe. I can’t wait to try it again!
Also, I have found using the thin slices of sukiyaki-style rib eye that they sell in the asian grocery stores (fresh meat dept) works great as well.
I also load mine up with plenty of siracha and thai bird chilies/jalapenos table-side. If I’m not crying, it’s not spicy enough
Don’t forget the sugar too!! Adds good blance…
This is super good! Makes a ton though, if you live alone you’re going to want to cut this recipe in half.
Or you could freeze the broth!
I tried this recipe. It’s the first time I’ve ever made stock. It’s still simmering but for some reason the broth looks really gray and unappetizing. I think I got some bad bones or something. =(
What does it smell like? It shouldn’t be gray. What kind of bones did you use?
The smell wasn’t pleasant, but it is hard to describe. My local grocery store didn’t have any beef bones at all, but when I went to the local Asian supermarket to get some fish sauce, they had some, so that’s what I bought. However, I’m not sure what kind they were. They didn’t seem to have any marrow at all.
Your recipe looks incredibly delicious, though, so I plan to try it again tomorrow if I can locate some ingredients that are more along the lines of what you recommended. I’ve learned my lesson and I won’t improvise next time! =)
Quality of broth totally dependent on quality of bones! You dont’ have to use leg bones with marrow – any type of bones will do. That harsh boil at the beginning is essential. Next time harsh boil a bit longer to get more of that “guck” out.
LOL That’s what I’m planning on! I’m cooking this for my 3 year old son and myself so I know we’ll have tons of leftovers.
does using rock sugar really make a big difference versus regular cane sugar? i really want to make the stock but dont have any rock sugar on hand at the time. i do have regular sugar and some palm sugar. thanks in advance for the yummy looking recipe.
Use whatever sugar you want. Rock sugar is more traditional, has deeper flavor. Sub with palm sugar or 1/2 brown sugar + 1/2 white sugar.
Mmm thanks so much. I made this yesterday n found it to taste even better today. The soup became much more fragrant n flavorful after resting in fridge a day. Yummy!
Wooow!!! Good work!
I appreciate the fact that you did your research thoroughly before speaking/acting, and I love that. My comment though on your “Vegetables and Herbs” for Pho (I understand they’re your favorites, not necessary everyone’s) is not to eat Pho with Mint (trust me on this – I speak Vietnamese fluently if you wonder how I know). Instead, you may want to add Sawtooth Herb or coriander (Vietnamese: Ngo Gai) as it is known in English (Eryngium foetidum) – just google it. In addition, some Vietnamese families (mostly in the South) even add Rice Paddy Herb (Vietnamese: Ngo Om; English: Limnophila aromatica) to Pho. I did try it and loved it. Thanks again for the article – Two thumbs up!
I agreed with Peter, mint in Pho is just weird.
We always eat Pho with Ngo Gai, never with Ngo Om, sound interesting though. Peter, is the intense aroma from Ngo Om kill the aroma from the broth?
Well, unfortunately, I can’t get ngo gai at my markets. So we make do with the fresh herbs we can get at the market here locally.
Plus, I’m from the anti-food snobbery camp that believes in makin’ it your way…as long as you enjoy it.
For the spices, will it be okay to substitute with ground cardamom and coriander seed vice the whole ones?
Am I right in thinking that the recipe above calls for black cardamom? Green cardamom seems much more like something I’d think to put in pho, but the photo of the spices clearly shows black cardamom.
It’s what came in the pho spice bag… I am almost sure it was green. lighting was horrible in the kitchen you can’t really see what color it was.
Hm. I didn’t see your reply until after I’d gotten to the spice bag adding stage of the broth, and ended up using black. We’ll see how it tastes in a couple of hours! It’s certainly smelling good.
Black should be fine – I’m sure you’ll still love it!
I’ve actually found that mint is a better substitute for thai basil than sweet basil is. Mint tastes great.
aussie married a vietnamese lady. we love to eat “Pho”. we eat it out alot but never been able to cook it at home and nail it. i followed the steamy kitchen recepie for “Pho” to the letter and my wife says we don’t need to eat “Pho” out any more.
Too cute. Thanks for coming by and letting me know. Say hi to wife for me!
will tomorrow she is asleep (catching up on sleep) with our first baby at the moment. do you have a recepie in the same format for “Bun bo hue”.
Not yet! But maybe time to get my butt in the kitchen and make Bun Bo Hue (one of my fav noodle soups) to document step by step.
i’m cheeky. But i agree.
My boyfriend and I LOVE LOVE LOVE Pho but we are sick of having to go to the restaurant all the time. It is cheap but we are college students so sometimes we have to go without, not to mention its a pain having to go out each time and I’d love to eat Pho morning, noon and night! This recipe looks pretty complicated though, especially since the most complicated thing I’ve ever made myself is spaghetti but I think the boyfriend and I are going to give it a try, hopefully it works out! I’ll keep everyone posted on what happens! Hopefully we don’t burn the kitchen down! (kidding…kind of)
Thanks for the recipe and pho-king great humor!!!
This is really good stuff!!!!!
The best Pho I have ever had in Pho Cuong at nw 30th and Classen in Oklahoma City. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM… I wish I could make it at home too. Where do I get beef bones and the rest of this stuff?
What other meats can i add to my Pho?
I found PHO in VANCOUVER WAHINGTON on my Christmas vacation and once we ate it it was to die for. My husband I live in Texas and we founf PHO in Beaumont and went crazy for it. I will be trying this website and the recipes. We can eat this everyday. I love it with the sauces and I love the idea of putting EVRY meat in it including shrimp!! Do you have a recipe for spring rolls? We are still looking for a Vietimesse Market so if you know anyone in South East Texas give us a shout. We are by Port Aurthur and Beaumont Texas.
Great spring roll recipes at http://www.whiteonricecouple.com ~jaden
One ingredient I find that elevates its a notch by giving it that authentic and unmistakable “Tonkinoise* ” flavor is beef shortrib. Try adding ~1-1.5lbs for every 2 gallons batch with all the usual kuckle bones, oxtail,etc and let me know what you folks think.
* This soup is said to originate in the region at around the guft of Tonkin of formerly North Vietnam.
A question for all u fellow Vietnamese cuisine’s lovers: what is the secret to crispy yet tender but non-chewy Vietnamese spring rolls (cha gio) using rice paper wrapper and not Chinese egg roll wrapper? I don’t seem to get consistent result and would love your thoughts. Many thanks.
I have worked out a great 2dye4 chicken pho recipe and will share it with ya’ll next time. I promise u will all love it! Hint: I borrow a secret ingredient used in making Japanese udon broth and no, it is not bonito flakes, lol. Can anyone guess?
You are pho-king hilarious! Can’t wait to try my favorite meal at home!
Hi Steamy Kitchen. Is it ok to omit the sugar as I prefer to keep broth natural as possible? Thanks
You can omit the sugar if you want, but it’s an essential ingredient to authentic pho. jaden
Hi Simon. As for your chic pho secret ingredient…i could only guess either miso or dashi (but then again, it’s made from bonito flakes!) So where’s the recipe??
first of all, thanks for sharing! great recipe. this is my second time using your recipe. the first time i made i added one big chunk of rock sugar, my mistake. and it turned out too sweet.
the supermarkets around me don’t sell beef bones from legs or knuckles i always have to use oxtail or the usual beef bones. one day i will try to find the knuckles with marrows. it sounds like it made the soup so great!
This is my first time making pho’ on my own and boy does this recipe smell delisssh!! I did however add different bones… I used cow neck, ox tail, and knuckle bones. Also, the local Asian food market (Hong Kong Food Market) didn’t have the Cardamon, so I used a prepackaged “herbal mix” (no idea what the characters mean, but on the back it says, “Nguyen Lieu Nau Pho”). It had all the spices, except there was two additional spices in the mesh package… Guanua and Licorice. But! It still smells ummm good! And I’m presently taking a few slurps, here and there, as it simmers. So far… so good! I’ll update later on, when my fiancee comes home from work… she’s going to be VERY surprised!!
I have been looking for an authentic Pho. This recipe is original, flavourful, just fantastic.
Thank you
Thank you for posting this recipe. We tried alfalfa sprout instead of mung bean sprouts. Bleah! Stick with the mung bean sprouts. Someone mentioned sawtooth herb. I think this is culantro or recao of puerto rico as well (as a cross reference). It is a pain in the butt to grow. The bones we used were beef femur/knee and some oxtail. I left the oxtail sections whole and made them part of the final bowls. Mmmm. Is there anything better than the gelatinous connective tissue after a few hours of boiling. thanks again!
Dr. Phil
Here it is folks, the world best (arguably) pho gà recipe. Do try it and promise me to post your feedbacks. The recipe is for 6-10, a necessary minimum quantity for the best possible flavor and cost efficiency in ingredient purchase for most cooking-from-scratch
broth based recipe in my humble opinion.
For the broth:
-1 large (3-4lbs) old stewing hen (from a better Chinese grocery store in ur area)
-10-15 whole sprig of scallions, cleaned, folded in two and tied up with cotton twill (this is the secret to authentic and exceedingly fragrant Japanese and Chinese basic meat broth).
-8 inches of pelled dikon cut into 4 sections
-1 large or 2 smaller dried squid, washed
-5-8 dried shitake mushrooms,washed
-1 large onion, pelled and halfed
-15-20 black peppercorn lightly crushed (to add in the broth only after skimming
away all the brown foam produced when stock starts to boil)
-2-3 tablespoons of kosher salt
Put everything except crushed peppercorn in a large stock pot+enough cold tap water to cover chicken and bring it to a boil on high heat. Skim any brown foam
away and reduce heat to simmer (3-4 on knob) and leave it for…3-4 hours.
Add two cups of cold waters half way.
The stock is ready.
Garnish and prep work( I will leave the quantity to your preference):
-Dried rice noodle or vermicelli (I prefer the latter) pre-soak in hot or warm water, rince and parboiled, the same way as you would in regular beef based pho.
-1large boneless and hand pulled home made or store bought roast chicken-not bbq flavor-(salt, pepper and 1 tablespoon of room temp butter rubbed inside out of whole chicken and bake in 425 degree F oven for 1h to 1h 15mn: I butterfly the whole chicken to reduce cooking time).
-shredded scallion
-chopped cilantro
-thinly sliced onion(red or vidalia- medium size)
-sweet (Thai) basil hand torn (an important and required ingredient)
-1 or 2red chilli pepper cut diagonally (if you eat spicy)
-fresh lime wedges (I prefer it to lemon as the latter has a strong and distinct flavor that reminds me of western style dessert-which I love- but interfere with the flavor here)
Serving time:
Have your mise en place ready (see garnish and prep work section)+hot, simmering broth on stove top.
In each 3-cup capacity size bowl put in:
1 tablespoon of undiluted fish sauce (to taste)
-half a teaspoon of sugar
-crack fresh pepper( to taste)
-approx 1-1.5 cup of cooked and still warm rice noodle or vermicelli
-shredded roast chicken (1/4 – 1/3 cup per serving- up to you)
-sliced onion
Top with very hot (but not boiling) broth
-garnish with cilantro,shredded scallion and two or three slices of red chilli pepper
Serve immediately with Thai basil and lime wedges on table to be added by dinner.
Bon appétit!
I usually make the broth the day before I serve this soup as its flavor improves over night.
P.S
I live alone and yet I always cook the amount I suggested in the recipe above (same amount of effort whether you cook more or less!).
I just date, label and freeze any remaining broth in used tofu or margarine tubs.
Those who are in the same situation as I am know and understand that sometime (or often) when you get home from work tired and hungry, the last thing on your mind is to start cooking.
In the past (and still do now) when I got home from work, I would opened the fridge door, surveyed the beautiful produces, meat, fruit I had purchased over the weekend
and pondered what to cook. Then closed the fridge door and proceeded to watch the news on tv while eating a …peanut butter sandwich.
I missed an optional but authentic ganish ingredient: sawtooth herb (aka kgo gai in Vietnamese).
Get this herb if you can as it enhances and completes this soup in a unique and delicious way. Wash, dry, julienne it and sprinkle about 1 teaspoon of this
on top of your bowl and enjoy!
cook this
I grew up eating Pho, but have never tried making it, even though I am now a chef.
But at the moment, I have a gigantic pot of your pho sitting on my stove simmering away. I am making it for my dad’s birthday. Seeing him make the soup as I grew up is what I think has inspired me to become a chef.
And after about 2 hrs of simmering, I must say, this is probably one of the best broths I have ever tasted.
I really do appreciate all your research. I am sure he will love it!
also, a little secret I have from my child hood:
I always saw my dad putting apples in it. Probably just because they were laying around, but I know now that it is a great way to add extra flavor instead of just putting blandly sweet sugar in the soup. give it a try!
thanks again!
Chào Cô!
I lived in Hanoi from 1999-2005 and these days crave so many foods I used to eat there. I did a couple things differently, but your excellent recipe helped me make my own phở so I don’t have to crave or pay $9 for a poor imitation of phở in Ann Arbor. There’s no one making it well here.
I wonder if you can tell me how to make quẩy nóng? Phở just doesn’t seem complete without them. I have found several recipes in Vietnamese but they contain words for ingredients that I don’t know and I don’t want to make mistakes.
Thank you so much for your help. This is a wonderful site.
-Kristin “Thủy Tiên”
Photos of the spices used for Pho is a great help. I will look for these spice bags in Chinatown in New York and hope to find it. Otherwise, I will have to purchase these spices separately while I am there. Thank you.
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