Pho has long been one of my absolute favorite things to eat. There has been more than one occasion in which I have actually gotten in my car and driven over 45 minutes for the express purpose of indulging in good bowl of the stuff, which is why this pho recipe is sorely needed.
Note: This recipe was originally published in March 2015, with updates added as of July 2019. The recipe has been tested by us and many readers and approved by Vietnamese friends, so it remains the same!
What Is Pho?
Pho (I found out in college that it’s actually pronounced “fuh.” For someone who’d been shamelessly calling it “foe” for eighteen years, this was an embarrassing revelation) is a Vietnamese noodle soup that’s often made with beef and topped with awesome things like fresh bean sprouts, basil, and chilies.
There’s just something about it—the fragrant broth, the slightly chewy rice noodles, and all the aromatic toppings (the squeeze of lime at the end is the BEST)—that seriously justifies a 90-minute roundtrip drive.
The Quest For a Great Broth
A bowl of pho is only as good as the broth. There’s no trick to the noodles, really, and the beef is often added to the soup raw. The other vegetable and herb toppings are ALL added to the soup raw.
In short? No broth, no bacon.
I never really thought it would be realistic to make it myself at home––chalk it up to a cynical but somewhat substantiated opinion that no broth I could make at home would ever taste as good as the (sometimes MSG-laden) restaurant equivalent.
I decided to take a stab at it anyway, and the results were awesome. I also talked with a Vietnamese friend/mom who cooks this dish on a regular basis for her family and got all the tips! Her kids are grown and in college, but she says they always come home for her pho!
There is a bit of prep involved to get the broth going, but after that, it’s just a long, slow simmer until you’re ready to assemble the dish.
4 Key Steps to Make Pho Broth
Here are the 4 steps and secrets to making a proper pho broth:
- Pre-boiling the beef bones and meat
- Charring the ginger and onions
- Toasting the spices
- Adding fish sauce (said Vietnamese friend told me that one of the secrets to a great pho recipe is to not add salt, and instead add enough fish sauce to bring the broth to the correct level of saltiness.)
I know, it’s a lot of fish sauce! However, she said that this method tastes the best, but most people don’t do it because fish sauce is so expensive.
She also mentioned, rather proudly, that the Vietnamese brands of fish sauce are much more flavorful (and expensive at $9-$12 a bottle) than the Thai brands most people buy. Which is just food for thought.
In accordance with this insider information, feel free to add more fish sauce to the broth and decrease the amount of salt. As is our mantra here at The Woks of Life, it’s all up to your own taste preferences! Oh, and definitely buy a high quality fish sauce for this pho recipe. It will only make your broth better!
Pho Recipe Instructions
Place the bones and beef chuck in large stockpot and add water to cover. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes. Drain in a colander and thoroughly clean the stockpot. This process removes any impurities/scum and will give you a much cleaner broth.
Meanwhile, char your ginger and onions. Use tongs to hold the ginger and onions (one at a time) over an open flame, or place each directly on a gas burner. (You can also do this on a grill.)
Turn until they’re lightly blackened and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Rinse away all the blackened skins.
Add 5 quarts fresh water back to the stockpot and bring to a boil. Transfer the bones and meat back to the pot, along with the charred/cleaned ginger and onions. Add the scallions, fish sauce and rock sugar. Reduce the heat to low, and simmer until the beef chuck is tender, about 40 minutes. Skim the surface often to remove any foam and fat.
Remove one piece of the chuck and transfer to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. Then transfer this piece of beef to a container and refrigerate (you will slice this to serve with your pho later. If you were to leave it in the pot, it would be too dry to eat). Leave the other piece of chuck in the pot to flavor the broth.
Now toast the spices (star anise, cloves, cinnamon stick, cardamom pod (if using), fennel seeds, and coriander seeds) in a dry pan over medium low heat for about 3 minutes, until fragrant. Use kitchen string to tie up the spices in a piece of cheesecloth, and add it to the broth.
Cover the pot and continue simmering for another 4 hours. Add the salt and continue to simmer, skimming as necessary, until you’re ready to assemble the rest of the dish. Taste the broth and adjust seasoning by adding more salt, sugar, and/or fish sauce as needed.
To serve, boil the noodles according to package instructions. Add to a bowl. Place a few slices of the beef chuck and the raw sirloin on the noodles. Bring the broth to a rolling boil and ladle it into each bowl. The hot broth will cook the beef. Garnish with your toppings, and be sure to squeeze a lot of fresh lime juice over the top!
Scroll down for the full list of ingredients and the recipe card.
Short on time? Check out our Instant Pot Pho recipe as well!
Mmmm. Pho noodle pull!
Pho Recipe
Ingredients
You’ll need:
- 2 3-inch (7 to 8 cm) pieces ginger, cut in half lengthwise (no need to peel)
- 2 onions (peeled)
- 5 pounds beef marrow or knuckle bones
- 2 pounds beef chuck (cut into 2 pieces)
- 5 quarts water
- 2 scallions (cut into 4-inch lengths)
- 1/3 cup fish sauce
- 2 ½ ounces rock sugar (2 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar)
- 8 star anise
- 6 cloves
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 black cardamom pod (optional)
- 2 teaspoons fennel seeds
- 2 teaspoons coriander seeds
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 pound dried pho noodles
- 1/3 pound beef sirloin (slightly frozen, then sliced paper-thin against the grain)
Garnishes:
- Sliced chili
- Thinly sliced onion
- Chopped scallions
- Cilantro
- Mung bean sprouts
- Thai basil
- Lime wedges
Instructions
- Place the bones and beef chuck in large stockpot and add water to cover. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes. Drain in a colander and thoroughly clean the stockpot. This process removes any impurities/scum and will give you a much cleaner broth.
- Meanwhile, char your ginger and onions. Use tongs to hold the ginger and onions (one at a time) over an open flame, or place each directly on a gas burner. Turn until they’re lightly blackened and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Rinse away all the blackened skins.
- Add water (5 quarts/4.75 L, or more/less if you've scaled the recipe up or down) to the stockpot and bring to a boil. Transfer the bones and meat back to the pot, along with the charred/cleaned ginger and onions. Add the scallions, fish sauce and sugar. Reduce the heat to low, and simmer until the beef chuck is tender, about 40 minutes. Skim the surface often to remove any foam and fat.
- Remove one piece of the chuck and transfer to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. Then transfer this piece of beef to a container and refrigerate (you will slice this to serve with your pho later. If you were to leave it in the pot, it would be too dry to eat). Leave the other piece of chuck in the pot to flavor the broth.
- Now toast the spices (star anise, cloves, cinnamon stick, cardamom, fennel seeds, and coriander seeds) in a dry pan over medium low heat for about 3 minutes, until fragrant. Use kitchen string to tie up the spices in a piece of cheesecloth, and add it to the broth.
- Cover the pot and continue simmering for another 4 hours. Add the salt and continue to simmer, skimming as necessary, until you're ready to assemble the rest of the dish. Taste the broth and adjust seasoning by adding more salt, sugar, and/or fish sauce as needed.
- To serve, boil the noodles according to package instructions. Add to a bowl. Place a few slices of the beef chuck and the raw sirloin on the noodles. Bring the broth to a rolling boil and ladle it into each bowl. The hot broth will cook the beef. Garnish with your toppings, and be sure to squeeze a lot of fresh lime juice over the top!
Superb
Thank you!
Hi Sarah- I absolutely love this recipe! I have made it countless times and always enjoy it. We always have to have some frozen broth on hand! I recently acquired a larger stockpot and was looking to increase this recipe. The servings size adjuster changes the main ingredients, but it does not change the amount of water added to create the broth. Do you have any recommendations? My plan was to make 12servings worth at once… how much water do you recommend that I add?
Thank you so much for all the delicious joy this recipe has brought!!!
Hi Ashley, so glad you’ve been enjoying this recipe! I’ve added the water to the ingredients list, so it will scale up or down along with everything else. 12 servings calls for 7.5 qts water. Thanks for bringing that to my attention!
Awesome!!! Thank you so much! <3
If i want to add Vietnamese meatballs to Pho. How would i go about making them a part of the pho?
Hi Bridget, you can add them to the broth in the last 15 minutes or so of simmering, and cook them until they’re heated through (they’re already cooked out of the package). I love those meatballs too!
Thank u so much for this recipe- turned out just as good (if not better) than the stuff I’ve become used to in the big city. This was wonderful.
You’re welcome! My aunt also recently made this for a family gathering and I also was reminded of how tasty it is. :)
This is LEGIT! We moved from a state with a pho restaurant on every corner to a state with none so I needed to learn to make my own pho. This is absolutely restaurant quality and actually very easy to make. Our preferred protein in pho is meatballs so I set the meat from the broth aside for the pups and they were happy guys. So glad I have this recipe now.
Thank you, Bekki!
Can I make the broh in a pressure cooker instead? I was wondering if the broth would taste the same this way and how much time would I need with a pressure cooker?
Hi Soh, we actually do have a pressure cooker version. Here’s our instant pot pho: https://thewoksoflife.com/instant-pot-pho/
Would this work with pork bones? i have some of those in my freezer that i need to use
Hi Alex, we actually don’t have a recipe for pork pho, but we have many other recipes for pork bones here:
https://thewoksoflife.com/pork-chicken-stock/
https://thewoksoflife.com/lotus-root-pork-soup/
https://thewoksoflife.com/bitter-melon-soup-pork-bones/
https://thewoksoflife.com/cantonese-mustard-green-soup-pork-bones/
https://thewoksoflife.com/ching-po-leung-soup/
https://thewoksoflife.com/moms-pork-bone-congee/
This is amazing! I made my own beef bone broth last week. I had 12 quarts of it and had been drinking it on its own as an afternoon snack for a week, but I had 6 quarts left so I decided to use 4 of them to make this recipe. I used a pressure cooker because I didn’t have time to wait long and I substituted shrimp as the protein because that is what I had in the freezer. It turned out amazing, dare I say, even better than the restaurant stuff. I have enough for me and my partner to eat for at least 2 more nights. I plan to make this a staple.
Thank you so much for this review and the high compliments, Tiara! So glad you and your partner enjoyed it. :)
It’s seems so delicious but I haven’t tasted it yet I will try it now
Hope you like it!
Hi! I’m wondering if I could replace the beef marrow with bone broth?
Hi Rachel, it’s best to make your own broth for this recipe!