SK Store
Become a Fan
Follow Me
SubscribeSaturday, February 9, 2008
Vietnamese Pho: Beef Noodle Soup
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.
UPDATE 4/11/2010 I started getting comments of the broth being too greasy — and after 8 pots of testing, I found out why. When I normally make pho broth, I use a combination of knuckle and leg bones, normally with 20% of the bones having the marrow (below photo). When I started increasing the % of bones with marrow – the broth started getting too fatty. I guess too much of a good stuff is not a good thing! 
The fattiness is easy to remedy. Refrigerate overnight and just discard the layer of fat that accumulates on top. For best results though, keep the bones with marrow to 20%.
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
 |
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
 |
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
Pho-Shizzle, My Bowl-o Noozle!!
Vietnamese Pho: Beef Noodle Soup Recipe
Adapted from my favorite Vietnamese cookbook
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.
Ingredients:
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 whole star anise, 1 cardamom pod, 6 whole cloves - in mesh bag]
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt (halve if using regular table salt)
1/4 cup fish sauce
1 inch chunk of yellow rock sugar (about 1 oz) - or 1oz of regular sugarTHE 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
Sriracha hot sauceDirections:
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 - this is a crucial step. If the broth's flavor doesn't quite shine yet, add 2 teaspoons more of fish sauce, large pinch of salt and a small nugget of rock sugar (or 1 teaspoon of regular sugar). Keep doing this until the broth tastes perfect.
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.
***
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)
***
Pho-Lovers Pho-Ever
Viet World Kitchen
Print Recipe
Share
Email
Facebook
TwitterYou Might Also Like...
525 Responses to “Vietnamese Pho: Beef Noodle Soup”
Leave a Comment
-
just launched!
My new cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen’s Healthy Asian Favorites, comes out Feb. 2013...preorder it today!
-
sk products
"Perfectly suited for high-heat wok cooking. Its high smoke point and neutral taste lets the flavor of the food shine". Jaden's Rice Bran Oil 750ml by Steamy Kitchen.
Favorites
Thai Larb Lettuce Cups - White on Rice Couple
Miso Soup with Tofu and Kale - Gluten Free Girl
Cauliflower Steaks with Ginger Soy Sauce - Two Peas and Their Pod
Quick Kimchi - Use Real Butter
Dan Dan Mien - Jeanette's Healthy Living
Salmon Honey Teriyaki - Eat Live Run
Asian Slaw with Wasabi Dressing - Shutterbean
Chinese Sweet and Sour Chicken - The Shiksa in the Kitchen
Kimchi Omelet - David Lebovitz
Kung Pao Chicken - I Am Baker
Sparkling Vietnamese Limeade - Katie's Cucina
Honey-Teriyaki Salmon - Skinny Taste
Quinoa Salad with Avocado and Peas - What's Gaby Cooking
SK Store
What a helpful blog entry! And I love all the comments. Let me pose a question for all Pho experts:
Would it not improve the flavor of the broth to first roast the bones before boiling them? That’s what’s recommended by this recipe…
http://www.hongkongpantry.com/blog/2011/06/beef_bombes/
And a long time ago when researching umami formation (umami is the amazing and elusive “fifth flavor”) I read that it is maximized by the high heat of roasting the bones, and then it is extracted by the boiling process.
Does anyone here know of traditional Pho recipes that require *roasted* bones?
Hey, DO NOT DISCARD the beef phat (fat) ! You can use it as stir fry oil and it is absolutely delicious.
Best and most practical arrival I’ve found so far. Can’t wait to finally try to make my very own bowl of my favorite Vietnamese dish.
I’ve always wanted to know how to make good Pho. Now I’ve got a trusted recipe from YOU. Super awesome Pho Sho!! Thanks.
I live very close to Little Saigon in Southern CA and I just bought a soup starter spice jar the other day. Thanks for your recipe. I’m going to wander around today and see if I can find some Thai Basil because it is so much better than the other basil. None of my local markets have it. Will have to investigate LS with my Vietnamese girlfriend.
Biggest thanks goes for telling me how to say the word Pho. I meet regularly with a group at a local Pho restaurant and was never sure how to say it.
I’m a NC mountain girl that loves asian so much I married one! He’s Chinese but LOVES pho. Over the course of our 15 year marriage, I have asked three Vietnamese friends numerous times to teach me how to cook it… or even to just let me watch them prepare it. I have even offered to pay them!! No one has ever fulfilled my request. I have searched the internet as well, but the recipes all seemed way too complicated. We have four children (ages 13-7) who also love the soup… but often, the forty minute drive to the nearest restaurant is too much to fit into our busy schedule. Well… I FINALLY discovered Jaden Hair and Steamy Kitchen!! THANK YOU!! I made pho for the first time last night and all five of them said, “THIS IS BETTER THAN PHO CALI (our favorite pho restaurant)! In fact, our oldest tends to order quail and our youngest only gets egg rolls because they are not particularly fond of pho. They loved it! So, because of the wonderful Jaden, no only can my family enjoy pho, but we don’t have to make the drive and they think it is better anyway!!! I haven’t looked yet – but since I mentioned the quail – wondering if you can teach me the “Vietnamese” way! LOL! Also the dipping sauce… seems all the stores have chili in them. Our restaurant only has the carrots. I’ve tried mimicking it to no avail. Anyway… <3 and {hugs} to Steamy Kitchen! Can't wait to try more of your recipes!
Made this recipe today, and everything went very well until I was adjusting to taste. When I first tasted the recipe there was very little flavor. You could SLIGHTLY taste the flavor of the spices, which I toasted before I added since I know that helps the flavors bloom, and that was all you could taste. It was fatty, slightly spiced water. So I started the fish sauce, salt, sugar routine and now… it is just a bit too salty and still is missing that aromatic flavor. Any ideas? Should I maybe add a potato (remove it later) to soak up some salt and boil it without the lid on to evaporate some of the water and condense the flavors?
My bf just got back from Denver and said that he drove down a road just outside of the city and there were about 20 different restaurants with “pho” in the name. Good chance you will have luck there!
Being part Vietnamese, I’m always interested discovering how others make dishes that I grew up eating. I’m fully aware of the variations in the ingredients, which I frown upon when I come across a flavor that throws off a dish. It’s interesting to see the “Pho spices” that are used in this recipe. My Mother only used Star Anise. She didn’t need any of those other spices. I’ve tasted Pho with some of these additional spices and was dissatisfied with the flavor. Who knows, maybe growing up in Vietnam she didn’t have access to any of them. Funny how your Mother’s dish is always the best. Oh, and yellow rock sugar? In Pho? Um…no.