Pho is a Vietnamese noodle soup topped with awesome things like fresh bean sprouts, basil, and chilies. This pho recipe was approved by a Vietnamese friend!
Recipe by Sarah on September 5, 2023
Prep time: PT30M
Cook time: PT330M
Total time: PT360M
Rating
4.96 stars (95 reviews)
Keywords
pho
Ingredients
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))
Sliced chili
Thinly sliced onion
Chopped scallions
Cilantro
Mung bean sprouts
Thai basil
Lime wedges
Hoisin sauce and/or Sriracha ((optional))
Categories
Noodles and Pasta
Cuisine
Vietnamese
Steps
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!
Nutitrion
Serving Size: 1 serving
Calories: 495 kcal
Carbohydrates: 68 g
Protein: 30 g
Fat: 11 g
Saturated Fat: 5 g
Cholesterol: 69 mg
Sugar: 14 g
Reviews
Curtis on 2026-04-17 (5 stars): The smell alone is reason to make this recipe. My house smells like my favorite pho spot! Made some Cha Gio and Do Chua while it was simmering— and I feel like I am having lunch in Hanoi
Shun on 2026-03-27 (5 stars): You guys have the BEST recipes! I made this recipe vegan (used soy sauce instead of fish sauce, used not chicken cubes to flavor the broth instead of bones and meat) and it still came out DELICIOUS!!
Kaite on 2026-02-25 (5 stars): I could only find ground coriander - how much should I substitute for? 1:1? Also, you serve the sliced cooked chuck roast and the sirloin on top right?
Very excited to make this for a group of friends tonight — first time making pho from scratch!!
Kalais on 2026-02-25 (5 stars): Made this recipe the lazy way, boiled my beef bones for a bit then threw all of the spices in the pot and boiled for around 8-10 more hours. It STILL turned out delicious even though I didn’t follow instructions. I tailored it to fit my busy lifestyle and the amount of time and work I was able to put aside for it. Worth it! I now have bags of delicious broth in my freezer for when I need a quick, healthy, hot meal and don’t have enough time to really prep much. 10/10 for ingredients for sure. I did leave out the sugar but there was some in the generic brand fish sauce I used that also somehow didn’t ruin it in the slightest. My husband also added garlic gloves and quartered onions to the boil which suited our tastes well.
Jenny Rae on 2026-01-02 (5 stars): Hi, I tweaked this recipe to make a vegan version, and it's been getting me through these cold rainy months!
Like the author recommended, you can definitely use that vegetable stock recipe as a solid base, and then prep and add the aromatics as listed in the recipe. I used tamari to replace the fish sauce (and used a smaller amount, because when I added as much as listed for fish sauce, I felt it compromised the flavor of the end result). You could use a vegan fish sauce though, or probably even just some msg, depending on your dietary and taste preferences. I cooked it all for 2 hours, adding in my veggies at the 20 minute mark (this time will depend on the veggies you wish to use, I used cauliflower and cabbage because I felt they meshed with the flavor of the broth well and also stand up pretty great to re-heating).
I'll list what I've been doing here, but you can totally stop reading here if you're going to use the author's recommended soup stock with those other veg modifications. :)
I take tend to take a quick and dirty approach to my base for soup broths because I'm not the best with food prep and tend to do things on the fly. This results in a broth that suits my tastes, but has more chunky herbal bits than a true pho broth would contain. Here's what I did, in case it helps you. Note that I modify things based my own dietary needs and taste preferences, I'm terrible about measuring things and usually just eyeball it, and you may wish to stick closer to the original recipe. When I don't list my approximate measurement, that means I followed the original recipe measurements.
-Add the cleaned, charred onion and ginger to the pot. Charring the onion and ginger made a significant flavor difference, so I don't recommend skipping this step! I've found it easiest to char by broiling it in my oven.
- Chop up and add 1 full bulb of garlic. (I am a garlic addict, and I love what it does for a veggie broth. You may wish to add less.)
- Add approximately 2 TBS of poultry seasoning, which usually means it's a mix of sage, rosemary, and thyme, with maybe some other herbs added. I prefer the freeze dried poultry blend from Litehouse.
- Add one stalk celery, one medium sized carrot, and one large dino kale leaf. I chop these up and just eat them with the soup, but it you want to fish them out before serving your soup, you may wish to have larger chunks.
- Add water and get your pouch of toasted spices ready while the water's heating up. NOTE: After I add the toasted spices to the pouch, I also add half a chopped apple, because I omit the palm sugar entirely.
- Add approximately 1/4 cup (or a bit less) of tamari.
- Add salt.
- Toss in your spice pouch, bring the pot to a simmer, cover and let simmer for 2 hours, adding in the veggies you're adding in place of meat at appropriate times for them not to get overcooked. I just look up those times online if not sure, but I'm usually adding cauliflower and cabbage when there's only 15-20 minutes left to go.
This results in a very flavorful broth that's even more so the next day after the flavors have really settled and fused more. If you want a lighter broth, you may wish to simmer the aromatics for a shorter amount of time. I simmered it for only an hour and a half the first time I made it, and it was still tasty.
Sorry for the great wall of text, but I hope this helps! I've just found this author's pho recipe to be truly amazing even after I modified it to fit my needs, and I'd want everyone to be able to experience this comforting soup.
Captain Obvious on 2025-12-28 (5 stars): This recipe worked very well, except that a window for reduction should be added. To get the desired richness and depth of flavour I had to simmer with the lid off for over an hour, tasting regularly until it hit the spot. If you try this recipe and it comes out a bit weak, just reduce until the flavours pop. Otherwise it hit the spot perfectly - thank you!
Ben on 2025-12-15 (5 stars): I made this recipe and it’s absolutely delicious. However, every time I make it, the broth turns much darker than I expected. I’ve looked into this and it’s because the aromatics are added too early. Some call for adding the toasted spices 30 min to 1 hour before serving or taking them out early.
Also would love to see a Hanoi style pho from northern Vietnam. This is the more popular Saigon style pho from southern Vietnam
