Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup Recipe (Phở Bò)
Vietnamese beef noodle soup, Phở Bò, is one of the most popular street foods in Vietnam. It is well-known around the world by its slightly natural sweet delicious broth and special flavor. Pho Bo is considered a comfort food. Vietnamese would eat Pho at any time of a day. The key to making a delicious bowl of Pho is making a delicious broth. The main ingredients are beef bones, chuck roast, and spices. You can check out the ingredient list below.
For this recipe, you’ll need a big pot or a pressure cooker. Using pressure cooker would reduce the cooking time to one hour instead of two. Some people like to have bean sprouts cooked in the broth before adding to the bowl. Others also like to have a glass of warm soy milk to go along.
For other style of beef soup, you can check out this recipe, Vietnamese Spicy Beef Noodle Soup Recipe (Bún Bò Huế).

Check out our youtube channel for more short cooking videos, https://www.youtube.com/NPFamilyRecipes.
Prep Time | 10 minutes |
Cook Time | 2 hours |
Servings |
servings
|
- 4 lbs beef bones
- 1 lb chuck roast
- 11 oz meatballs (beef, optional)
- 2 yellow onion (1 peeled)
- 6 shallots
- 3.75 oz ginger
- 3 cinnamon sticks
- 3 star anise
- 3 cardamom pods (dried fructus tsaoko)
- 2.25 oz rock sugar (or regular sugar)
- 2.5 tsp salt
- 1.5 lb rice noodles (fresh)
- 1/2 yellow onion
- 3 bird chile (Thai chilli)
- 1 lime
- 12 oz bean sprouts (1 bag)
- 1 bun green onions
- 3 culantro
- 3 fresh basil
- 3 tsp hoisin sauce
- 1 tsp chili sauce
Ingredients
For the Broth
For Accompaniments
|
- Place bones and meat into a stock pot. Fill with water until covered (about 1-1/2 gallons). Add salt, sugar, and peeled yellow onion. Cover the top. Simmer for 1 hour. (Skim off the foam occasionally). Note: You can simmer the bones for more than 2 hour if you have time. This will make the broth more tasty.
- Cut ginger into slices. Cut yellow onion in half. Grill the rest of yellow onion, ginger slices, shallots, cinnamon sticks, dried anise, fructus tsaoko until they look a little burned. Then remove them from the baking sheet. Discard the burn and peel the outer layers of yellow onion and shallots by using a knife.
- Meanwhile, cut lime into wedges. Cut chili into thin slices. Slice yellow onion thinly. Cut green onion in half; chop the top finely. Set aside.
- After another 1 hour, remove the lid. Discard yellow onions, ginger slices, shallots, spices, and beef bones. Skim off the burn on the broth surface by using a fine mesh strainer.(or you can strain the broth)
- Place noodle into a big bowl. Poor in hot water and stir for few times. Remove the noodle from hot water right away by using a strainer. Toss to remove any excess water. Note: You can also use the dried pho noodles. However, boil it for 5-7 minutes or until you can break it by pinching with your fingers. Then rinse with cool water and drain well.
- Have it with a few Thai chili slices, herbs, and bean sprouts. Squeeze in lime juice. Add hoisin sauce and hot chili sauce to taste.