Vietnamese Pho - Beef or Chicken

Vietnamese Pho - Beef or Chicken © kvalifood.com

A detailed, traditional Hanoi pho recipe covering both beef and chicken. The key steps are the same as any good pho: char the aromatics, toast the spices, blanch the bones first, and simmer low and long.

Ingredients

Serves 4

Broth

  • 500 g beef bones (or chicken bones)
  • 4 onions, halved
  • 60 g fresh ginger, halved
  • 120 g shallots
  • 2.5 l water

Spice bundle

  • 1 tbsp coriander seeds
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 2 black cardamom pods
  • 1/2 cup star anise (about 8-10 pods)

Seasonings

  • 3 tbsp salt
  • 240 ml fish sauce

To serve

  • 200 g beef fillet (or cooked chicken), thinly sliced
  • 450 g rice noodles
  • 50 g spring onion, roughly chopped
  • 50 g onion, thinly sliced
  • 50 g bean sprouts
  • 50 g coriander
  • 50 g saw-tooth herb (culantro), optional
  • lime wedges (or kumquat), for serving
  • red chili, sliced, for serving
  • fish sauce, for serving

Directions

Build the broth

  1. Blanch the bones: bring the beef or chicken bones to a boil in about 1 litre of water. Simmer for 2-3 minutes, then drain and rinse under cold water. Optionally, grill the bones briefly for deeper flavour.
  2. Char the aromatics: hold the onion halves, ginger, and shallots over a gas flame or under a hot grill until lightly blackened on the cut sides - about 5-10 minutes.
  3. Toast the spices in a dry pan until fragrant, about 1 minute. Wrap them in muslin and tie into a bundle.
  4. Place the blanched bones, charred aromatics, and spice bundle in a large pot with 2.5 litres of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a low simmer and cook for 2-4 hours.
  5. After 2 hours, season with salt and fish sauce. Continue simmering, then strain the broth through a fine sieve.

Assemble and serve

  1. Cut the herbs into roughly 1 cm pieces. Slice the beef very thin (partially frozen beef is easier to slice).
  2. Divide noodles and herbs into bowls. Briefly cook the noodles and meat in the broth, then add to the bowls.
  3. Pour in the boiling hot broth until the noodles are just covered.
  4. For medium-rare beef: place raw sliced beef directly on the noodles and pour hot broth over - the heat will cook it. For well done: briefly blanch the beef in hot water first.
  5. Serve immediately with lime, chili, and fish sauce on the side.

Notes

  • This recipe gives a larger quantity of fish sauce than the simpler Hanoi Pho recipe. Adjust to taste - the broth should be savoury but not aggressively salty.
  • Beef pho benefits from at least 4 hours of simmering. Chicken pho is good at 2 hours.
  • The spice bundle is what makes pho smell like pho. Star anise and cinnamon are the dominant notes.