It’s the broth that makes pho soup in Vietnam so authentic! Fish sauce, star anise, ginger, and beef bones simmer for at least 6 hours to produce a flavorful broth that is complex and aromatic. Rice noodles and finely sliced beef are served with the savory broth and fresh garnishes.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 7 hrs 5 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 8 hrs 25 mins |
| Servings: | 4 |
Ingredients
- 4 pounds beef soup bones (shank and knee)
- 1 medium onion, unpeeled and cut in half
- 5 slices fresh ginger
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 2 pods star anise
- 2 ½ tablespoons fish sauce
- 4 quarts water
- 1 (8 ounce) package dried rice noodles
- 1 ½ pounds beef top sirloin, thinly sliced
- ½ cup chopped cilantro
- 1 tablespoon chopped green onion
- 1 ½ cups bean sprouts
- 1 bunch Thai basil
- 1 medium lime, cut into 4 wedges
- ¼ cup hoisin sauce (Optional)
- ¼ cup chile-garlic sauce (such as Sriracha®) (Optional)
Instructions
- Gather all ingredients.
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- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
- Place beef bones on a baking sheet and roast in the preheated oven until browned, about 1 hour.
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- Place onion halves on a second baking sheet and roast on another rack until blackened and soft, about 45 minutes.
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- Transfer beef bones and onion halves to a large stockpot. Add ginger, salt, star anise, fish sauce, and 4 quarts water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 6 to 10 hours. Strain the broth into a saucepan and set aside.
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- Place rice noodles in a large bowl filled with room temperature water. Let soak for 1 hour. Drain.
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- When noodles have soaked for 1 hour, heat up the reserved broth by bringing it to a simmer.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook the noodles in the boiling water for 1 minute. Drain.
- Divide noodles among 4 serving bowls; top with sirloin, cilantro, and green onion. Ladle hot broth over the top. Stir and let sit until beef is partially cooked and no longer pink, 1 to 2 minutes.
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- Serve with bean sprouts, Thai basil, lime wedges, hoisin sauce, and chile-garlic sauce on the side.
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Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 509 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 66 g |
| Cholesterol | 74 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 4 g |
| Protein | 35 g |
| Saturated Fat | 4 g |
| Sodium | 3519 mg |
| Sugars | 9 g |
| Fat | 11 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I used bone broth made at our local organic grocery – still absolutely delicious, and cuts down on the time needed to simmer and addresses the issue with oil that comes with using the bones. I roasted the onions on the fresh thyme springs as suggested which I think added a lot to the flavor. I also used a Cambodian spice mix of cloves, cinnamon, ginger and star anise in addition to fresh ginger and star anise. The sirloin worked well as it is a good cut that stays tender.
It was delicious
I followed the recipe but it doesn’t taste like pho from a restaurant. It also only gave 3 normal size bowls of soup not pho size. It’s good but when I want pho I want restaurant quality. It definitely needs more spices and it came out very oily. It’s still good but not what I was hoping for. I’ll try a different recipe next time.
I love this recipe, instead of putting the bones and onion in the oven, I put them on the Traeger. The smoke flavor adds a new layer to it.
After read previous reviews, I made what I thought were significant adjustments. I added cinnamon sticks, cardamom pods, black pepper, mustard seeds, half a teaspoon of fresh turmeric and twice the amount of the recommended spices and ginger while roasting the bones and the onions. My Vietnamese friend’s grandmother recommended to prepare a broth ahead of time with 3 quarts of water a small amount of bullion, soy sauce , a tiny sprig of lemon grass and a handful of dried anchovies instead of anchovy paste. I pressure cooked all of it for 40 minutes strained it and served it with cilantro, Thai basil, sprouts and the recommended Sriracha sauce but I added sliced toasted sesame oil ,jalapeños and the limes. We like sweet potato starch noodles so we added those.. It was fantastic after that
My son-in-law is wild about this stuff, so I thought I’d try my hand and thank you so much for the clear directions. It turned out awesome! I used ox tail. I also learned how roasting the meat improves its flavor when making broth. This is going to become a new family favorite. I thought I had green onions, but I didn’t so I cut a few brussel sprouts in half and they worked great for a “green”. I’ll be sure to have onions and bean sprouts next time.
Outstanding and easy if not a slightly lengthy process. Could not get star anise and it was not needed, authentic Thai basil as a garnish adds plenty of the anice flavor. I use thin sliced flank across the grain for extra tender meat.
This was fun to make…. Its great to know that I can make it at home and it’s pretty close to what I would buy.
The flavor is there but the fregrance is still missing. I did a few more online research and other recipes put more than star anise. My main issue is the broth. I use bones but I think they have too much fat, it makes the soup a bit slimy taste and too rich. I should try knuckle bone next time. Or is it because I use slow cooker instead of just cook top. Just FYI for other people who follow this recipe.
This was so great! No recipe changes. Delicious!!
Made it. Soup base tasted like water. I added 5 pounds of beef soup bone, 4 quarts of water, star anise, a big whole onion, fish sauce, salt. Everything to a T. Simmered from 12 pm to 9pm too. Such a disappointment. I was really looking forward too.
I used my pressure cooker and rendered the broth in a third of the stated cook time. I also added a few chicken wings with the oxtails and shanks for additional collagen. You can also chill then remove the disk of fat, if you’re into that sort of thing. The results were spectacular!!!
I’ve tried a lot of allrecipes.com recipes with huge success. This was a big fail. Tasted super watered down (as many other reviews have stated as well), and needs substantial revision to the proportions or length of time needed to simmer the bones
I made some substitutions based on reviews and what I had on hand. With the substitutions, this was five star. I gave it four stars because I don’t think it would be as good if I had followed the recipe exactly. I didn’t have beef bones so I instead used high quality beef gelatin. This gives the broth a silky feel. I didn’t have star anise pods so I substituted 1 tsp Chinese Five Spice Powder. I omitted the hoisin sauce and sriracha. The result was so delicious I ate it for lunch two days in a row.
Compared to several other authentic pho recipes, this one excluded many of the traditional herbs. I actually tweeted this I e to include those. With the tweaks it was amazing
This recipe takes 10 hours. Period. The work and cost you put into it isn’t worth it if you don’t simmer it the full 6 hours at least. I would not make this again unless I had the time at home and unless I was making it for a big group of people. It’s an experiential dish. Fun to make but very time consuming.
Great Recipe A few Notes -Add daikon radish, toasted coriander seeds, and galangal to broth. – toast the ginger with the onions but for 30 minutes -Add toasted cinnamon (1stick) to broth – Add 1 tbsp to broth This recipe does everything amazingly and i will only use this one from here on out * before baking the bones, scrub them in a bowl filled with water salt and rice vinegar
A LOT of work for four servings of soup. In the future, I’ll leave this to the pros.
The broth turned out great! It does take a fair bit of time, but it’s worth it 🙂
The only thing we did which I didn’t see in the recipe was NOT include the fat from the bones after roasting. From past experience I felt my work product was to fatty. For me this improved mouth feel. It also probably saved on calories from fat. This turned out perfectly for our pallet! The aroma was awesome.
Everyone of us 5 loved it! That rarely happens. The only change I made because I am new to this is I cooked the meat in the crockpot first. My middle teenager asked for this for her birthday and for it to be in the weekly rotation.