Easy Beef Pho Recipe

Name: Easy Beef Pho Recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Ingredients: 5 shallots (, sliced in halves); 2 thumb sized ginger (, sliced); 1 cinnamon stick; 2 star anise; 6 cloves; 1 tbsp black peppercorns; 2 cup low-sodium beef stock; 2 cup low-sodium chicken stock; 2 cup water; 2 tbsp fish sauce (, or to taste); 1 tbsp sugar; 4 oz dry flat rice noodles; 1/2 lb beef (, tenderloins, rib eye, or flank steak, thinly sliced); 1 cup bean sprouts; coriander leaves; spring onion (, sliced); chili (, sliced); hoisin sauce; sriracha; lime wedges

Easy beef pho recipe that takes under 40 minutes to cook. This comforting hot fragrant bowl of clear broth with rice noodles, tender beef slices, and aromatic fresh herbs is a must-make for soup lovers. The unique lightly spiced broth is the key for this quick pho!

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What Is Pho?
Why This Recipe Works
Ingredients For This Recipe
Step-By-Step Instructions
Recipe Expert Tips
What To Eat It With
Recipe FAQs
More Soup Recipes
Watch How To Make It
📖 Recipe
💬 Comments

What Is Pho?

Pho pronounced as fuh, is a Vietnamese national dish. It's a clear broth soup served with rice noodles, fresh herbs like cilantro, bean sprouts, spring onion, and lime, together with some protein which typically is beef.

The broth is savory, fragrant, infused with warm spices, packed with umami, and just warms your soul. The delicious broth is achieved by traditionally simmering for 8-24 hours, using beef bones, and marrow bones. You'd also need to skim out the impurities to maintain it being a clear broth.

The taste is amazing but honestly, it's such a labor, especially for home cooks like us, hence this quick pho that cooks in under 40 minutes!

Why This Recipe Works

Grabbing the noodles of quick pho with chopsticks.

Being a Southeast Asian, I can live only on soups. Marco says I always surprise him by being able to create delicious soups with whatever ingredients, even when we travel in our motorhome. We both enjoy traditional beef pho soup so much but this quick pho recipe is very similar to it, and here's why we keep coming back to it.

Quicker and easier - We're making a quick beef pho recipe that cooks in under 40 minutes instead of 8-24 hours by using beef and chicken stock. More of our delicious simplified recipes that are worth trying are our 30-minute chicken ramen, easy Pad Thai, Malaysian satay sauce, and quick Malaysian curry laksa.

One-pot recipe - We're making this beef pho recipe even easier by cooking everything in just one pot, including the noodles. For us, there's no point in cooking the noodles separately in another pot when they're going to end up in the same bowl with the broth. We love to keep things even simpler, like our 30-minute chicken massaman curry and Chinese steamed fish!

Preserving the essence of pho - Although this is an easy pho recipe, we're still getting the amazing essence of Vietnamese pho recipe which is a delicious warm, fragrant broth with an amazing depth of flavors. We're not changing the ingredients of pho, we're simplifying them, the same as we did in our slow cooker beef rendang, Penang char kway teow, and slow cooker chicken rendang.

Ingredients For This Recipe

Onion and ginger - The crucial essences of this quick pho recipe. They add depth and bring any ordinary broth to another level.

Spices - Pho soup ingredients need to have cinnamon, black peppercorns, star anise, and cloves to give warm flavors to the broth. Cinnamon also lends a touch of amazing mild sweet spice to it.

Beef - Tenderloins, flank steak, rib eye, or flank iron steak work great. Make sure to slice them thinly against the grain.

Stock - We love to use a combination of beef and chicken stock, to bring the flavors in this homemade pho recipe the closest to the traditional pho. We highly recommend using low-sodium stocks. You can also use water mixed with 1 granule each of chicken and beef bouillon.

Noodles - Flat rice noodles. Thin or thick works amazingly. They're perfect for absorbing the delicious flavors in a dish like our peanut sauce stir-fry noodles.

Garnish - We love the freshness of coriander, lime, bean sprouts, and some kick from chili. Fresh or jarred bean sprouts work great. Optional but highly recommended, some hoisin and sriracha sauce to go with this quick pho!

⭐ See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

Step-By-Step Instructions

1. Char the aromatics - Heat a pot on medium-high heat and add the onion and ginger. Leave them for 2-3 minutes on each side, for them to get charred. Charring the aromatics is the signature of pho, to infuse more flavors into the broth.

2. Cook the broth - Pour in the beef and chicken stock, water, and the spices. Bring to a boil and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Remove and discard the aromatics and the spices.

3. Cook the noodles - Bring the broth to a boil. Add the dried rice noodles into the broth, and cook for 2-3 minutes or until they're almost fully cooked. Don't fully cook them because the hot broth will cook them to perfection when we assemble them and serve them later. Divide the noodles into 2 bowls.

4. Cook the beef - Put the beef slices into the broth and move them around. Cook just until they're not raw, leaving them slightly pinkish, around 30-45 seconds. Divide them into the bowls. The hot broth will fully cook them in the bowls later.

5. Assemble - Pour the hot broth into the bowls. Garnish with bean sprouts, coriander, mint, and chilies. Serve immediately with some hoisin sauce and sriracha. Enjoy your homemade easy beef pho!

Recipe Expert Tips

Slice the beef thinly. We're cooking the beef for 30-45 seconds only, so the thinner the slices, the faster they cook. Thin slices are also more tender and perfect in this quick pho recipe.
Don't overcook the noodles. The cooking time varies depending on the type of rice noodles you're using, but we recommend cooking them in the pot just until they're almost fully cooked. The hot broth in the serving bowl will continue to cook the noodles to perfection. This avoids overly soft noodles in Asian-style soups. A slight chewiness and bite to them is perfect!
Don't overcook the beef. Just cook them in the broth until they're slightly pinkish. The heat from the hot broth in the serving bowl will cook them fully. This ensures a tender and more enjoyable beef texture, not tough.
For fresh bean sprouts. Put some in the bowl together with the noodles and beef, and then pour the hot broth on top. This will semi-blanch them. We use jarred ones for this quick pho.

What To Eat It With

This delicious quick pho is usually eaten with lots of fresh herbs like spring onion, cilantro, bean sprouts, chili, and Thai basil if you are fortunate enough to find it easily. Vietnamese restaurants serve their beef pho with lots of these fresh herbs, together with lime wedges, hoisin, and sriracha sauces on the side.

Recipe FAQs

Can I make this with chicken instead of beef?

Totally! If using chicken breast, slice it thinly and cook it the same way as the beef. If using chicken thigh, add it together with the spices and broth to simmer.

Can I make the pho broth ahead of time?

Yes! Cook the broth and discard the spices and aromatic. Keep in the fridge for up to 5 days. When about to serve, reheat it and follow the instructions to cook the noodles and beef.

What noodles are best for pho?

Flat rice noodles. Round thin rice noodles also work. Rice noodles are mild in flavor, cook faster, and are perfect for this easy beef pho recipe.

Easy beef pho served in two small bowls.

More Soup Recipes

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