Many folks believe that their favourite restaurant dishes or recipes are challenging to accomplish skillfully, require a ton of additional supplies, or are so labour-intensive as to negate the need to try concocting the dishes at home. I am here to tell you that it is easier than you think to make a pho recipe at home, and it’s infinitely more delicious.
Now, before you purists out there screaming at me for mixing meat sources in a pho broth, the idea was to use what I had on hand. Traditionally, pho is made with just beef bones or just chicken bones, but I decided to use both and a spare pork shoulder bone I had lying around.
If you’re craving a delicious, hearty, flavorful soup as the months get colder and colder, look no further than my best attempt to make this pho recipe!
Delicious Homemade Pho Recipe
Ingredients
Broth Ingredients
- 1 quart chicken broth
- 5 quarts water
- 1 pound chicken bones and giblets
- 1 medium pork shoulder bone
- 5 pounds beef bones oxtail, marrow, etc.
- 2 large onions
- 4 ounces fresh ginger
- 5 whole star anise
- 6 whole cloves
- 5 pieces cardamom pods
- 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
- 3 inch cinnamon stick
- 1 ½ tablespoon kosher salt
- 4 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 ounce yellow rock sugar
Pho Ingredients
- 1 package Banh Pho flat rice noodles
- 1 pound flank steak sliced as thinly as possible
- 1 cuo Thai basil
- 1 tablespoon Cilantro
- ½ cup mung bean sprouts
- 1 2 medium limes
- 1 whole chilli pepper sliced
- ⅓ cup hoisin sauce
- 1 cup Sriracha
Instructions
- Set your oven to broil on high. Slice the onions in half and add them on a sheet tray with the knob of ginger. Broil everything for 5 to 10 minutes, or until skins are blackened. Remove skins and discard.
- Take a large piece of cheesecloth and arrange the onions, ginger, chicken bones, giblets, pork shoulder bone, beef bones, star anise, cloves, cardamom pods, coriander seeds, and cinnamon stick and tie into a bundle.
- Place the bundle in a large stockpot and cover with chicken broth, water, kosher salt, fish sauce, and yellow rock sugar and set to high heat.
- When the mixture boils, turn it down to medium-low and boil for 2 hours uncovered, skimming off any impurities and fat that float to the top along the way.
- In a separate, heat-sauce bowl, cover banh pho noodles with boiling water and allow to sit for 1 to 3 minutes, or until they’re al dente and flexible. Drain the noodles and set them aside.
- Arrange a platter with cilantro, Thai basil, mung bean sprouts, lime wedges, sliced chilli pepper, hoisin sauce, and sriracha.
- When the 2 hours is up, carefully remove the cheesecloth bundle from the broth and place it in a large bowl to cool down until it can be discarded. Leave the broth to boil gently.
- In a bowl, place noodles and slices of raw beef on top to your desired volume of each.
- Ladle the boiling pho broth over the top and watch as the meat cooks to the perfect doneness.
- Taste the broth first before adding anything, and then add any of the prepared garnishes and sauces that you desire to tweak the broth’s flavour to your preference.
