Not too long ago, I shared a Vietnamese Chicken Pho Recipe. And today, it’s going to be a Beef Pho Recipe. Both are rather similar in terms of preparation and cooking methods except that the base of each broth is different. That is, using either chicken or beef to make the broth. You’ll also notice that the beef broth is much darker in colour compared to the chicken broth which is perfectly normal.
Be Generous
The good thing about making beef pho at home is, you can be very generous with the toppings, lol. If you’re counting the amount of beef slices in your bowl of beef pho that you get from outside, fret not, ‘cos there is a plenty of beef in my recipe. ๐ It is a carnivorous bowl of pho. ๐
Making The Beef Broth
I made the beef broth with 1kg beef bones, 2 large yellow onions (quartered), 5-6 stalks spring onions (tied into 1 bundle using one of the leaves), 1″ knob ginger, 2 litres water and 500ml store-bought beef stock. Boiled everything for about an hour and seasoned it with 2 teaspoon Vietnamese fish sauce. Strained the stock and discarded all the ingredients. This will yield enough broth for 4 servings of pho.
Alternatively, if you prefer to make chicken pho, you can turn this into a chicken broth by substituting the beef bones with chicken parts and/or chicken carcasses. Omit the store-bought broth and add extra 500ml water (i.e. 2.5 litres water in total).
The beef slices in pho are generally served raw and are only cooked when hot broth soup is poured over the pho noodles. However, as I had used frozen sukiyaki beef which seemed to be thicker than expected, I blanched them in the broth first till well done. If you’re getting good quality fresh beef, have them thinly sliced and cook them like how Vietnamese restaurants do. Put the raw beef over the noodles and use the boiling broth to cook them so you’ll get delicately pink and tender beef.
Ah, yet another warm and comforting meal. Time to eat! ๐
- beef broth (see above for directions)
- 400g sliced beef (I use pre-sliced sukiyaki beef)
- 1 yellow onion, peeled & sliced
- 400g dry pho noodles, cooked as per packet instructions
- chopped spring onions
- mint leaves
- beansprouts
- sliced red chillies
- sliced garlic
- lime wedges
- youtiao (optional)