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Homemade Pho

How to Make Homemade Pho, Vietnamese Noodle Soup Recipe

Homemade Pho using oxtail and beef bones. Lots of variety of toppings added including raw beef slices, beef balls, beef tendon, and more! Very enjoyable to eat! Perfect to make this Vietnamese noodle soup to share with family and friends! Feel free to tweak the portions to your liking as well! :)
5 from 1 vote
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Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 5 hours
Total Time 5 hours 30 minutes
Course dinner, Lunch, Main Course, Soup
Cuisine Asian, Beef Noodle Soup, Vietnamese
Servings 9 servings

Ingredients
  

Ingredients for Broth

  • 8 litres water
  • 2 lbs Oxtail
  • 2 lbs Beef Bones
  • 1 lbs Tendon (or 2-3 tendons)
  • 1-2 Radish
  • 2 Cinnamon Sticks
  • 5 Star Anise
  • 2 Whole onions
  • 1 tbsp Salt
  • 1/4 cup Soy Sauce
  • 1/4 cup Fish Sauce
  • 4 Black Cardamom Pods
  • 50 grams Rock Sugar

Noodles

  • 2 packs of Rice Noodle

Toppings (Portion size to your liking)

  • Raw Beef Slices
  • Beef Balls
  • Beef Tendon (used from the broth)
  • Bean Spouts
  • Yellow Onion
  • Green Onion
  • Cilantro
  • Lime
  • Fried Shallots or Garlic
  • Beef Tripe (Optional)
  • Hoisin Sauce (Optional)
  • Sriracha Sauce (Optional)
  • Perilla (Optional)
  • Mint (Optional)

Instructions
 

Part 1 - Broth

  • Place the oxtail and beef bones into a pot and fill water to cover them. Bring it to a boil and blanch for roughly 10 minutes.
    2 lbs Oxtail, 2 lbs Beef Bones
    Blanching Beef Bones and Oxtail
  • Use a colander and strain the hot water out from the pot and rinse the bones and oxtail with water and clean off any scum on the bones and oxtail.
    Straining
  • Place oxtail and beef bones back into a pot and fill it with 8 litres of water and bring it to a boil. Add salt once it begins to boil. Leave it on a rolling boil for 30 minutes and continue skimming off any scum that rises to the surface if there are any.
    1 tbsp Salt
  • While the broth is boiling, wash and peel the radish and slice them into roughly 1 inch thick pieces. In addition, give the cinnamon sticks and star anise a quick rinse and soak the black cardamom pods in a small bowl of water. Add the cinnamon sticks, star anise, and radish into the broth after it has boiled for 30 minutes.
    1-2 Radish, 2 Cinnamon Sticks, 5 Star Anise, 4 Black Cardamom Pods
    Cutting Radish
  • Bring the pot to a simmer and peel 2 whole onions and add into the pot.
  • Add 1/4 cup of fish sauce (depending on the fish sauce brand you have, you may want to add a bit more or less of the portion), 1/4 cup of soy sauce, 50g of rock sugar to the broth. Do not over season the broth right now as you want to focus on getting the flavor of the beef out first. Seasoning flavor can be adjusted near the end, if needed.
    1/4 cup Soy Sauce, 1/4 cup Fish Sauce, 50 grams Rock Sugar
  • Rinse the beef tendon and put it into the pot. The beef tendon will add creaminess to the broth from its collagen. Once the tendon is more tender at a later point in time, it is then ready to be cut.
    1 lbs Tendon (or 2-3 tendons)
  • Let the broth simmer for 4-6 hours. The longer the duration the stronger the beef flavor will come through. Check up on the broth every 1-2 hours and skim out any oil or fat on the surface. Give the broth a quick stir once in awhile. As you simmer the broth longer, the water level will decrease. Make sure your broth level is maintaining around 7 litres (with the ingredients in the broth). Add extra water to the broth, if necessary, to maintain the 7 litre mark.
  • After simmering the broth for 3 hours, check on the tenderness of the tendon. Place the tendon in a ladle and shake the ladle. If the tendon shakes like a jello then the tendon is ready to be cut into small pieces for toppings. If you'd like the tendon to be more soft or would like the broth to be more creamy, then keep the tendon in the broth for longer before cutting it.
  • Within the last 2 hour mark, add the black cardamom pods to the broth and give the broth a quick stir.
    Black Cardamom
  • Within the last 1 hour mark, do a taste test and tweak flavor to your liking by adding more salt, fish sauce, or rock sugar.
    Finished Pho Broth

PART 2 – Preparing the Toppings

  • When the beef tendon is ready, take it out of the broth and cut it into bite size pieces and leave into a bowl as toppings. See step 9 for broth to know when beef tendon is ready.
    Cooked Beef Tendon
  • Cut the beef balls in half and warm up the beef balls by adding it into the broth 10 minutes before serving. Heating it up in the soup also adds extra beef flavor to the broth.
  • Wash and cut the lime into small wedges. Wash mint and perilla.
  • Wash and finely chop the cilantro and green onions and cut the yellow onion into thin strips.
  • Wash the bean sprout. Optional - if you prefer cooked bean sprout, simply microwave it for about 1 minute.
  • Quickly blanch the beef tripe until tender then place it on a side dish.

PART 3 – Noodles & Plating

  • If you are using fresh pho noodles, these noodles only need to be blanched for 5-10 seconds in boiling water to be ready. If you are using dried packaged rice noodles, then cook noodle until soften or to the firmness of your liking. Place noodle in your serving bowl. The picture below is the fresh pho noodles we used.
    Fresh Pho Noodle
  • Bring the broth to a boil before serving. This will help cook the raw toppings when the broth is added to the bowl.
  • Add the thinly sliced raw yellow onions on top of your noodle and then add broth to your bowl.
  • Add raw beef slices, tendon, beef tripe, beef balls, cilantro, green onions, and fried shallot or garlic to the bowl.
  • Serve with hoisin sauce, sriracha, bean sprout, lime, mint, and perilla on the side.
Keyword Asian food, Beef Noodle Soup, Delicious, dinner, Food recipe, Homecook, Homemade, lunch, noodles, Oxtail, Pho, Vietnamese Food