Love Pho? Learn how to make authentic Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup (Pho) at home. With just four ingredients, plus garnishes, and about two hours, you can enjoy this budget-friendly, healthy meal for dinner tonight!
Do you love Vietnamese Pho?
I grew up eating Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup (Pho) for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Yup, that’s right, it’s a very popular breakfast food in Vietnam along with all different kind of vermicelli, sticky rice with Vietnamese Braised Pork, and sandwiches made with freshly baked bread. Just talking about these makes my mouth water. If you have a chance to travel to Southeast Asia, you need to make a pit stop in Vietnam to experience the food culture.
I have to warn you, though, northern cuisine is quite different from central and southern cuisine. Most Vietnamese restaurants in the States are predominantly southern cuisine. I grew up in the north, and our version of chicken Pho usually has a lighter color broth and we don’t garnish with bean sprouts; just cilantro, green onion, and a squeeze of lime juice.
A simple recipe for Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup
This recipe for Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup (Pho) is how I remember my grandmother making it. She always charred the onion and ginger over a coal fire until they blackened and developed this distinct fragrance. I don’t remember her using star anise and cinnamon in the broth, so I’ve never added those spices to mine. I like the way this chicken broth turns out though, purer in both flavor and color.
Fresh noodles are always the best of course, but for a quick meal, I turn to dry noodle packages. You can get this at any Vietnamese or even Chinese market. Cook the dry noodles in boiling water, and you’ll get soft sticky rice noodles in under 15 minutes.
This recipe may sound intimidating at first, but the steps are truly easy. There is no fancy cooking technique that you have to master. If you can boil water, you can make this homemade version of Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup (Pho). I hope you’ll be adventurous, try out this recipe, and enjoy!
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken
- 1 yellow onion
- 1 piece of ginger
- 1 package of dry rice noodle
- Cilantro
- Green onion
- Lime
- Sriracha
Instructions
- Rinse the chicken in cold water and rub with kosher salt, rinse one more time and rub with salt again. This time put it in a big pot.
- Remove onion skin and cut it in half cross wise, cut the ginger in half length wise.
- Char the onion and ginger over the fire of your gas stove or grill until slightly blackened and fragrant.
- Add this to the pot with the chicken.
- Add water to the pot to cover the chicken and bring to a boil over high heat.
- Skim off the scum, reduce heat, and simmer for 1 hour.
- In the meantime, wash the garnishing.
- Cut the lime into wedges, chop the cilantro, and thinly slice the green onion.
- About 15 minutes before the chicken is ready, add dry rice noodles to a pot and add water to cover it.
- Bring to a boil on medium high heat and cook for 4 minutes longer until the noodles are al dente.
- Remove the noodles from heat and pour into a colander to drain the starchy water, rinse under cold water for 30 seconds.
- Set noodles aside until ready to use.
- When the chicken is ready, remove it from the broth and shred.
- Season the broth with more salt if necessary, to taste.
- Divide noodles into bowls, add chicken, cilantro, and green onion. Pour the still boiling broth over the garnishing to quickly cook them.
- Squeeze lime into your noodles and add Sriracha if desired.
Notes
Home Chef Tip: Add more water to the broth while it is simmering if you notice it reducing too much, or add bottled chicken broth for even more flavor.
We hope you love this Vietnamese Pho recipe from SoFabFood Home Chef, Trang from Wild Wild Whisk, as much as we do. If you enjoyed this simple recipe, be sure to visit our Soup Section for more like it. For daily recipe inspiration, subscribe to our newsletter, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Pinterest. Enjoy!
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