This is a recipe for beef phở that is made in an Instant Pot or pressure cooker. Phở (pronounced fuh, not foe) is a staple Vietnamese dish that is commonly known for its aromatic broth, thin rice noodles, and assorted vegetables and meat. There are many components of making this dish, so I am going to get right into the recipe and then talk about the process below.

This recipe is for 8 quarts of broth, which serves about 5-6 medium bowls. Serving size varies for each individual. Some people prefer less broth, more noodles, some prefer vice versa.

Hang’s Fail-Proof Phở

For the broth:

• 1 lb cut beef bones
• Oxtails (optional, but can be used to complement beef bones and add deeper flavor)
• 1 lb boneless chuck roast
• 2 yellow onions
• 1 ginger root, approximately 5 inches long
• 1 1/2 pieces of star anise
• 1 TB black peppercorns
• 3-4 whole cloves
• 2 cardamom pods, crushed
• 2 cinnamon sticks

For the toppings:

• Pho noodles (probably frozen)
• Very thinly sliced ribeye or london broil cut beef
• 1 yellow onion
• Chopped green onion
• Chopped cilantro
• Thai basil leaves
• Bean sprouts
• Sriracha
• Hoisin Sauce
• Limes

Instructions:

For the broth:

Halve the onions and ginger and broil in the oven cut-side up until fragrant and slightly charred, around 10 minutes. Set aside.

Place the beef bones (and oxtail if you are using) into a deep soup pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes to cleanse the bones of scum, which will rise to the top of the water as foam. Drain, rinse, and drain again. Place bones onto a foil-lined baking sheet and broil for 5 minutes, then flip and broil other side for 5 minutes.

On the stove in a pan, toast the spices (cinnamon, star anise, cloves, black peppercorns, cardamom) on medium heat until fragrant.

Combine everything you just prepared into the pressure cooker and fill with cold water. In addition, add the raw chuck roast beef. You can cut this into smaller pieces to make space, but no smaller than 2″ x 2″ cubes.

Broth checklist:

• Beef bones
• Oxtails (optional)
• 2 yellow onions
• 1 ginger root
• star anise
• cinnamon
• cardamom pods
• black peppercorns
• cloves
• 8 quarts of water (I prefer to use filtered or bottled water just to have a super clean broth)

Now what?

On my pressure cooker, I use the soup setting on high/well-done. This cooks at a high pressure for 1 hour. After the hour is up, I remove the chuck beef (which is well cooked at this point) and then cook again for another hour. This can vary depending on your cooker, but mainly just cook the crap out of it at a high pressure for 1.5 – 2 hours.

Once the broth is done, carefully open the pressure cooker (following the release instructions) and then filter it into a soup broth. I recommend using a mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth that is placed across the soup pot to get an ultra clear broth. Discard the spices, onion, and ginger, but reserve the beef bones. This is kinda optional, but you can pick at the tendon and meat on the bones. This is personally my favorite part. I love the scrap meat.

Time to season the broth! My mom told me to use chicken bouillon powder, sugar, and salt. So that’s what I do! This is up to taste, but I recommend to not use more than 2 TB of sugar and 2 TB of chicken bouillon powder.

Now that the broth is done, you need to get the toppings ready.

Place the frozen pho noodles into cold water to thaw and allow the noodles to separate. Once thawed, grab desired amount and place into bowl. Cover the bowl with a damp paper towel and microwave for 1 minute. Do this for each serving.

Take the reserved cooked chuck beef (it should be cooled by now) and thinly slice against the grain. Set aside.

In each bowl, on top of the steamed noodles, add the following (amount is up to personal taste):

• thin slices of raw ribeye or london broil
• thin slices of cooked chuck
• tendon/scrap meat from bones (optional)
• chopped green onion
• chopped cilantro
• thin slices of yellow onion

Bring the broth to a rolling boil (and then turn off heat) and then immediately ladle into bowls, which will gently cook the raw meat and finish cooking the noodles.

At the dinner table, leave out Thai basil, limes, bean sprouts, hoisin sauce, and sriracha. These are for the people eating to pick and add to their bowls according to their preference.

Enjoy!