Quick Recipe for Homemade Phở

If you’ve never had homemade phở, you are missing out! The broth in this Vietnamese noodle soup is always so flavorful, and the ingredients are absolutely delicious. Commonly you’ll find beef phở, but you can also find chicken or other more unique variations with tripe. Typically, homemade phở takes a very long time to make because the broth is the star of the show and is made by simmering meat and bones with spices in water for hours until deep flavors develop. If you’d like to try your hand at a more labor-intensive chicken phở, here’s a great recipe, but I was looking for something that I can easily make on a weeknight.

Recipe

In this quick recipe for homemade phở, I incorporated some of the flavor infusing techniques that you’d use in a more traditional labor-intensive phở with some shortcuts to make this recipe take under an hour.

Garnish

The garnishes for phở are just as important as the soup itself. I chose scallions, hoisin sauce, chili garlic sauce, lime wedges, and basil. If you can find Thai basil, definitely use this instead. Other garnish ideas are crispy scallions, jalapeño slices, cilantro, whole Thai chili peppers, mint, and bean sprouts.

Storage

When storing away extra phở in the refrigerator, it’s best to store the broth and noodles separately and add some noodles to the hot broth when you want another bowl. If the noodles are left in the broth, they will overcook, and the broth will become cloudy.

Quick Homemade Phở

Adapted from Damn Delicious

Ingredients

For The Soup

8 cups chicken stock
Spices for stock: 1 cinnamon stick, two cloves, one cardamom pod (other ideas: star anise, coriander seeds, fennel seeds)
1 onion, peeled and quartered
2-3 ½” thick slices of unpeeled ginger
8 ounces dried rice noodles (preferably bánh phở)
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon garlic powder
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce

Garnishes

1-2 limes, quartered
Thin slices of scallion
Fresh basil leaves (preferably Thai basil)
Chili garlic sauce
Hoisin sauce

Directions

Simmer The Stock

Place chicken stock and all spices you’ve chosen to use in a large Dutch oven or stockpot and heat on medium-low.
Char onion and ginger using the flame of a gas range until blackened in spots and add to the stockpot.
1. If you don’t have a gas stove, you can heat the oven to 400° and place the onion and ginger on a lightly oiled baking sheet, and roast for 30 minutes.
2. You can also skip this step entirely if you need to save time.
Bring the stock to a simmer and cover while you prepare the rest of the phở (ideally, give this about 20 minutes to impart flavor, but it’s up to you).

Cook The Rice Noodles

Cook the rice noodles according to the package directions, drain well, and set aside.
Trim chicken of excess fat and cut into 1” chunks—season with salt and pepper.
In a large frying pan, heat one tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Cook the chicken until golden brown, 3-4 minutes, then set aside.
Remove all spices, onion, and ginger pieces from the stock. Add the garlic powder, hoisin, and fish sauces to the stock and whisk together to combine. Bring to a boil, and then let simmer for 10 minutes.

Final Preparations

Add the chicken to the broth; in each serving bowl, add some noodles and serve with the garnishes of your choice. I stirred in some additional hoisin, chili garlic sauce, squeezed in lime juice, and topped with scallion and basil.

I hope you enjoyed this quick recipe for homemade phở!

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