Homemade Chicken Pho in 30 Minutes Feels Like Magic (2024)

25 Quick and Easy Weeknight Meals with Chicken BrothFEATURED IN:

A few years ago, I'd never even heard of pho, let alone tasted it. Now, giant bowls of this traditional Vietnamese noodle soup are a regular meal in our house.

There are three things I can thank for this change: 1) Moving to a part of the country where pho restaurants are as common as pizza joints. 2) Several months of gluten-free eating last year due to a health issue. 3) Meeting and becoming friends with Vietnamese cooking expert Andrea Nguyen.

This recipe is a great introduction to pho if you've never had it before. And for pho addicts like myself, it's a good one to have around when a pho-craving strikes.

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Andrea wrote an entire pho cookbook: The Pho Cookbook: Easy to Adventurous Recipes for Vietnam’s Favorite Soup and Noodles. There are so many things to love about it, and not just the recipes! In Andrea's own words when I spoke with her about it, "This cookbook contains 99% of what I know about pho. And the other 1% isn't all that interesting."

Again and again, Andrea underscores the idea that pho is not a fussy or difficult dish to make at home. Really, if you can boil water, you can make pho. The whole meal is ready in about a half an hour, which means a bowl of pho is totally doable on a busy weeknight.

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The Broth Is the Basis

With pho, it's really all about the broth. The noodles and bits of tender meat definitely have curb appeal and make the soup into a substantive meal, but all the real flavor and allure of pho comes from a slow-simmered broth.

Making a good pho broth will feel familiar to anyone who has ever made their own chicken stock or beef stock. The process is almost exactly the same, except for the addition of a few uniquely Vietnamese ingredients like star anise, cinnamon, ginger, soy sauce, and fish sauce. These extra ingredients give pho its seductive personality and trademark balance of sweet, salty, and savory flavors.

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Fish Sauce Is Key

Of all these ingredients, fish sauce is likely to be the least familiar to most of us. It's exactly what it sounds like: a sauce made from fermented fish. It has an intense flavor and super-pungent aroma, like concentrated anchovies.

You might be dubious about adding this to your food, but give it a chance! Fish sauce adds a deep (and surprisingly non-fishy) flavor to foods. Once added, it melts into the background. You won't necessarily be able to pick it out of the crowd, but you'd miss it if it weren't there.

My favorite brand is Red Boat Fish Sauce, but just about any brand that you find is sure to get the job done. I've started seeing bottles of fish sauce carried in the Asian ingredients section of major grocery stores in the past few years, but you can also order it online or seek it out at an Asian grocery store.

Ingredient GuidesREAD MORE:

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Once the broth is simmering, all the real work is done! Assembling your bowl of pho is a matter of softening some rice noodles, adding some shredded chicken or beef (which is often cooked right in the simmering broth), and then ladling the steaming hot broth over top.

Garnish your bowl with fresh bean sprouts, sprigs of mint, cilantro leaves, and a lime wedge, and chow down. Slurping is totally encouraged.

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How to Pull This Off

This quick chicken pho takes a few shortcuts to save you some time, but still makes a very respectable bowl of pho.

Instead of making the broth from scratch, pick up a carton of store-bought broth and give it a quick simmer with some herbs and spices to boost the flavor. A chicken breast or a few thighs cooked in the broth adds even more flavor and gives you with enough shredded meat for your dinner.

To avoid ending up with an overly-concentrated broth after simmering, Andrea has you add some water to the broth. I felt that this also helped the broth hit the balanced flavor and lightness in a true pho broth.

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More Vietnamese Recipes To Try

Easy Beef Pho
Cà Ri Gà (Vietnamese Chicken Curry)
Easy Pork Bánh Mì
Vietnamese-Style Noodle Bowls with Chicken
Vietnamese Pickled Carrots and Daikon (Do Chua)

Quick Chicken Pho

Prep Time10 mins

Cook Time30 mins

Total Time40 mins

Servings2 servings

Reprinted with permission from The Pho Cookbook: Easy to Adventurous Recipes for Vietnam’s Favorite Soup and Noodles by Andrea Nguyen, copyright © 2017. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.

From Andrea:

"Great for pho beginners, this recipe is also terrific for cooks in a hurry. It involves less than 45 minutes, during which you’ll doctor up store-bought broth so it says, “I’m pho-ish.”

The keys to this streamlined approach include toasting spices and dry sautéing the ginger and green onion, which help to extract flavor fast. Poaching the chicken in the broth adds savory depth. You’ll practice some fundamental pho techniques that you can apply elsewhere, too. Choose a broth that tastes like chicken, such as Swanson brand, which is less fussed up and easy to manipulate. You need two 14.5-ounce (411 g) cans or one 32-ounce (907 ml) carton."

Ingredients

3/4-inch (2 cm) section ginger
2 medium-large green onions
1 very small (15 g) bunch cilantro sprigs
1 1/2 teaspoons coriander seeds
1 whole clove
3 1/2 to 4 cups (840 ml to 1 L) low-sodium chicken broth
2 cups (480 ml) water
6 to 8 ounces (180 to 225 g) boneless, skinless chicken breast or thighs
About 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
5 ounces (150 g)dried narrow flat rice noodles
2 to 3 teaspoonsfish sauce
About 1/2 teaspoon organic sugar, or 1 teaspoon maple syrup (optional)
Pepper (optional)
See Also
Christmas Cheese Log
Optional extras:Bean sprouts, mint sprigs, Thai basil, cilantro leaves, lime wedges, thinly-sliced chili peppers

Method

Prepare the broth ingredients:
Peel then slice the ginger into 4 or 5 coins. Smack with the flat side of a knife or meat mallet; set aside. Thinly slice the green parts of the green onion to yield 2 to 3 tablespoons; set aside for garnish. Cut the leftover sections into pinkie-finger lengths, bruise, then add to the ginger.
Coarsely chop the leafy tops of the cilantro to yield 2 tablespoons; set aside for garnish. Set the remaining cilantro sprigs aside.
Toast the broth ingredients:
In a 3- to 4-quart (3 to 4 l) pot, toast the coriander seeds and clove over medium heat until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the ginger and green onion sections. Stir for about 30 seconds, until aromatic.
Add the broth and bring to a simmer:
Slide the pot off heat, wait 15 seconds or so to briefly cool, then pour in the broth.
Return the pot to the burner, then add the water, cilantro sprigs, chicken, and salt. Bring to a boil over high heat, then lower the heat to gently simmer.
Remove the chicken from the broth once cooked:
After 5 to 10 minutes of simmering, the chicken should be firm and cooked through (press on it and it should slightly yield).
Simmer the broth:
Continue to simmer the broth without the chicken for another 15 to 20 minutes (for a total of 30 minutes simmering time).
Shred the chicken:
Transfer the chicken to a bowl, flush with cold water to arrest the cooking, then drain. Let cool, then cut or shred into bite-size pieces. Cover loosely to prevent drying.
Simple Tip!
If the chicken isn't quite cooked through when you begin to shred it, just split it into a few pieces and put it back in the broth for another few minutes until cooked through. The split pieces will quickly cook through.
Soak the rice noodles:
Soak the rice noodles in hot water until pliable and opaque. Drain, rinse, and set aside.
Strain the broth:
When the broth is done, pour it through a fine-mesh strainer positioned over a 2-quart (2-liter) pot; line the strainer with muslin for superclear broth. Discard the solids. You should have about 4 cups.
Season with fish sauce and sugar (or maple syrup), if needed, to create a strong savory-sweet note.
Finish the pho:
Bring the strained broth to a boil over high heat. Put the noodles in a noodle strainer or mesh sieve and dunk in the hot broth to heat and soften, 5 to 60 seconds. Lift the noodles from the pot and divide between the 2 bowls. [Emma's note: I didn't find it necessary to soften my noodles any further. I just added them to the bowls and poured the hot broth over top. However, dunking them in the broth would make them more flavorful!]
Lower the heat to keep the broth hot while you arrange the chicken on top of the noodles and garnish with the chopped green onion, cilantro, and a sprinkling of pepper. Taste and adjust the broth’s saltiness one last time. Return the broth to a boil and ladle into the bowls. Enjoy with any extras, if you like.
[Emma's note: I just left the broth at a low simmer during this last step, rather than bringing it to a boil again. I thought it was plenty hot!]
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Nutrition Facts (per serving)
357	Calories
16g	Fat
21g	Carbs
32g	Protein

Show Full Nutrition Label

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 2
Amount per serving
Calories	357
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 16g	20%
Saturated Fat 4g	22%
Cholesterol 106mg	35%
Sodium 1378mg	60%
Total Carbohydrate 21g	8%
Dietary Fiber 2g	6%
Total Sugars 1g
Protein 32g
Vitamin C 4mg	21%
Calcium 56mg	4%
Iron 3mg	15%
Potassium 435mg	9%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate. In cases where multiple ingredient alternatives are given, the first listed is calculated for nutrition. Garnishes and optional ingredients are not included.