Instant Pot Vietnamese Pho Bo Tai [Beef Pho]

Instant Pot Vietnamese Pho Bo Tai, truly authentic Vietnamese Noodle Bowl with a rich broth, rice noodles and wonderful spices. 

Pressure Cooker Vietnamese Pho Bo Tai

This is the BEST Vietnamese Pho recipe. I love Pho so much and this Pho tastes just like my very favorite Vietnamese restaurant. I’ve had Pho at so many places and this recipe is super delicious. Easy to make and fun to eat!

You haven’t lived until you have tried Pho!!!!!

Special Ingredients for Pressure Cooker Vietnamese Pho Bo Tai

It used to take hours slaving over a hot stove, just to make the broth. Using an Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker to make the Pho Bone Broth is no only so much easier, it is so much ate there about three times a week. My Instant Pot Vietnamese Pho tastes just like the restaurant! I’m totally serious!

Remember, good Pho starts with a good homemade broth, so please don’t purchase powdered Pho seasoning in a box or packet. Start with the best ingredients.

Ingredients for Instant Pot Vietnamese Pho

The Broth

• Beef Knuckle Bones
• Onion
• Ginger
• Three Crabs Brand Fish Sauce is the best Fish Sauce to use in this recipe!
• Elephant World Pho Whole Spices. If you cannot find that locally, this Que Huong Pho Seasoning Mix will work.
• Rock Sugar
• Salt

Pro Tip: Just make sure you use whole spices, not powdered or freeze dried. You can always purchase the spices separately, if you like.

Knuckle Bones

If you don’t see knuckle bones in your market’s display case, ask your butcher for knuckle bones filled with marrow. The marrow has so much flavor.

Clean the Beef Knuckle Bones

• As there are lots of impurities in the bones, they need to be cleaned one of two ways:
• Par boil bones in the Instant Pot; or
• Add bones to a Large Mixing Bowl and soak bones in water for a few hours.

Both of these processes will remove the blood and any impurities from the bones.

Pro Tip: Char the onion and ginger on a cookie sheet in the oven while the bones are being cleaned.

Knuckle Bones

Cleaned knuckle bones go back into the Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker.

The rest of the broth ingredients are now added.

I recommend using a spice bag for all the spices.

Fill the Pressure Cooker with Water

Add in the Three Crabs Fish Sauce, a nub of rock candy, charred onion, ginger and, salt. Add fresh water to the fill line in your Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker. Lock on the lid and you are ready to make some Pho!

Delicious Pho

The broth will be very rich and delicious.

Strain the Pho

A Salbree Steamer/Strainer Basket is perfect for straining out the bones and gunk and fits nicely in an Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker.

Spent Knuckle Bones

Save those spent bones and use them with more bones to make a nice Pressure Cooker Bone Stock/Broth!

Strained Pho Broth

The broth will be very concentrated, so taste the broth and adjust the seasonings as you see fit. You may need to add a bit more water if the broth is too strong flavored for you.

At this point, you can either freeze the broth so that you have wonderful broth ready to go any time you feel like making Instant Pot Pho or you can put the broth back into the Instant Pot, heat it up and then serve over the noodles in the bowls.

Remember, the broth will be very concentrated. Allow the broth to heat up before serving.

Beef Pho Bowl Ingredients

• Medium Rice Noodles
• Onion, thinly sliced
• Beef, such as Sirloin Steak, Rib Eye Steak, Filet Mignon, Flank Steak, Eye of Round, sliced very thin
• Scallions
• Cilantro Leaves

Pro Tip: Beef which is slightly frozen beef is much easier to slice.

Thin Sliced Onions

Sliced onions and rice noodles are blanched just for a minute.

Vietnamese Rice Stick Noodles

Blanch the noodles  and then drain them and set them aside. The noodles will finish cooking when the hot broth is poured over them in the bowls.

Garnish Plate for Pressure Cooker Vietnamese Pho Bo Tai

Garnish for Instant Pot Beef Pho

• Mint Leaves
• Thai Basil
• Bean Sprouts
• Lime Wedges
• Scotch Bonnet Peppers

Pro Tip: Give each person their own garnish plate to garnish as they like.

Assemble Instant Pot Beef Pho and Garnish

Assembly of Instant Pot Vietnamese Pho Bowls

• Add the blanched onions to each bowl.
• Blanched Vietnamese Medium Rice Flat Noodles go on top of onion in each bowl.
• Thin sliced raw meat is placed on top of noodles
• Ladle hot steaming broth into each bowl

Pressure Cooker Vietnamese Pho Bo Tai

I like to use a shot of Sriracha and a spoon of Hoisin Sauce in my bowl of Pressure Cooker Vietnamese Pho Tai.

Pho Condiments

• Sriracha
• Hoisin Sauce

Pro Tip: Scotch Bonnet peppers are super hot. I usually pull them out of the bowl after letting them flavor the bowl for about two minutes. Then I add a squeeze of the fresh lime.

I generally make a couple of batches of Pho broth at a time and freeze them in Reditainer Extreme Freezer Containers.

Any time I want Pressure Cooker Vietnamese Pho Bo Tai, all I have to do is put a block of frozen broth in my pressure cooker and I am good to go! Don’t forget to place a label on the containers, so that you don’t get confused between bone broth and Pho broth.

Pressure Cooker Vietnamese Pho Tai

 Give me some chop sticks and a spoon and I am good to go!

More Amazing Vietnamese Recipes to Make:

• Pressure Cooker Vietnamese Caramelized Pork Spare Ribs.
• Bun Thịt Nướng (Vietnamese BBQ Pork Cold Noodle Salad)
• Pressure Cooker Vietnamese Chicken Congee (Cháo Gà)
• Nuoc Mau Vietnamese Caramel Sauce

Kitchen Equipment and Essentials

• Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker
• J.A. Henckels Classic 7-inch Hollow Edge Santoku Knife
• Amco Advanced Performance 18/10 Stainless Steel Measuring Spoons
• Simply Gourmet (Dry) Stainless Steel Measuring Cups
• Anchor Hocking Glass (Liquid) Measuring Cups
• Alton Brown Salt Box
• My FANTASTIC Teak Cutting & Charcuterie Board & Compartments
• Salbree 3 quart, 6 quart or 8 quart Steamer/Strainer Basket
• 5.5 Quart Stainless Steel Mixing Bowl
• Reditainer Extreme Freezer Containers
• Freezer Labels

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Here is the handy printable recipe:

Instant Pot Vietnamese Beef Pho

5 from 3 votes

Print Pin SaveSaved! Rate

Course: Soup

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Pressure Release: 10 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Servings: 8 servings

Calories: 516kcal

Author: Jill Selkowitz

Ingredients

Broth Ingredients

• ▢ 2 medium Yellow/Brown Onion
• ▢ 4 inch Fresh Ginger Root
• ▢ 6-8 pounds Beef Knuckle/Leg Bones with marrow
• ▢ 1 pound Eye of Round (or whatever is cheap, used just for flavoring broth)
• ▢ 1-1/2 Tablespoons Kosher Salt 1/2 the amount if using regular table salt
• ▢ ¼ cup Premium Fish Sauce
• ▢ 1 inch Rock Sugar
• ▢ Fresh Water

Spices

• ▢ 1 packet Elephant World Pho Spice Mix or Que Huong Pho Seasoning Mix
• ▢ OR the Following Individual Spices
• ▢ 5 Whole Star Anise
• ▢ 6 Whole Cloves
• ▢ 3 Cinnamon Sticks
• ▢ 1 Tablespoon Coriander Seeds
• ▢ 1 Tablespoon Fennel Seeds
• ▢ 1 Whole Green Cardomon Pod
• ▢ 15 Whole Fructus Amomi

Bowl Ingredients

• ▢ 2 pounds Thin Rice Noodles
• ▢ 1 medium Yellow/Brown Onion sliced paper thin
• ▢ 1 pound Rib Eye Steak (or Sirloin Steak, Flank, London Broil, or Eye of Round) raw and sliced ultra thin
• ▢ 3 large Scallions with green tops sliced into small rings
• ▢ 4 cups Fresh Bean Sprouts
• ▢ 2 Limes cut in wedges
• ▢ 1 bunch Fresh Mint Leaves
• ▢ 1 bunch Fresh Cilantro Leaves
• ▢ 1 bunch Thai Basil Leaves
• ▢ 3 Fresh Thai dragon Scotch bonnet or Bird Peppers

Table Condiments

• ▢ Hoisin Sauce
• ▢ Sriracha Sauce

US Customary - Metric

Recommended Products

Instant Pot Electric Pressure Cooker

Salbree Steamer Basket / Colander

Stainless Steel Measuring Spoons

Que Huong Pho Seasoning Mix

Rock Sugar

Pho Rice Stick Noodles

Instructions

• Before doing anything, cover the bones in water and let them bleed out for 30 minutes!

Broth

• Cut ginger and onions in half and place on cookie sheet. Brush with a bit of cooking oil and broil on high until ginger and onions begin to char. Turn over and char the other side.
• Remove bones from soaking and add bones to pressure cooker pot.  Cover with water.
• Lock on lid and close pressure valve.  Cook at high pressure for 1 minutes. When beep sounds, wait 5 minute and then carefully and slowly release the rest of the pressure.
• Remove the lid and use a strainer basket to drain the scum and water, reserving the bones. Rinse out the cooking pot and place the bones back into the pot. 
• Add all broth ingredients and fill the pot with cool water up to the fill line.
• Lock on lid and close pressure valve. Cook at high pressure for 60 minutes. When beep sounds, wait 5 minute and then carefully and slowly release the rest of the pressure.
• Strain broth to remove the bones, vegetables, spices. Set aside the beef to use later, if desired.
• Return the broth to the Instant Pot. The broth may be very concentrated (depending on size of pot), so if necessary, add a little more water, if the broth is too strong.  Always taste the soup before adding more water!
• Taste broth and adjust seasoning if necessary, by adding a little more fish sauce, salt and/or sugar.
• Push the sauté or browning and allow broth to boil while you are preparing the Noodle Bowls.

Noodle Bowl

• Cover noodles with hot water and soak 10 minutes or until slightly softened and opaque. Drain.
• Boil a pot of water and blanch noodles for 10-20 seconds and remove from water. Don't blanch noodles in the broth!!!
• Divide the blanched noodles into four large bowls.  Slice the raw meat (Tai) as thin as possible.  Drape thin slices of raw Tai over the noodles.
• Pour the hot boiling soup over each bowl.  Top with paper thin slices of onion, sliced scallions and chopped cilantro.
• Serve each person a bowl of Pho with a Garnish Plate of Bean Sprouts, Mint, Thai Basil, slices of Scotch Bonnet Pepper and a lime wedge.
• Have Sriracha and Hoisin on the table ready for seasoning.

Notes

Must Have Table Seasonings for Instant Pot Pho.

• Koon Chun Hoisin Sauce
• Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce

HoiI put the whole pot of broth in the refrigerator until cool and then remove the layer of fat. If you do this, while you are assembling your bowls, put the pot back in the pressure cooker, lock the lid and set the time for five minutes. You want the broth boiling when you pour it into the bowls.
Broth can be frozen in individual containers for later use. I like the Reditainers Extreme Freezer Containers, as they seal nicely and keep out ice crystals. It's so easy to take out a container and pop it in your pressure cooker and have hot broth for your Pho bowl in five minutes!

I use the Salbree 6 quart Steamer/Strainer Basket inside my Instant Pot/to make it easier to strain the broth. All you have to do, is lift it out!

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts

Instant Pot Vietnamese Beef Pho

Amount Per Serving

Calories 516 Calories from Fat 45

% Daily Value*

Fat 5g8%

Saturated Fat 2g13%

Polyunsaturated Fat 1g

Monounsaturated Fat 2g

Cholesterol 17mg6%

Sodium 1234mg54%

Potassium 330mg9%

Carbohydrates 104g35%

Fiber 5g21%

Sugar 4g4%

Protein 12g24%

Vitamin A 250IU5%

Vitamin C 21mg25%

Calcium 83mg8%

Iron 3mg17%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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Pressure Cooker Vietnamese Pho Tai