This Easy Pho Noodle Soup Recipe is perfect for when you are craving a hot comforting bowl of noodles soup but don’t have a lot of time to make it!

About the Ingredients

Here’s some additional info and tips on some of the ingredients to help you make your Pho delicious!

Beef

If you have an Asian supermarket near you, stop by the pre-sliced meat section for Hot Pot. Pre-sliced ribeye in the Hot Pot section is my go to because it is already thinly sliced and so that saves me time (this is an EASY pho noodle soup recipe after all!)

If you can’t find any pre-sliced beef, you can buy beef of choice and slice it thinly yourself – some quick cooking cuts include ribeye, sirloin, round eye, and london broil. But flank, chuck roast and brisket will work as well.

Traditionally, the raw beef slices are placed on top of the pho noodle soup, and then you add near boiling, if not boiling hot broth over the meat and noodles so it cooks it and becomes medium rare.

However, I want to make sure my beef is cooked thoroughly, and I also find it easier, to just cook the beef in the broth right before serving (kind of like hot pot).

Beef Broth or Stock

You can use either of these. Broth is made from meat and vegetables, but stock is made with bones (and also known as bone broth!).

If you don’t have any beef broth on hand, it is even ok to use Chicken broth or stock, but just know the flavor may be a bit different.

Beef Bouillon

I use pho bouillon cubes that I got from the Asian supermarket. They have a lot of different types for various different type of soups so you want to make sure it is for the beef pho.

These cubes are great because they basically all the spices flavors that is usually cooked in the pho broth such as onion, garlic, star anise, cinnamon, clover, ginger, black pepper. Basically flavoring the soup as pho broth for you.

If you don’t have this anywhere near you, you could try ordering online or you could just use regular bouillon base, and use about 1 tbsp of it.

Cinnamon Stick and Star Anise

Cinnamon is actually optional in my opinion if you use the beef pho bouillon cubes as it already includes a little bit of the cinnamon spice. Also – in my house we don’t really like the cinnamon flavor THAT much, so I skip this.

But if you didn’t use the cube or if you just super love the flavor of cinnamon in your pho noodle soup, then add it.

Star anise is also kind of optional if you use the pho bouillon cubes as it should already have it in there. If you do love the flavor however, add more! We do like it, so I add a couple.

Fish sauce

I recommend adding fish sauce at the end of the cooking process, or even when you are serving it. Everyone’s preference is a little different on the quantity of fish sauce – some love it some hate it. I love it.

So I add just a little bit at the end of the cooking process, and then serve the pho noodle soup with the bottle of fish sauce on the the table for everyone to add fish sauce to their taste.

Lime

Some folks will add the lime to the soup but if you’re doing that, make sure to add it at the very end. This is because if you add it too early and cook it over time the lime juice will be bitter in your pho noodle soup.

So what I recommend is to actually just serve it on the side, so everyone can squeeze it in their pho noodle soup when served.

Easy Pho Noodle Soup Recipe

First gather your ingredients:

• 32 oz Beef Broth or Stock (aka Bone Broth)
• 1 cup water
• 1 beef pho bouillon cube (or 1tbsp regular beef bouillon)
• 1 cinnamon stick, optional
• 2 star anise, optional
• 1/4 onion, cut in to chunks
• 1 tbsp fresh ginger, sliced
• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp of fish sauce
• 1 lb thinly sliced beef
• 8 oz dried rice noodles
• Toppings you can serve with:
  • Lime wedges (a must for me)
  • Thai basil (a must for me)
  • Bean sprouts (a must for me)
  • Cilantro
  • Green onions
  • Fish sauce (a must for me)
  • Hoisin sauce

In a large pot, combine broth, water, bouillon cube, cinnamon (optional), star anise (optional), onion, ginger, sugar and 2 tbsp of fish sauce. Bring to a boil, and then lower heat and let it simmer for 20 minutes.

In another pot, cook your dried rice noodles as per package instructions.

Bring it back to a boil, and cook thinly sliced beef. They can cook real fast, so remove from heat as soon as they are done.

Assemble a bowl with noodles, beef, and soup, and serve with toppings – lime and your preferred herbs and sauces. For me that is lime, Thai basil, bean sprouts, and more fish sauce to taste!

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