Featured on Tastemade: Traditional Beef Pho Bo with Oxtail - Poppa Trinh’s Pho Tai Recipe
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There is no such thing as a shortcut or quick pho!
This authentic and traditional style Vietnamese Pho. Every family has their own recipe and this is my dad’s.
Pho Tai is beef pho with thin-cut beef and it’s so comforting and delicious. We like to add oxtail to our soup to create a rich and luxurious stock. Oxtail (aka beef tail) helps intensify that golden and silky color while also adding a more beef-y broth.
A good pho broth requires good quality bones and more importantly a long cook time (3-5 hours minimum, but 6-10 is even better) to release collagen & beneficial nutrients, to create a beautiful golden broth and to create that really complex & aromatic broth. The longer you cook the pho broth, the more flavor will come from the bones.
A couple things that my dad does differently is making his own special dry spice packets, and adding fresh daikon chunks to the broth to add a little natural sweetness to the pho (this also means you can use less to no sugar with these natural sweeteners).
*Brisket: Beef brisket can be a little dry in taste so be sure to keep some of that fat on there and when the meat is done be sure to slice it up and store it in a container with some of that pho broth and fish sauce (see step 7 below: this helps keep the brisket nicely moist and more tender, the fish sauce adds a little salt and flavor factor, just warm it up in a pot with it’s broth before plating all your bowls of pho).
Watch a fuller version of how to cook pho on Youtube!
And, if you still need a little more hand holding, you can watch me and my dad make beef pho on Youtube -here-.
Tips:
-You need about 4 lbs of bones & meat for every gallon of water. The flavor of your pho is in the quality of your bones so get good bones (if there is fat on the bones, trim it off because it will make your broth cloudy).
-Our favorite bones for pho is a mix of leg marrow bones and knuckle bones. The knuckles have a lot of nice tendon and cartilage which is full of beneficial collagen & protein.
-Always parboil your bones for a clearer tasting broth. The real flavor is deep in the bones so you won’t lose any beef flavor by parboiling your bones.
-Gently simmer your pho, never let it get to a rolling boil.
-Salt/sugar/Vegetable powder: 1:1:1 ratio
-We never add fish sauce directly in the pot (my dad is from North Vietnam)
-Toasting your spices will bring out the fragrant oils making a much more flavorful pho broth
-For perfectly thin slices of rare beef, freeze the beef for a couple hours so it’s hardened and easier to slice.
-For a golden and rich tasting broth, cook your pho broth a minimum of 12 hours, preferably a day. The longer you cook it, the deeper the color and beef flavor.
If you need any help finding any ingredients for my recipes, you can find links to all my pantry staples / seasonings / kitchen gear as well as photo gear -here-.
BEEF STOCK INGREDIENTS
Broth:
4 lbs beef bones (Mixed beef bones, any mix of: shank bones, marrow bones, beef leg bones, shin, knuckle bones, achilles tendon/foot, and femur bones)
2 lbs beef oxtail bones (*optional, if you can’t find it replace it with 2 more lbs of bones)
2 lb beef brisket (cut in 2 large pieces)
Few pieces of tendons / cartilage pieces (optional)
24+ cups water (about 2 gallons of water)
2 tbs sea or kosher salt (no table salt)
2 tbs sugar (a few rock sugar cubes or granulated white sugar)
2 tbs vegetable powder (this helps round out the flavor but if you can’t find this feel free to leave out. *Note- some veggie powders will cloud your pho broth, so test it before adding to your pho)
2 large onions (charred)
4 thumb sizes of ginger (charred)
1 large piece of Daikon cut in two or three big chunks
Rare beef topping:
1 1/2 lb Flank steak for ”thit tai” aka rare sliced beef (flank, eye round, tenderloin or sirloin steak)
Fish sauce to taste (we like to add it into individual bowls, if adding it into the broth, add it at the VERY end, right before making your pho bowls)
DRIED SPICE BAG
2" asian cinnamon stick cracked in quarters or smashed
8 pieces of dried cloves
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
3 whole pieces of star anise
1 tsp fennel seeds
3/4 tbs black peppercorns
PHO
1 bag vermicelli pho rice noodles
GARNISHES
1 bunch green scallions, chopped thinly
1 bunch cilantro (large stems removed, chopped semi-finely)
1 thinly sliced red or white onion (add 1 tbs of vinegar and lightly mix and put in bowl to neutralize the onion some)
2 limes, cut into quarter wedges
Below are optional garnishes:
1 bunch fresh mint
1 handful of thai basil leaves (optional, since these are seasonal and hard to find)
1 bag of bean sprouts (optional)
Red chillies, chopped (served on side, chili seeds removed)
2-3 jalepenos cut into small slices
CONDIMENTS
Hoisin sauce (served on side)
Fish sauce (served on side)
Sriracha hot sauce (served on side)
TIPS:
*You need about 4 lbs of beef bones per gallon of water (this includes oxtail bones if you are using them, otherwise 4 lbs of knuckle/marrow bones).
*Don’t stir your broth: When making the broth and simmering the key to a clear broth is to avoid stirring the pot and moving things around. Also keep it at a low simmer and remove as much of the top of the impurities as possible and this will also help with a purer broth.
*Parboil bones- this will release most of the impurities from the bones and will result in a clearer broth. You want to parboil them then rinse & scrub your bones under running water.
PREPARATION
1. Bones preparation- Trim your bones, you want to trim off any fat from the bones (the excess fat will make the broth cloudy.
Clean the beef bones- Bring a large pot of water (enough to cover bones) to a rolling boil with 2 tbs salt and about 2 tbs of white vinegar. Add beef bones and tendons and boil for about 5-10 min then strain and dispose of the parboil broth. Clean the bones under running water and use a brush to clean off any excess grit, clotted blood or debris off the bones) and set all aside in a bowl. The thing to note here is that the cleaner your bones are, the clearer the broth you will get.
Re-wash and clean stock pot.
2. Roast spices: In a small frying pan roast all the dried spices until fragrant on high to medium high heat until fragrant and lightly smokey (do not burn spices). Shake pan occasionally to prevent any burning. Transfer to bowl and let spices cool for handling. Then place into a spice colander container or tea bag (tie tightly so the spices don't spill out loose in your stock). Set aside to use at the very end of the broth cooking.
3. Roast ginger / onions: peel outer shell of onions, in broiler grill the ginger and onion on open flame stove until it's charred on all sides (or use a flame torch and char all around the onions/ginger). You can remove and rinse the outer layer of the onion if you want (you want to keep some of that char on the onions into the pot because that’s where the nice oils have blistered out to).
OR dry roast to frying pan on medium high heat. When the pan is hot add ginger slices and onions to slightly burned and fragrant. Rinse slightly if needed to get rid of any excess char.
4. Bring to boil about 2 gallons of water in large stock pot (you’ll need enough water to plenty cover all your bones and meat). *Note: broth will reduce some while steaming for 6-12 hours so you want a full’ish pot of water.
5. Add washed bones, tendons, and oxtail. Add your brisket if you’re adding brisket. Boil for about 30 min (no lid) on high until you get a nice gentle boil then bring down to a LOW simmer (keep lid on with it slightly open to prevent too much evaporation loss). (Occasionally remove any scum/fat/impurities from top of broth without stirring your broth).
6. Check your oxtails, tendon and brisket after about 2 hours until tender and do not overcook or else they will fall apart in your broth (if you have different sized oxtails like smaller pieces of oxtail, make sure to take these out sooner as they will cook much faster than the very large pieces of oxtail, you want them super fork tender with a little bounce, you don’t want it falling off the bones though). Transfer oxtail after tender into a Tupperware or or small pot with broth and set aside.
*Remove all tendons and cartilage after 2-3 hours. Cook tendons just till they’re about soft enough to eat. Then store in a container with some broth so they don’t over cook.
7. After 3-4 hours when your broth is super fragrant, remove onions, daikon, ginger from your stock and discard. Remove onions sooner if the onions start to disintegrate in broth (if you’re onions are still in pretty good solid form you can leave them in longer until they start to come apart).
*Check the brisket after about 2 hours of simmering. When the brisket is tender (you don’t want to cook them so much that the meat falls apart because it will be impossible to cut, but you also don’t want it super tough or chewy). Remove brisket, and let them rest at room temperature for a couple minutes. Then thinly slice across the grain, fill a Tupperware container with some broth, add some fish sauce (about 1-2 tbs) and place the brisket in the brothed Tupperware to prevent it from browning and drying out.
* If for some reason you do over cook the brisket just tear the meat into thick strands for your pho.
Keep slow simmering the bones for 3-5 hours minimum or up to 12 hours total until your broth is fragrant. I like to put the broth in the fridge after cooking it for about 6 hours the first day and then I’ll refrigerate, remove the fat off the top and continue to simmering another 4-6 hours on day 2. Keep lid on with it slightly ajar to prevent too much evaporation loss. If you lose a lot of water content, you can add some water in but not too much because you don’t want to over dilute your broth.
9. Freeze rare beef for a couple hours so it’s easier to slice. Take a super sharp knife and cut your rare beef SUPER thin. Set in a Tupperware container and store in fridge until ready to plate pho.
10. When your broth is done to your liking add your spice bag and let simmer for 30-60 minutes then dispose of spice bag (leaving them in longer will cloud your broth).
PS-Adding your spices too early in the broth stage won’t be as fresh smelling upon plating your pho bowls so add your aromatics (spice bag) in the last hour of cooking.
Taste stock, and add sugar or salt to taste. Add a little fish sauce or MSG to taste for extra umami flavor (add fish sauce 1 tbs at a time to prevent over salting your broth).
11. For a clearer broth (if there’s an excess amount of floaters in your broth) you can remove bones after your broth is finished and strain your broth through a couple layers of cheesecloth or a super fine strainer.
When removing the bones you can cut off any excess tendons from your knuckle bones if you like tendons in your soup.
12. Before serving, re-boil oxtail, brisket and tendons til hot.
13. Boil noodles as per package instructions, drain, and rinse noodles to remove excess starch.
14. To serve: Plate in bowl a nice helping of hot cooked vermicelli noodles to center of individual serving bowls.
To each bowl add some add bean sprouts, fresh sliced onion, cooked brisket, tendon and oxtails. Add a few slices of rare beef and ladle in a few scoops of SUPER HOT boiling broth to generously fill the bowl. Ladle the hot broth over the rare beef to cook the beef.
Top off with some fresh scallions, cilantro, jalapeño, black pepper and Thai basil to garnish.
Condiments and extra garnishes: Serve with side of bean sprouts, Sriracha, fish sauce and Hoisin sauce.
15. Store pot in fridge, and rewarm next day to eat pho. OR- you can also freeze your pho broth by removing all the bones and straining your broth into air tight soup containers.
**If using a lot of knuckle or tendon bones, your broth will cool in the fridge into a jelly like broth. This is totally normal, the gelatin in the broth is filled with good collagen and when you warm the broth it will completely melt back into an amazing broth again!