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Instant Pot Chicken Pho is the perfect thing to make when you want something warm and comforting. Made entirely from scratch, and ready in just over an hour!
Homemade chicken pho made in the instant pot, in just over an hour!
And would you look at that ultra clear broth?!
This flavor bomb of an instant pot chicken pho takes all the magic that happens when you let a whole chicken slow simmer with onions and ginger and spices for hours on end and puts it together on your dinner table in a fraction of the time.
We’re talking about a spice-scented chicken broth with chewy rice noodles, tender cooked chicken, all the herbs you loved with a generous squirt of hoisin and sriracha. I can’t even with this one. 🙆🏻♀️
My mother always made us bone broth loaded with cloves, ginger, cinnamon, and black peppercorns when we had a nasty bug. Chicken broth helps hydrate with like a vitamin-loaded elixir for the body. Plus ginger, helps reduce inflammation and aids in soothing a sore throat. She’s the reason I use ginger in my flu-fighting chicken noodle soup.
So, naturally when I saw chicken pho is made with the same ingredients I had to give it a try.
And basically what this instant pot chicken pho does is give you a warm and cozy bowl of aromatic chicken soup loaded with a flavorful broth, fresh herbs, lime juice, jalapeno pepper if you’re into that sort of thing and perfectly tender chicken.
Twirl those noodles, slurp that soup, and repeat often. ❤️
My mom would definitely make pho like this with the instant pot nowadays for convenience. In fact that was how she taught me to make pho, and I tried your recipe tonight and it was very similar to hers. Yum, thanks!
Ingredients for instant pot chicken pho
- Noodles: medium rice noodles work best for this recipe. They are naturally gluten-free as well.
- Spice Ball: We’ll need whole star anise, a cinnamon stick, whole cloves, coriander seeds, green cardamom, fennel seeds, and black peppercorn. I suggest popping them all into a mesh spice basket once we’ve toasted the spices so that you don’t have to worry about fishing them out. I simply love my mesh ball and use it everytime I’m making homemade broth or large batches of tea!
- Onions: you’ll need two onions.
- Ginger: sear it in a hot pan before adding it to the broth.
- Bone-in Chicken: you can use chicken breasts, chicken thighs, or even a whole chicken for this recipe. Trim excess fat if using a whole chicken.
- Fish Sauce: provides a lot of the deep flavor and is a source of sodium in this recipe.
- Rock sugar or granulated sugar: I’ve read that you can use a fuji apple to chicken pho broth to enhance the sweetness, but I’ve always used a hint of sugar to do this. Feel free to use what you like here. For sugar you’ll need 1-2 tablespoons.
- Kosher Salt: I like to add a little extra salt other than just the fish sauce. Feel free to leave this out till the end and then adjust as needed.
- Condiments: like Thai Basil, fresh cilantro, chopped green onions, thinly sliced white onions, bean sprouts, some hoisin sauce, sriracha and maybe a couple of lime wedges really elevate your instant pot chicken pho experience.
How to make instant pot pho
- Toast the spices. Instant Pot Chicken Pho or any pho starts with toasting the spices. Not all recipes require you to do so. To unleash the full potential of spices, you drop it in a skillet and let it heat through. This allows the natural oils to release more flavor. Once the spices are heated, place them in the mesh ball.
- Sear the ingredients. Preheat then add the onions and ginger and dry toast them. You can also do this under the broiler or over an open flame, they undoubted give the broth more flavor that way.
- Add water and start the cooking process. add the water, sugar, fish sauce, bone-in chicken and kosher salt. Cover the instant pot with the lid and start your electric pressure cooker on high pressure. While the broth cooks, clean your herbs for serving.
- Remove the chicken and finish. When the timer goes off, release the hot steam. Using tongs, set the chicken aside from the stockpot and immediately plunge into cold ice water to stop it from cooking further. Right before serving, slice the breast side and discard the bones. Pour the remaining chicken broth through a fine mesh strainer to remove solids. You’ll notice the scum sticks to the walls of your pressure cooker. You can use a muslin-lined mesh strainer to make the broth extra clear. Bring it back to a boil if desired, the broth cools very quickly!
- Pho bowl Assembly. Place cooked noodles in each bowl. Ladle the instant pot chicken pho broth on top. Garnish with toppings. These soup bowls are going to be licked clean!
- Storing leftovers. Set aside half of the chicken in a separate container if you are anticipating leftovers. Reheat broth on stove, add chicken in broth.
What I’ve learned from making this recipe
In the past, I usually use slice the onions down the center and sear them in the instant pot. But if time permits these days, I like to broil the onions and ginger it in the oven or char it on the stove over high heat before adding it to the pho. It gives the most delicious rich, deep flavor to the broth.
Recommended Equipment
If you like this recipe you might also like
- Vietnamese Chicken Sandwiches
- Fresh Spring Rolls
- Vietnam Chicken Bowls with Pickled Vegetables
- Banh Mi Smashed Tacos
- Banh Mi Burgers with Spicy Sriracha Mayo
Instant Pot Chicken Pho Noodle Soup (Pho Ga)
Ingredients
spice ball:
- 4 star anise
- 4 cloves
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 1 teaspoon whole peppercorns
- 2 cardamom pods
instant pot:
- 2 yellow onions peeled and halved
- 4- inch ginger root peeled and halved (lengthwise)
- 3 – 3 1/2 pounds bone-in chicken see notes
- ¼ cup fish sauce
- 1-2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
to serve:
- 8 ounces cooked rice noodles
- toppings basil leaves, cilantro, bean sprouts, sliced jalapenos, sriracha, hoisin sauce, lime wedges, chopped green onions
Instructions
- OPTIONAL: in recent years, I've started to slice the onion down the room, remove the paper and char it along with the sliced ginger on a baking sheet in the oven under the broil setting. This will take 5-10 minutes but you do the at your own risk, keeping a close eye to keep the onions and ginger from burning. Once cooled use in step #3.
- Toast:Heat the instant pot on the saute setting. Drop the whole spices listed under 'spice ball' and toast for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently or until fragrant. Place spices in a cheesecloth bag or mesh spice ball. This makes it easy to remove later. Add the halved onions and ginger root to the pressure cooker and allow them to sear for 6-8 minutes (if you skipped the optional step above.) You want to flip them once or twice about halfway through.
- LOAD: Pour in 8 ½ cups of water. Using a wooden spoon, scratch the bottom of the pot to help loosen up all the brown bits left behind. Add chicken, spice ball, fish sauce, 1 tablespoon of sugar, and salt.
- PRESSURE COOK: Cover the instant pot; seal the vent. Cook on manual high pressure for 25 minutes and do a quick release. When the instant pot says there are 2 minutes of cooking time left, prepare an ice water bath (lots of ice in a large bowl with cold water.)
- CHICKEN: Remove the chicken to the ice water bath. Skim any scum from the surface of the broth. Strain the broth into a large pot or measuring cup. Rinse out the instant pot insert, then pour the broth back in. Allow the broth to simmer on the saute setting if you want to concentrate the flavor a little more.
- ADJUST: Taste and adjust with additional sugar or salt to taste. Remove the skin from the chicken and shred or slice the chicken while the broth is simmering.
- ASSEMBLE: when ready to serve, place about 2-3 ounces of noodles in a bowl, top with chicken and ladle on the broth. Serve the herbs and sauce on a plate and allow everyone to top their bowl as desired!
Notes
- For the chicken, you can use bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts, thighs or wings. You can also use a whole chicken. If you decide to go the whole chicken route, trim all the excess fat to prevent your pho broth from being too oily!
- If you don’t like the idea of cooking the raw chicken in the instant pot without skimming, you can also use a rotisserie chicken. Pull off all the meat, add the chicken carcass to make the broth. Serve the pho with the previously shredded chicken!
- You don’t have to serve the pho with all the toppings! You can always pick and choose what you like 🙂
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like This? Leave a comment & rating below!
My Vietnamese mother has been making pho ga and pho bo with her stove top pressure cooker (I think the brand is Fagor?) for over three decades 🙂 She’s the best cool I know. Her pho tastes better than any stovetop or instant pho I’ve ever made.
Hands down delicious and oh so comforting!!
I used a six lb whole roaster. I didnt have any fennel seed, but it’s ok. The broth was so delicious and full of flavor. Theres a few pho places by me, and this tastes exactly like my favorite place. I am sick and crave pho, so I whipped up a giant batch yesterday. The chicken rendered a ton of meat and the collagen made my stock very gelled, so it was easy to remove the top layer and have a beautifully clear soup. I’ve now eaten it for dinner, lunch and dinner again. Thank you for this recipe. Will be making beef pho next.
What is your favorite brand of rice noodles? I find it very difficult to find some just like @ the pho restaurant.
My mom would definitely make pho like this with the instant pot nowadays for convenience. In fact that was how she taught me to make pho, and I tried your recipe tonight and it was very similar to hers. Yum, thanks!
I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it! Appreciate you taking the time to come back and leave a comment 🙂
What type of onion are you using? Thx!
Both white and yellow onions would work for this recipe!
Hello, I don’t have an Instant Pot. What could I use instead to make this dish?
This is my 3rd time making this recipe- so much easier than I expected it would be to make authentic tasting Pho! I’ve shifted to using just drumsticks and adding a little more fish sauce and ginger. Thanks for this post and awesome recipe!
I am trying this tonight! Looking forward to it. I noticed in your directions after you toast the spices, you never mention anywhere after that to incorporate the spice ball back into the soup. I didn’t have a spice ball so I just threw the toasted spices in with the water and chicken as I will be straining the broth. I hope I did the steps correctly! My husband loves pho, so I’m excited to see how this turns out.
So sorry about that, it goes in with everything else listed in step number 2. Thank you for pointing that out! I hope you guys enjoy the pho!
Tried this, was missing fennel seeds but my goodness was this good! My very picky children ate 2 bowls as did my husband. We were thoroughly impressed! I will be making again and with the fennel this time.
So good!
Can you use something else besides the anise and cloves? I do not like the flavor
Unfortunately, both are critical ingredients for making pho and I can’t think of anything you can substitute in their place. You can simply omit them from the recipe if you’d like. But I feel it’s important to mention that this will change the overall outcome of the dish.
If you take out those spices you don’t have Pho, you just have chicken noodle soup! The wonderful part of Pho is the delicate fragrance and flavor of the aromatic spices and herbs!
If you have had Pho at restraunts and like it you had it with anise and clove. you may like the end result even if you don’t like those spices on their own.
If anyone is hesitant about star anise and clove: 4 of each in the recipe could be a bit strong, so I would recommend trying just half a star anise and one clove for your first time. My mom doesn’t even use cloves for pho ga, only pho bo (beef).
W O W made Pho for dinner tonight. It was the second time I have used my instant pot. I was a little skeptical about the spices, but was very happy with the results. Fabulous, rich tasting broth. Light, but very filling