Skip the all-day simmer with Instant Pot Chicken Pho. The trick is using a rotisserie chicken for two purposes. Save the breast meat for the finished bowls of pho, and pressure-cook the rest of the chicken with browned ginger, onions, and spices to build a rich broth in just 60 minutes. Served with rice noodles and piled high with fresh herbs and other toppings, it's a comforting, complex soup made easy.
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Skip the all-day simmer! This Instant Pot Chicken Pho uses a rotisserie chicken for a rich, complex broth in just 60 minutes. 🍜
I love pho, a huge bowl of Vietnamese noodle soup with all the toppings, and its cinnamon-seasoned broth. It's a meal in a bowl, and I don't really need anything else.
I was thinking about pho when I was writing about my love of homemade chicken broth for my newsletter. I haven't made pho in a while, and I usually make it with beef. What about a chicken pho, pho ga, using my rotisserie chicken broth technique? (I use the rotisserie chicken carcass and meat to make the broth, except for the breasts, which I remove and shred to add to the soup.)
Much to my delight, pho ga is delicious and works perfectly with my rotisserie chicken broth technique.
Ingredient Notes
- Rotisserie Chicken: Rotisserie chicken makes a great shortcut to homemade soups - a whole roast chicken gives me the breast meat for the soup, and the rest of the meat and bones for the broth. Any rotisserie chicken will do - most of my local grocery stores have a day of the week where rotisserie chickens are on sale, so I'll watch for that day and pick one (or two) up to make a batch of soup.
- Make-ahead or store-bought broth with raw chicken: If (like me) you already make big batches of broth, or you're forced to use store-bought broth (ugh), you can infuse the broth with the pho seasonings for a shortcut version of the recipe, while cooking chicken breast meat to shred for the soup. See the notes section in the recipe card for instructions.
- Rice noodles: Pho is traditionally served with thin rice noodles, which are sold as rice vermicelli at my local Asian markets. Thicker rice noodles (like pad thai noodles), wheat flour vermicelli, or thin spaghetti are all decent substitutes.
- Fish sauce: Fish sauce has a very distinctive smell - it can be too much for some people. I think it's an essential part of the flavor profile of pho, but you can substitute soy sauce for the fish sauce. (My kids used to insist on this when they were younger, because fish sauce was "stinky.")
- Cilantro stems and leaves: Another controversial ingredient - some people just don't like cilantro. You can skip it, or add an extra teaspoon of coriander seeds to the broth.
- Rock sugar: If you don't have rock sugar, substitute raw sugar, brown sugar, or even just white sugar.
- Coriander, cinnamon stick, star anise: I like the combination of these whole spices in the broth. If you have to use ground spices, cut way back, and use ¼ teaspoon of ground coriander, cinnamon, and star anise. Or, you can just skip them - I think the cinnamon stick is the most important of the three, followed by the star anise, and then the coriander, but you can make a good broth without some or all of them.
- Toppings: Use your favorites of the ones I have listed in the recipe. My local noodle shop serves with lime wedges, bean sprouts, and Thai basil, with bottles of hoisin sauce and cilantro on the table. I'm using the cilantro stems in the broth, so adding the cilantro leaves is easy, and I like some heat, so I add the sliced bird's-eye chilies.
How to Make Instant Pot Chicken Pho in Pictures
Sauté Onion and Garlic
Sauté an thin sliced onion and piece of garlic until browned
Chicken and spices in the pot
Remove the breasts and add the rotisserie chicken to the pot. (Shred it first for more flavor extraction). Add the spices, coriander stems, and 8 cups of water.
Pressure Cook the Broth for 1 Hour
Pressure cook the broth for 1 hour with a natural pressure release
Strain the Broth Then Add Seasonings
Strain the broth through a fine mesh strainer, put it back in the pot, and add the fish sauce and rock sugar. Simmer for 5 minutes to melt the sugar.
Add Broth to Noodles and Chicken and Serve With Toppings
Put cooked rice noodles, the shredded rotisserie chicken, and sliced green onion in bowls, then cover with the broth. Serve, passing the toppings at the table.
Tips and Tricks
- Finesse technique: better broth by shredding. This is a trick I learned from Chris Young in his $6 Michelin Stock in 60 Minutes video - you get better broth by shredding the chicken before adding it to the Instant Pot to make the broth. His explanation is to think of it like making coffee. You're trying to extract the flavor from coffee beans, or a chicken, using water. We don't make coffee with whole beans, because grinding them lets us extract a lot more flavor by increasing the surface area exposed to the water. Shredding the chicken does the same thing for broth. I tested it, and it works well - you get a richer broth by shredding. (Thank you, Mr. Young!) Now, it's not necessary to shred. The best thing about chicken broth: it's easy. Toss a carcass in a pot with water and some aromatics, pressure cook for an hour, and you get great broth. But, if you have the time and patience, shredding the chicken makes that great broth even better.
- Pho Pronunciation: Pho is pronounced "fuh", not like the English word "foe" or the French word "faux." That's because in Vietnamese, it's not spelled pho, it's spelled phở, where the o has two diacritics that change the pronunciation to a soft "uh". (I think. I'm not a language expert, and this is me trying to explain what I read about it. If I didn't get it right, let me know in the comments below.)
📖 Recipe Card
Instant Pot Chicken Pho (Vietnamese Phở Gà) from a Rotisserie Chicken
- Total Time: 2 hours 15 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings of soup 1x
Description
Skip the all-day simmer! This Instant Pot Chicken Pho uses a rotisserie chicken for a rich, complex broth in just 60 minutes. 🍜
Ingredients
Pho Soup Broth
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 medium onions, sliced ¼-inch thick
- 2-inch long piece of ginger, skin on, sliced ¼-inch thick
- 1 rotisserie chicken, breasts removed for later, with any liquid in the package
- 1 teaspoon dry coriander seeds
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 dried star anise pod
- Stems from a small (2-ounce) bunch of cilantro, leaves saved for later
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 8 cups of water
Broth Seasonings
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons rock sugar (or raw, brown, or white sugar)
Pho Bowls Base
- Rotisserie chicken breast meat (from above), shredded
- 14 to 16 ounces rice vermicelli (Thin rice noodles) cooked according to package directions
- 2 green onions, sliced thin
Toppings - serve on the side
- Leaves from a small (2-ounce) bunch of Cilantro (the leaves from the stems used in the broth)
- Thai basil
- Bean sprouts
- Limes, cut into wedges
- Bird's-eye chilies (aka Thai chili peppers), sliced thin
- Hoisin sauce
- Sriracha sauce
Instructions
- Sauté the aromatics: Heat the oil in an Instant Pot set to Sauté - high (use medium-high heat with other pressure cookers) until the oil starts to shimmer. Add the sliced onion and ginger and sauté until the onions are browned, about 8 minutes.
- Pressure cook the pho broth for 60 minutes with a natural release: Cut the chicken breast meat off of the rotisserie chicken and set aside for later. Add the rest of the rotisserie chicken (for better flavor, shred and break up the chicken before adding to the pot. For easy broth, just drop the whole carcass in the pot). Add any juices in the rotisserie chicken container to the pot. Add the coriander seeds, cinnamon stick, star anise pod and cilantro stems to the pot. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of fine sea salt, then pour in the 8 cups of water. (Water should just cover the rotisserie chicken - it's OK if the knobs of the drumsticks are poking up.) Lock the lid and pressure cook on high pressure for 60 minutes in an Instant Pot or other electric PC, or for 50 minutes in a stovetop PC. (Use Manual, Pressure Cook, or Pressure Cook-Custom mode in an Instant Pot). Let the pressure come down naturally after cooking - the natural pressure release will take 30 to 40 minutes. (It takes a long time for all that boiling water to cool off. If you're in a hurry, let the pressure come down for at least 20 minutes, then quick-release any remaining pressure.) Scoop the chicken carcass and vegetables out of the pot with a slotted spoon and discard; they've given their all to the broth. Strain the broth through a fine-mesh strainer, and put it back in the pressure cooker liner.
- Season the Pho Broth: Pour the broth back into the pressure cooker liner, and set the Instant Pot to Sauté - low (use low heat with a stovetop PC). Stir in the fish sauce and rock sugar, and let the broth simmer for at least 5 minutes while you continue with the prep work.
- Prep Work: Cook the rice noodles according to the package directions, shred the chicken breast meat into bite-sized shreds, and thinly slice the green onions. Also, prep all the toppings you want and set them on a platter. (I slice the bird's-eye chilies and lime wedges, and just pile the other herbs and toppings on a platter.) You can do the prep work while the pho broth is pressure cooking and/or simmering with the seasonings.
- Build the Pho Bowls and Serve With the Toppings: Put a serving of cooked rice noodles, the shredded chicken, and some sliced green onion into each bowl, and top with the pho broth. Serve with the platter of toppings and bottles of sriracha and hoisin, so people can add their favorites to their bowls. Enjoy!
Notes
Optional - Shred the chicken before making the broth: If you have the time and the patience, shred the chicken and break up the carcass before adding it to the pot to make the broth. The pho broth will have even better flavor.
"I already have broth" variation: If you already have 8 cups of chicken broth, you can skip the pressure cooking step. Sauté the onion and ginger, add the spices and cilantro stems, then pour in 8 cups of chicken broth, add the fish sauce and rock sugar, and two uncooked boneless skinless chicken breasts. Simmer the broth with the spices and chicken for 15 minutes. Remove the breast meat and strain the broth through a fine-mesh strainer. Continue with the Prep Work and Build the Pho Bowls steps.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 2 hours
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 bowl of soup
- Calories: 301
- Sugar: 5.8 g
- Sodium: 1443.4 mg
- Fat: 2.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 46.3 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 20.4 g
- Cholesterol: 54.7 mg
Scaling
This recipe scales up and down easily, but you need a larger pressure cooker if you want to scale up - doubling the recipe will need an 8-quart pressure cooker. You can halve this recipe and it will fit in a 4-quart pressure cooker. The cooking time does not change; it takes the same amount of time to make the broth.
Make-ahead soup
To make this a weeknight meal, make the broth and shred the chicken ahead of time. Refrigerate them separately (for a few days) or freeze them (for months). Then, when you are ready to serve, cook the noodles and prep the toppings.
Leftovers storage
Leftover pho freezes well, except for the optional toppings. I store this soup in the freezer in 2-cup containers, then pull out some fresh basil or cilantro when I'm eating the leftovers.
What to Serve with Pho
As you can see in the recipe, I serve pho with a lot of toppings. I don't add much else; pho is an entire meal in a bowl. That said, a salad and a loaf of crusty French bread are good if you need a little something extra on the table.
Related Posts
I've got a bunch of other noodle soups for you to try, like my Instant Pot Miso Ramen, Instant Pot Chinese Beef Noodle Soup with Short Ribs, or Pressure Cooker Day-After-Thanksgiving Turkey Carcass Soup.
I have a lot of soup recipes made from a rotisserie chicken: start with my basic Instant Pot Rotisserie Chicken Noodle Soup, then branch out to Instant Pot Chicken and Wild Rice Soup, Instant Pot Rotisserie Chicken Gumbo Soup, Instant Pot Chicken Pot Pie Soup, Instant Pot Rotisserie Chicken and Lentil Soup, Instant Pot Rotisserie Chicken Tortilla Soup, and Instant Pot Rustic Rotisserie Chicken Potato Leek Soup.
If you're looking for something else, including other rotisserie chicken soups, here is my index of Instant Pot and Pressure Cooker Recipes.
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