Easy Instant Pot Chicken Pho (Vietnamese Pho Ga)
This Easy Instant Pot Chicken Pho (known as Pho Ga in Vietnamese) tastes just like comfort in a bowl and is super easy to make, especially during busy weeknights. The aromatic broth and tender chicken is made in an Instant Pot (you can also make in a regular pot) without the long hours of simmering.
Servings: 2 people
Calories: 70kcal
Ingredients
- 8 cups water
- 8 drumsticks or 2 pounds chicken thighs bone-in required
- 1 small onion
- 1 shallot
- 4 inch ginger
- 12 cloves of garlic or 1 bulb
- 6 pieces star anise
- 2 bay leaves
- small cinnamon stick
- 1 teaspoon coriander and fennel
- 3 tablespoon fish sauce adjust to your salt preferences
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
garnish (all highly recommended)
- rice or pho noodles
- thinly sliced green onions and white onions
- bean sprouts
- cilantro
- jalapeno
- thai basil
- lime
- shredded chicken (from the instant pot)
- sriracha and hoisin sauce
Instructions
- Cut onions, ginger, shallots and garlic. Feel free to leave the skin because we will ladle it out later.
- Turn on Instant Pot on Custom Setting on High Temperature. Saute onions, ginger, shallots, garlic and cinnamon stick for 5 minutes until brown. If you don’t have an instant pot, follow my pot instructions in the next section ‘Stovetop Instructions’ below.
- Place coriander, fennel, star anise, 2 bay leaves in a cheese cloth or strainer to ensure that the spices stay in one place. Add chicken, spice bag, and water in the instant pot.
- Turn settings to pressure cook on low for 30 minutes (custom setting). Press start button.
- Once your chicken pho is done, start making your rice noodles. Soak them in boiling water for 5 minutes and strain. Set noodles aside. This ensures that your noodles stay al dente and not too mushy versus putting the noodles in the pot while cooking the broth.
- Your soup is ready! Open the pot and take out all the onions, garlic, corriander, fennel and spice bag. Spoon or skim the top of the soup to get rid of the oil and chicken skum.
- Add the following seasoning to pot (adjust to your own seasoning level): 3 tablespoons fish sauce (adjust to your liking), 1 teaspoon sugar, and 1 teaspoon salt.
- Serve the chicken soup with your desired herbs like cilantro, jalapenos thai basil, bean sprouts, noodles.
Notes
Expert Tips
- use bone-in chicken thighs or dark meat if possible. Since the meat will be pressure cooked, chicken breast can be tough. Also the chicken bones give the broth extra collagen, nutrition and most importantly lots of flavor!
- adding herbs like cilantro, bean sprouts, thai basil and onions make the soup taste extra delicious. At them at the end so it’s vibrant and not wilted but still gives the soup lots of flavor.
- get a good fish sauce! Fish sauce is one of the primary flavors in the chicken broth. It gives a salty, umami and sweet flavor. I recommend the three crabs fish sauce to ensure that the soup tastes just like a Vietnamese grandma made it ◡̈
Nutrition
Calories: 70kcal | Carbohydrates: 14g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 0.1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Sodium: 3336mg | Potassium: 302mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 20IU | Vitamin C: 7mg | Calcium: 80mg | Iron: 2mg