Vietnamese Chicken Pho soup (Pho Ga)

Name: Vietnamese Chicken Pho soup (Pho Ga)
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 1 h 30 min
Total time: 1 h 40 min
Cuisine: Vietnamese, Asian
Ingredients: 1 tbsp oil (, vegetable or canola (or other plain oil)); 2 onions (, halved (skin on fine)); 5cm/ 2" piece of ginger (, sliced 0.75cm / 1/3" thick (unpeeled)); 2 litres / 2 quarts water; 1.5 kg / 3 lb chicken thighs, bone in skin on ((Note 1)); 1 small bunch coriander/cilantro ((Note 2)); 5 star anise pods ((was short in photo & video!)); 1 cinnamon stick; 4 cloves; 2 tsp fennel seeds; 2 tsp coriander seeds; 8 tsp fish sauce; 6 tsp white sugar; 3/4 tsp salt ((Cooking/kosher salt, or 1/2 tsp table salt)); 360g / 13 oz dried rice noodles (, thin flat (or 600g fresh)); 2 green onions stems (, finely sliced); 3 cups bean sprouts ((Note 3)); 1 small bunch EACH Thai Basil, min, coriander/cilantro ((Note 4)); 2 limes (, cut into 4 wedges); Hoisin sauce; Sriracha; Red chillies (, finely sliced (optional))

Instructions

Prep:10minCook:1h 30min

Recipe video above. Chicken Pho (Pho Ga) - the little sister of famous Beef Pho, equally delicious but much easier to make! I call it the Vietnamese version of homemade chicken noodle soup made from scratch. Except - dare I say it - so much more exciting!You won't use all the chicken, but it's infused with lovely flavour so there's loads of uses - see Note 7.

Updated at: Wed, 10 Dec 2025 19:16:05 GMT