Instant Pot Pho
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How to quickly (and easily!) make restaurant-quality pho right at home in the pressure cooker in less than 1 hour! The broth comes out perfectly – so flavorful and comforting. You can’t beat that!
So we made it to Cinque Terre!
It was quite a trek to get here – from cruise, to shuttle, to taxi, to train, we were able to visit 3 of the 5 seaside villages – Monterosso, Vernazza, and Manarola.
All were so unique and adorable, as I quickly told Ben we had to move here immediately.
But before that happens, I have the best homemade pho for you guys!
And guess what? You can make it right in the Instant Pot® in less than 1 hour! No need to simmer for 5-6 hours as you would for traditional pho.
The IP takes care of all that for you. It’s just as flavorful and cozy – and the broth is simply perfect.
Instant Pot Pho
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 1 large sweet onion, quartered
- 1 2-inch piece ginger, sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed
- 3 whole cloves
- 2 star anise pods
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- ½ teaspoon black peppercorns
- 1 ½ pounds bone-in chicken thighs, skin removed
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 ½ teaspoons brown sugar
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 8 ounces rice noodles
- 1 cup bean sprouts
- 1 cup fresh basil leaves
- 1 cup torn mint leaves
- 1 Thai bird chili pepper, thinly sliced
- 1 lime, cut into wedges
Instructions
- Set 6-qt Instant Pot® to the high saute setting. Heat canola oil; add onion, ginger and garlic. Cook, stirring frequently, until browned, about 4-5 minutes.
- Stir in cloves, star anise pods, cinnamon, cardamom, coriander and peppercorns until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Stir in chicken thighs, chicken stock, fish sauce, brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 2 cups water. Select manual setting; adjust pressure to high, and set time for 15 minutes. When finished cooking, quick-release pressure according to manufacturer’s directions.
- Remove chicken from the Instant Pot® and shred, using two forks; set aside.
- Strain broth through a fine-mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth; discard solids. Skim any remaining fat from surface and discard; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- In a large pot of boiling water, cook noodles according to package instructions; drain well.
- Divide noodles and chicken into serving bowls. Ladle over the broth mixture and serve immediately, garnished with bean sprouts, basil, mint, chili pepper and lime.
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
Only chicken pho recipe I use. Thanks!
I’m used to very onion-y broth, and messed up when I chose chicken bone broth. There was kind of no taste, other than the seasonings that were really doing it for me. Maybe add green onions to the broth before pressure cooking it? Overall, v good with the topping, fall apart chicken, and hoisin sauce.
This was delicious! I am not the cook in the house, but half of the home is currently sick so I needed to fill the role. We all enjoy pho, and I wanted to make something that would ease a soar throat. Everyone was pleased. Even my wife, the usual chef, was thrilled with the result. It really did taste like restaurant-quality pho. I made some minor tweaks: no fish sauce, 2 instead of 3 cloves, breasts instead of thighs, and minced ginger instead of sliced. This meal is now officially a regular dinner option.
Thank you!
Family favorite!
This is a revelation! I love, love, love Pho but never knew how to get an authentic flavor with acceptable effort. This is it! It’s so easy to make and so flavourful. Thanks for creating and sharing this recipe – it means I can eat great Pho any time I want from here on out.
I always have hot toddy ingredients on hand for when someone gets a cold – and what a huge crossover of ingredients. Turns out I already had all the ingredients I needed in my fridge and pantry. I usually order my pho with brisket and beef round. Possible to someday get an alt recipe with beef in the future? Loved this recipe as-is though – love all the recipes from this site. Always a win at our house!!
So dang delicious!! Followed recipe exactly and my family and I were blown away. My kids and I usually order beef while my husband orders his with meatballs so I wasn’t sure if they would appreciate the chicken. We all loved it. The thighs are so flavorful and soak up the aromatics. The broth has the complex favors. It all works so well. Thank you for this!!
We love Pho and this recipe is amazing. So much so that my hubby and kids prefer it over going to our favorite Pho restaurant. Say what?!? Yes, it’s that good and so easy to make! I tend to add a little extra of the aromatics and I use frozen chicken breasts because I am terrible at meal planning. Can’t recommend this enough, you gotta try it!!
This is a weekly staple in our home! It’s so delicious!!! Don’t change a thing of you have tastebuds. Thank you!
This was so incredible and my very first recipe in the insta pot. Our family loves pho and now I can make it at home! Flavors were amazing just like the pho restaurants. I did have to go to several stores to get all the whole spices/herbs but worth it. I used the chicken thighs and it gave it so much flavor. Will be putting on our regular dinner rotation.
I didn’t think I could make this as good as a restaurant! It is simple and amazing and is going into the “regular rotation.”
This was incredible! I made the mistake of using chicken breasts instead of thighs, but other than that it was so delicious and not too difficult. Trying again tonight with chicken thighs. Thanks for this recipe!
Absolutely amazing flavor!! This will definitely be in my weekly rotation. ❤️
I don’t think I’ve ever made such a flavorful and fragrant broth before! Really nice.
Wow!!! First recipe in our new instapot and amazingly delicious! Having no prior instapot experience this recipe has not only made me a believer but had us blown away with the flavor! We followed directions to a T and will make this in the future without question. Thanks for a great recipe!!!
Can this be done in a slow cooker? My family would love this! Plus I already have all the ingredients! Also, can I use frozen chicken thighs? Thanks!
I don’t usually leave reviews but this recipe is outstanding! It’s so good that I typically double the recipe…..can’t get enough!
Wondering if you can cook the chicken thighs from frozen, and if so, what the cooking time would be?
Amazing soup. Absolutely love the flavor. I have done this using frozen chicken thighs, usually its in a huge round block of chicken (i freeze in rounds specifically for the instant pot) depending on how much chicken I’m cooking i usually add about 15-30 minutes and slow release. Check a piece for doneness just to make sure.
This recipe looks amazing! 🙂 Would it still work if one doesn’t have an instant pot (e.g. simmer for longer in a pot or dutch oven)?
My husband made this recipe to try to make chicken pho at home. We used chicken breasts and it would likely taste a lot better with chicken thighs as they are more flavorful, so I would stick with thighs in the future. We found that this particular recipe had too much ginger and anise for our taste buds and too little fish sauce, but once again the chicken breasts might have been the problem. We added a little more salt and fish sauce at the end and that helped to balance the flavors. Thank you for sharing this recipe. We appreciate the time you took to share it with your readers.
I make this once a week! I have also made it with bone in chicken breasts with excellent results. When are you going to give us a beef version?!
This came out amazing! I subbed coconut sugar for brown and used jalapeño peppers instead of the Thai bird chili pepper (husband couldn’t find them at the store). Used only half a stick of cinnamon. Also threw in green onions at the end, which added a lot to the dish…not that it necessarily NEEDED it since the flavors were so complex already—but I’m a big green onion fan. Thanks for the delicious recipe!
This recipe lived up to it’s name! My family loved it.