How to Make Oxtail Pho

How to make oxtail pho Vietnamese style on the stove or quick in your Instant Pot pressure cooker too is here! We will first show you how to cook oxtails to fork tender, then use that tender beef with noodles to make this flavorful vegetable broth soup your family will love.

We love Korean oxtail soup and this is yet another way you can make it, Vietnamese style! With ramen noodles or udon noodles and vegetables in a light broth your family too will enjoy this for dinner throughout the year. Make it spicy or keep it mild, you can adjust and tweak it easily. (affiliate links present)

Pho Oxtail Recipe

Have you had this at a restaurant and loved it so much you wanted to know how to make pho (pronounced FU) at home?? Us too! We used ox tail for the meat with this one but you could certainly tweak it to use beef or chicken sometime too. Once you get the hang of how it is done you will want to make them all.

What kind of meat is oxtail?

Oxtail is the culinary name for the tail of cattle, traditionally from an ox but now generally from beef cattle. It consists of a bony, gelatin rich meat that is flavorful and tender when slow cooked. The tail is cut into sections, each containing a piece of tailbone with some marrow in the center.

What is ox tail soup made from?

• 1 lb oxtail beef bones
• Onion, radish, and pepper like roasted jalapeno if you want some heat
• Carrot peeled and cut into dials
• 1 tsp minced ginger
• Green onions diced
• 1 lime
• Cloves ground
• 1/2 tsp cardamom ground
• Pepper, fennel seeds, and coriander seeds ground
• Olive oil
• Some like to add a star anise but that is my favorite flavor so I leave it out
• 3-4 cups cold water or broth is better to give you even more flavor overall is how to make pho broth from scratch. Just keep with the same flavors like beef with ox etc…

What kind of vegetables are in pho?

Use a large stock pot with a tight fitting lid to make this. Typically radishes are found but you can add as many vegetables as you would like as long as they are submerged. Choose firm varieties like we did in our oxtail boil recipe and not until the meat is starting to pull away from the bone.

Seasonings

As far as the seasonings go that is up to you too but we used more traditional ones below in the recipe card. If you wanted to sway it more American or Southern in nature you could use other oxtail seasoning blends in that regard. Add heat to make this spicy, a little or a lot, the other options go on and on.

If you wanted to sway it in an Indian direction take a look at our oxtail curry and the flavors we used with that and use those for a sort of fusion. The first go around I would suggest following the step by step directions exactly as stated below. That will give you a good idea of how it works well and then you can make other versions beyond that.

Variations

Just like with our oxtails and rice dish, this too is a complete meal right out of the pot. You will have meat, pasta and vegetables all in one bowl so you literally need nothing on the side. This is a list of what was used. If you don’t have something there is a link to all of them in the recipe card below to order online.

What type of noodles do you add to pho?

As far as the pasta goes in your Ox Tail Soup you should use rice noodles. They are added after the meat is perfectly tender and the broth is perfectly seasoned. Just like if you were to boil in regular water, you instead boil them in this amazing broth so they soak up all those flavors. Thinner and more delicate than spaghetti noodles, they don’t take very long to get just right so don’t walk away.

How to Make Oxtail Noodle Soup Recipe

• For smoked oxtail you’d follow these directions first, but then to make a flavorful broth you may want to remove meat from bones and use those to boil to extract flavor.
• If you want to boil; Trim fat from oxtails. Rinse and pat dry.
• Set aside.
• Chop onions, carrots, daikon radish, and thinly slice mild pepper. Set aside.
• In large cooking pot, add oil, heat onions, carrots, onion and ginger, radish, and spices until tender. (I like using a Dutch Oven like our Braised Oxtail Recipe)
• Add oxtails. Pour in enough water or broth to cover your tails.
• Bring to boil, then reduce to simmer for 5 hours covered or until oxtail meat is easily removed from the bone.
• Strain soup liquid into a new pot. Set aside vegetables and oxtail.
• Add and cook pho noodles according to the package directions in the broth you made until as tender as you’d like.
  • if you wanted to add some bok choy in you should do that at this time
• Meanwhile, remove oxtail meat from bone.
• Add vegetables back to soup liquid with noodles.

What is the spicy sauce in pho?

Thai bird chiles are traditionally added to give it a kick of heat but can be toned down with less, or with diced jalapenos instead. Fill bowls with your beef noodle soup, add oxtail meat, top with cilantro, green onions, fish sauce is good, diced chives and mild pepper slices.

How to Make Instant Pot Oxtail Pho

Now that one above and in the recipe card at the bottom is made on the stove in a pot. If you want it done faster you can cook the meat using our Instant Pot ox tail recipe which cuts down the cook time to just 45 minutes!

You could use your Ninja Foodi or any other brand to make it this way, they are all basically the same. From there you then jump to making Instant Pot oxtail soup. The noodles are so delicate that you don’t use pressure at all for those. Instead you set to saute at the end, add them, and allow to bubble until al dente.