Pho Tron Recipe (Vietnamese Chicken/Beef Noodle Salad)
Although less known than the original Beef or Chicken Pho, in which you enjoy pho noodles, beef, and vegetables with a meticulously cooked broth, Pho Tron is still an interesting dish. Instead of being served with broth, Pho Tron is like a salad with a dressing sauce made of soy sauce, sriracha sauce, and some other condiments. Moreover, preparing Pho Tron usually takes only 30 minutes. Let’s try it.
Table of Contents
Comparison between Pho Tron and Pho
Pho is now one of the most popular Vietnamese Dishes around the world. It’s a combination of a fatty, naturally sweet broth, beef/chicken, pho noodles, fresh vegetables, and spices. In which, the most important part of a bowl of pho is the broth. To make Pho Broth, you need to simmer chicken bones (for chicken pho) or beef bones (for beef pho) for several hours and add a set of roasted pho spices, including cinnamon, star anise, cilantro seeds, fennel seeds, cloves, black cardamom pods, ginger, and onion to the broth. The broth’s aroma is the signature of Pho; without these spices, it’s not Pho at all.
On the other hand, Pho Tron keeps the same ingredient list as Pho, including beef/chicken, pho noodles, and vegetables. However, the broth is replaced with a dressing sauce made from soy sauce, sriracha sauce, lemon juice, sugar, and a bit of beef broth. “Tron” in Pho Tron means “mixing”, because you’ll mix all the cooked ingredients together before eating.
Without broth, it’s a bit similar to Bun Bo Nam Bo, a dish also made with beef and not including broth. However, they are not totally the same. The differences lie in the type of noodle, dressing sauce, and how we cook the beef. For Bun Bo Nam Bo, we stir-fry the beef and make the sauce from fish sauce, for Pho Tron, we blanch the beef or boil the chicken and make the dressing sauce from soy sauce and sriracha sauce. Pho Tron uses Pho Noodles, while Bun Bo Nam Bo uses Rice Vermicelli.
Ingredients
Here’s the Pho Tron recipe for 4 bowls:
- 400g (14oz) lean beef or chicken
- 400g (7oz) of Pho noodles
- 1 cup of pickled daikon and carrot
- 200g (7oz) of lettuce
- 4 tbsp roasted peanuts
- 4 tbsp fried shallots
Dressing sauce:
- 8 tbsp beef/chicken broth
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 6 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp lemon juice/vinegar 5%
- 2 tbsp sriacha sauce
- 2 tsp tapioca starch and 4 tsp water
How to Make Pho Tron
Step 1. Preparation
- If you are making Chicken Pho Tron, just keep the whole piece of chicken. If you are making Beef Pho Tron, cut the beef into thin slices. Also, wash the vegetables.
- For Pickled Carrot and Daikon, please refer to this guide.
Step 2. Boiling Pho Noodle & Beef/Chicken
- Unlike Rice vermicelli, Pho Noodle is normally thinner, and you can cook it by simply soaking it in boiling water. Boil water, pour it over the Pho Noodle, let it sit for 5-8 minutes, and then rinse it under cool water. Note that you should always check the instruction on the package of the Pho Noodles you bought; each brand will have a slight difference in cooking time, depending on the thickness of the noodle. For thicker noodles, you may need to cook them in boiling water for a few minutes.
- Cooking the meat: With Chicken, boil your chicken until fully cooked, then shred it into bite-size pieces. If you are making Pho Tron with Beef, blanch the beef slices in boiling water. Remember to blanch them until just cooked; otherwise, your beef slices can become chewy.
Step 3. Making Dressing Sauce
- To make the dressing sauce, mix all the sauce ingredients in a saucepan or a pot, then turn on low heat. While waiting, you can mix tapioca starch with water until fully dissolved. Once the sauce boils, pour in the tapioca mixture and quickly stir to combine everything.
- With peanuts and shallots, if you haven’t had roasted peanuts and fried shallots, you can make them yourself. It would take you around 15-30 minutes. I usually buy already roasted peanuts and fried shallots from the supermarket to save time.
Step 4. Incorporation
- It’s time to combine everything into Pho Tron. Add the Pho noodles, beef/chicken, vegetables, pickled carrot and daikon, then garnish with roasted peanuts and fried shallots. Finally, add the dressing sauce and enjoy.
Storing Pho Tron
Like many other rice vermicelli dishes, you should store each cooked ingredient separately. Rice vermicelli can last for 2 days in the fridge, while stir-fried beef can last for 3 days. Fresh Vegetables should be consumed within a week if you keep them in the fridge. Store roasted peanuts and fried shallots at room temperature, they’re still crispy for 2-3 months.
Pho Tron Recipe (Vietnamese Beef Noodle Salad)
Ingredients
- 400 g lean beef/ chicken 14oz
- 400 g Pho noodle 7oz
- 1 cup pickled daikon and carrot
- 200 g lettuce 7oz
- 4 tbsp roasted peanut
- 4 tbsp fried shallots
Dressing sauce
- 8 tbsp beef/chicken broth
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 6 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp lemon juice/vinegar 5%
- 2 tbsp siracha sauce
- 2 tsp tapioca starch and 4 tsp water
Instructions
Step 1. Preparation
- If you are making Chicken Pho Tron, just keep the whole piece of chicken. If you are making Beef Pho Tron, cut the beef into thin slices. Also wash the vegetables.
- With Pickled Carrot and Daikon, please refer to this guide.
Step 2. Boiling Pho Noodle & Beef/Chicken
- Unlike Rice vermicelli, Pho Noodle is normally thinner, and you can cook it by simply soaking in boiling water. Boil water, pour over Pho Noodle, let it sit for 5-8 minutes then rinse it under cool water. Note that you should always check the instruction on the package of the Pho Noodle you bought; each brand will have a little difference in cooking time, depend on the thickness of the noodle.
- Cooking the meat: With Chicken, boil your chicken until fully cooked then shred it into bite-size pieces. If you are making Pho Tron with Beef, blanch beef slices in boiling water. Remember to blanch them until just cooked, otherwise your beef slices can be chewy.
Step 3. Making Dressing Sauce
- To make dressing sauce, mix all ingredients for the sauce in a saucepan or a pot, then turn on low heat. While waiting, you can mix tapioca starch with water until fully dissolved. Once the sauce boils, pour the tapioca mixture in and quickly stir for everything to combine.
- With peanut and shallot, if you haven't had roasted peanuts and fried shallots, you can make them yourself. It would take you around 15-30 minutes. I usually buy already roasted peanuts and fried shallots from supermarket to save time.
Step 4. Incorporation
- It’s time to combine everything into Pho Tron. Add Pho noodle, beef/chicken, vegetables, pickled carrot and daikon, then garnish with roasted peanut and fried shallot. Finally, add the dressing sauce and enjoy.
Nutrition
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