Name: Halal pho-style beef broth
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 3 h
Total time: 3 h 30 min
Yield: 4 bowls
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Ingredients: 1.5 kg Halal beef marrow bones and brisket (3.3 lb); 3.5 litres water (15 cups); 300 g onion, halved (2 large); 80 g fresh ginger, halved lengthways (a large thumb); 8 g cinnamon stick (1 stick); 4 g star anise (4 points); 1 g cloves (4 cloves); 5 g coriander seeds (1 tsp); 45 ml fish sauce with a short anchovy-and-salt list (no wine) (3 tbsp); 15 g caster sugar or rock sugar (1 tbsp); 8 g fine salt (1¼ tsp); 400 g dried flat rice noodles (bánh phở), pack-checked (14 oz); 300 g Halal beef sirloin, sliced paper-thin for the bowl (10 oz); 200 g beansprouts, herbs (coriander, Thai basil), lime (a large handful each)

Halal-critical ingredients

Bones Unspecified or pork bones. Halal beef from a Halal butcher.
Fish sauce Usually fine; some blends are not a two-ingredient bottle. Anchovy + salt (+ sugar) with no wine. See Fish sauce.
Table condiments Hoisin and chilli sauces vary; some hoisin lists wheat and unstated flavourings. Optional; read or skip.

Safe substitutes

Unspecified butcher bones → Halal beef brisket-only broth if bones are unavailable
Opaque fish sauce → A named-ingredient bottle, or salt plus a little extra Halal beef reduction
Pork hock richness → Longer simmer and marrow bones from Halal beef

Allergens

fish (fish sauce), gluten (some soy/fish-sauce blends)

Ingredients

Broth

1.5 kg (3.3 lb) Halal beef marrow bones and brisket
3.5 litres (15 cups) water
300 g (2 large) onion, halved
80 g (a large thumb) fresh ginger, halved lengthways
8 g (1 stick) cinnamon stick
4 g (4 points) star anise
1 g (4 cloves) cloves
5 g (1 tsp) coriander seeds
45 ml (3 tbsp) fish sauce with a short anchovy-and-salt list (no wine)
15 g (1 tbsp) caster sugar or rock sugar
8 g (1¼ tsp) fine salt

Bowls

400 g (14 oz) dried flat rice noodles (bánh phở), pack-checked
300 g (10 oz) Halal beef sirloin, sliced paper-thin for the bowl
200 g (a large handful each) beansprouts, herbs (coriander, Thai basil), lime

Method

Blanch and char. Cover bones and brisket with cold water, bring to a boil, drain and rinse (clears scum). Char onion and ginger cut-sides on a dry pan or under a grill until blackened in spots — a standard pho aroma step.
Long simmer. Return bones and brisket to clean water with charred aromatics. Toast spices 1 minute and add in a bag. Simmer very gently 3 hours. Halal beef only — no pork hocks, no ‘mixed bones’ from a butcher who also cuts pork on the same block unless you accept that risk.
Season with a read fish sauce. Lift brisket, slice, and return some to the broth. Season with sugar, salt, and fish sauce. Classic nước mắm is anchovy and salt (fish, generally Halal); some bottles add sugar, flavouring, or unspecified extracts. See Fish sauce. Do not add wine or Maggi-style mixes you have not read.
Noodles and raw slices. Soak or boil rice noodles per pack. Place noodles in bowls, add raw Halal sirloin, and ladle boiling broth over to cook the slices. Herbs and lime at the table.
This is not a stall certificate. A restaurant pho still needs its own bone and sauce check — see Pho.

Editorial method notes

Method specified editorially from Vietnamese pho technique (char onion and ginger, spice bag, long beef simmer, fish sauce to finish) and this site's Pho, Fish sauce, and Beef pages. Not kitchen-tested in this environment; pending kitchen verification. This is a home broth, not a claim to be a specific Hanoi stall.

Technique and ingredient sources

Beef pho broth technique — Viet World Kitchen (Andrea Nguyen) — Viet World Kitchen 15 August 2026
Char, spice bag, and long simmer. Used as culinary technique; meat source must still be Halal.
Pho analysis — isithalal.food — isithalal.food 15 August 2026
Stock, fish sauce, and why the dish name is not a ruling.

Why Halal checks matter here