Kenji's Pressure-Cooker Pho Ga: A Clear Chicken Broth in Under 30 Minutes

Serious Eats’ J. Kenji López-Alt argues that pho ga—Vietnamese chicken noodle soup—is a near-ideal candidate for the pressure cooker, cutting a traditionally hours-long process down to about half an hour. The high-pressure environment heats liquid past its normal boiling point, rendering a chicken drumstick fall-off-the-bone tender in 15–20 minutes while extracting gelatin for a rich, mouth-coating broth. Because liquid at pressure doesn’t actively boil, the broth stays clear with minimal skimming, eliminating the constant babysitting a stovetop simmer demands.

The piece doubles as a note on cooking away from home: López-Alt wrote it from his in-laws’ apartment in Bogotá, Colombia, at over 8,000 feet. He explains that electric pressure cookers hold an absolute internal pressure independent of ambient conditions—so results at high altitude match those at sea level, unlike stovetop models that add pressure relative to their surroundings. He also improvises on ingredients, substituting local panela for hard-to-find rock sugar and thin vermicelli for traditional pho noodles.

Method: char onions and ginger, then pressure-cook them with chicken and aromatics (star anise, cinnamon, cloves, fennel, coriander, cilantro stems, fish sauce, sugar). The ~20 minutes of cook time covers prep of noodles, herbs, sprouts, and lime, making it a true fridge-to-table 30-minute recipe.