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Bún Bò Huế - Spicy Vietnamese Beef & Pork Noodle Soup
5 from 138 votes

Bún Bò Huế - Spicy Vietnamese Beef & Pork Noodle Soup

Bún Bò Huế is a Vietnamese spicy beef and pork noodle soup featuring slow-simmered beef shank, oxtail, pork hocks, and seasoned pork sausage. The broth is richly layered with lemongrass, onions, shrimp paste, fish sauce, and annatto oil, creating a vibrant and aromatic base served over rice noodles with fresh herbs, bean sprouts, lime, and chili for a complex balance of spicy, savory, and bright flavors.

Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
3 hrs
Total Time
3 hrs 30 mins
Servings: 8 bowls
Calories: 12767 kcal
Course: Soup, Lunch, Dinner
Cuisine: Vietnamese

Ingredients

  • 2 lb beef shank
  • 2 lb Oxtail
  • 2 lb pork hocks
  • 1 lb pork sausage chả Huế, which has garlic and whole peppercorns, Huế style
  • 1 lb pork blood block
Broth base & Seasoning
  • water I used an 8 quart pot, and added water to cover the meat.
  • 24 oz chicken broth
  • 12 talks lemongrass leafy tops removed, roots smashed
  • 2 yellow onion halved, to be removed from the broth after fully cooked, large
  • 3 tbsp salt
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 2 tbsp shrimp paste Lee Kum Kee brand
  • 3-4 tbsp fish sauce
  • 2 tsp monosodium glutamate if not using oxtail, add 4 teaspoons, MSG
Aromatics & Color
  • 3 tbsp annatto seeds
  • 3 tbsp neutral cooking oil
  • 2 tbsp shallot sliced
  • 2 tbsp garlic minced
Herbs & Veg
  • mint
  • basil
  • bean sprout
  • bird's eye chili or jalapeno
  • lime sliced
Banana Flower
  • 1 banana flower
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 lemon juiced
Noodles
  • 14 oz rice noodles medium or large thickness, dried; package
Saté (spicy chile condiment)
  • 20 g Thai chili crushed, dried
  • 1/2 /2 c neutral cooking oil
  • 80 g white onion minced, or shallot
  • 40 g garlic minced
  • 30 g lemongrass minced
  • 2 tbsp gochugaru Korean chile powder
  • 1 tbsp fish sauce
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 2/3 /3 tsp salt
  • 1/2 /2 tsp monosodium glutamate MSG

Instructions

Broth
    Cup of Yum
  1. Clean the meat: Add all meat to a stock pot and enough water to submerge it, bring to a boil. Drain and rinse thoroughly under running water.
  2. Add the meat, broth, lemongrass and onions to the pot and fill with water almost to the brim. Bring to a boil then drop the heat to medium-high to maintain a low boil. Add the seasoning.
  3. Let it simmer and periodically check the meats for doneness and remove them as they finish cooking. The pork should be done after about an hour, the beef can vary between 2-3 hours.
  4. After all the meat has removed, let it cool, then slice it. Adjust seasoning and add water to the broth pot if necessary.
  5. Make the aromatics & coloring then add it to the pot.
  6. Boil noodles according to package instructions.
  7. Assemble your bowl, and serve with herbs and veg on a side platter.
Red Coloring & Aromatics
  1. Sauté seeds in oil on medium heat until the seeds give up the bright red color, then remove the seeds.
  2. Add shallots and garlic, sauté until brown.
  3. Add all of this to the pot of broth for color.
Pork Blood (Huyet / Tiet)
  1. The easiest thing to do is just buy it already cooked and boil just to heat it up. If you use the raw type like we did for this recipe, cut into 1" cubes and boil for 30-45 minutes
Banana Flower
  1. Prepare a bowl of about 2 cups of water, mixed with the juice of 1 lemon.
  2. Thinly slice the banana flower and add to the water mixture to sit for about 30 minutes.
  3. Avoid adding little fronds (that look like mini bananas), removing them as you encounter them. They taste bitter!
Saté (spicy chile condiment)
  1. Weigh out the dried Thai chiles, then soak in just enough warm water to cover the chiles for 20 minutes. Drain the water.
  2. Add all sate ingredients to a pan on medium heat and stir continuously to brown, cook, and slightly reduce the chile paste, about 30-40 minutes. If at any point it becomes too dry, you can add more oil, up to 50% of the amount we started with. Taste and reseason with sugar or salt as desired. See photo for how the final product should look.
  3. Let cool and transfer to a sealed jar stored in the fridge . You can add ~2 tbsp of the final product to the soup pot for a boost in flavor and color, or simply and let each person add to their bowl to make it as spicy as they'd like!

Notes

  • The saté chili condiment recipe was added on 2/11/2021 and complements the soup’s spice.
  • Calorie content per bowl may be lower than listed since not all saté chili condiment is consumed per serving.

Nutrition Information

Serving 0g Calories 1276.7kcal (64%) Carbohydrates 61.37g (20%) Protein 89.95g (180%) Fat 73.1g (112%) Saturated Fat 20.9g (105%) Trans Fat 0.2g (10%) Cholesterol 330.02mg (110%) Sodium 4939.39mg (206%) Potassium 1181.93mg (25%) Fiber 2.55g (10%) Sugar 7.32g (15%) Vitamin A 671.03IU (13%) Vitamin C 18.37mg (20%) Calcium 143.14mg (14%) Iron 11.91mg (66%)

Nutrition Facts

Serving: 8 bowls

Amount Per Serving

Calories 12767

% Daily Value*

Serving 0g
Calories 1276.7kcal 64%
Carbohydrates 61.37g 20%
Protein 89.95g 180%
Fat 73.1g 112%
Saturated Fat 20.9g 105%
Trans Fat 0.2g 10%
Cholesterol 330.02mg 110%
Sodium 4939.39mg 206%
Potassium 1181.93mg 25%
Fiber 2.55g 10%
Sugar 7.32g 15%
Vitamin A 671.03IU 13%
Vitamin C 18.37mg 20%
Calcium 143.14mg 14%
Iron 11.91mg 66%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.