Brisket in an instant pot

The primary job of a great soup, other than providing tons of flavor, is to give you that warm, stick-to-your-ribs feeling. Few soups do brisket in an instant pot as well as a heaping bowl of pho.

The pressure created by a traditional pressure cooker or an Instant Pot helps to drastically speed up the process of pulling the flavors and magic from the beef bones and into your soup. In fact, once pressurized, the soup will be done in just an hour. It may not be exactly like what you’d get after hours of simmering, but we are very happy with this shortcut method. While it’s totally fine to toss in your onion and ginger as is, in our research we found that many Vietnamese chefs will char their onion and ginger before peeling and adding them to the pot. This helps to provide a slightly smoky flavor to the broth. To do this simply half your onion and char it over a medium high flame of your stove, right on the grate of your stove, for 3 to 4 minutes until the skin is blackened.

If you have made bone broth or stock before, you’ve probably spent time skimming scum from the top of your pot. To achieve maximum clarity in your broth, after straining it through a fine mesh strainer, move it to an airtight container and let it cool in a fridge for 4 hours or overnight. When you take it out of the fridge there should be a layer of fat sitting on top of the soup. Simply discard that layer before reheating and you’ll have an even clearer broth.