Vietnamese beef stew, or bò kho, is a fragrantly spiced version of a familiar dish. It can be served with rice, a fresh baguette or noodles (my favorite method of eating them) and makes for a really easy and warming Vietnamese noodle soup dish.
Traditionally this stew is slow-simmered on the stove until the beef is fork tender. I like to cook this in a crockpot for an easy, hands-off approach. However, I still brown the meat on the stove to lock in the flavor before slow cooking. I find that if you just dump everything in a slow cooker first the stew comes out a little flat tasting. I'll include instructions for stove top cooking if you don't have a slow cooker.
Beef choices for bò kho
My all time favorite cut of beef for this dish is beef rough flank or beef outside flank. It's an extremely tough cut of meat with tons of silver skin and tendon. Since this dish is slow simmered/cooked in a slow cooker, all that sinew will become tender and provide a delicious textural contrast to the fall apart beef.
If you can't find rough flank or you don't like tendon, feel free to use stew meat or chuck in its place. You will need to adjust the amount of time you cook the stew for, however. Stew meat/chuck will cook faster than this flank. I highly recommend you try the rough flank!
Crock pot Vietnamese beef stew (bò kho): Step-by-step instructions
You will need some bò kho bouillon for the beef marinade. My favorite brand is Bao Long, seen below. You can get this at any Asian grocery store or on Amazon!
Dissolve a packet of this bouillon in some water and add it to your chopped beef pieces along with garlic, shallot, salt, pepper, fish sauce and ground lemongrass. You can grind your own lemongrass in a food processor or buy it frozen from an Asian grocery store. Let the meat marinate for at least least half an hour or up to 24 hours.
When you're ready to cook the bò kho, add all of the beef and marinade into a heavy bottomed pot on high heat and sear. Add tomato paste to the beef at this point and cook until the liquid has reduced.
Once the liquid has reduced, add your meat cubes to your slow cooker and add just enough water to submerge the beef. You don't want the stew to be too watery.
Cook the stew on high for 4-6 hours until the beef is fork tender. Add peeled and chopped carrots during the last half hour of cooking.
I like to eat this with pho noodles. The starchy noodles thicken the broth and make it even more rich and stew-like. If we don't have noodles, my family will also dip fresh baguette into the broth.
Cooking bò kho on the stove top
If you don't have a slow cooker or prefer to cook this on the stove, follow all of the same steps up until you transfer the meat into the slow cooker. Add water directly into the pan instead and bring it to a boil before reducing to a light simmer.
You'll need to add more water as
Crock Pot Vietnamese Beef Stew (Bò Kho)
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs beef rough flank or beef chuck/stew meat, cubed
- 3 tablespoon finely chopped lemongrass
- ½ tablespoon fish sauce
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 small shallot, minced
- 1 package bo kho bouillon, dissolved into a paste with a about 1 tablespoon of water
- 1 tablespoon neutral oil
- 2 tablespoon tomato paste
- 3 cups water
- 4 carrots, peeled and chopped into 1 inch segments
Instructions
- Mix beef with lemongrass, fish sauce, salt, black pepper, garlic, shallot and bouillon. Let marinate for at least 30 min or overnight up to 24 hours
- Heat oil in a large heavy bottomed pot on medium high heat. Add beef (along with the marinade) and brown.
- Add tomato paste and continue to cook beef until liquid has reduced.
- Transfer beef to slow cooker and add just enough water to cover the beef (for me, this was three cups)
- Cook on high heat for 4-6 hours until beef is tender. This will take longer if you're using rough flank and shorter for other cuts of beef.
- During the last 30 minutes of cooking, add chopped carrots
- Serve with rice, bread or noodles
Jonathan Penner says
I’d like to make this for my work crew (7 guys). Would doubling be sufficient or triple? If so can all the ingredients be doubled/tripled or would that be too strong with the bouillon?
Suzanne Nuyen says
I think doubling it would be fine! If you're worried about the flavor being too strong, I'd start with 1.5x the bouillon, and add more bouillon cubes to taste. Depending on your brand of bouillon or how old it is, it might be more or less salty than mine. Same with the fish sauce. So it's always easier to start with a little less than you think you need and add more if you need it.
M says
This was a big hit for my daughter's party. I'm not Vietnamese but a lot of my guests were and they were very impressed!
Joe says
Do you scrape all the marinade from the pot or just pick out the beef when you transfer to the slow cooker?
Suzanne Nuyen says
Hi Joe! I scrape all of the marinade. That’s what’s going to flavor the broth!
Anonymous says
Hi,
I remember my mum toasting star anise and then grinding it up and using that to marinade - can’t really remember what else she put in, but anise was the most dominant flavour. Anyway, have you tried doing it that way?
Thanks,
Thanh
Suzanne Nuyen says
Hi Thanh,
Star anise should already be in the bouillon. You can always toast and grind up extra anise if you enjoy that flavor, or purchase a dry spice blend to add to the marinade along with the bouillon!
Best,
Suzanne
Anonymous says
Can you try chicken ??? Husband is Indian doesn’t eat beef but I’ve been wanting to help him try some Vietnamese dish
Suzanne Nuyen says
I have not tried this dish with chicken, so I can't say for sure how it would turn out. If you'd like to use chicken, I recommend using bone-in chicken instead of boneless, and cooking for a shorter amount of time, as the beef used in this recipe is tougher than chicken is.
I would also recommend you try a recipe that is already a chicken-based dish for best results. I suggest my Ca Ri Ga (Chicken Curry) or Chicken and Bean Stew recipe!
Christina says
What size is your crockpot? Mine is 6 qt
Suzanne Nuyen says
Hi Christina! Mine is 4 qts but you can still make this in a bigger crock pot.
Liah says
Hi Suzanne! I’m curious to know how many cubes of buillon do I use?
Suzanne Nuyen says
Hi Liah! One pack of bouillon has four cubes in it, and I use all four for that amount of beef. You can easily double or halve it to your liking, but I recommend starting out with that amount first to see how you like it!.
Trang Vu says
Hi! I don't think I saw approximately how many potions this recipe will yield? I'm thinking of making a big batch and freezing so just wanted to know for measuring ingredients. Thanks!
Suzanne Nuyen says
Hi Trang! This recipe will make about 4-6 bowls depending on how big of an appetite you have! I'll edit the recipe to reflect serving sizes. You can definitely easily double this up and freeze it.
Jack S says
This stew is excellent, especially on a colder winter day when you have plans to binge watch TV or read a long book. I'd recommend you cook it in large portions so you're not disappointed when it's gone too quickly.
Suzanne Nuyen says
Thanks for being a great taste tester! This recipe can be easily scaled up or down depending on how much you want to make, and it also freezes extremely well!