Almost Ramen From Scratch
Created this for my first Zoom Cooking Class, so it will always be near and dear to my heart.
It’s ‘almost ramen’ because it’s not authentic, and it’s ‘almost ramen from scratch’ because we’re taking some shortcuts; mainly in the broth, and we sure as hell ain’t makin no noods. Don’t get me wrong, I do love an intensive cooking project like broth making that takes upwards of 12 hours, but I also love instant gratification. So here’s how we’re cheating the system.
Aromatics. By sautéing our garlic, ginger, and scallion, and building the broth on top of that, we start layering and developing flavors. Chicken stock paste. Stock paste is packed with umami, salty flavors and is really going to give our broth a kick-in-the-tits kick start. Boil method. By boiling our chicken in the actual broth, we’re making a rapid stock…again, flavor layersss! Seasoning. Traditionally this is called a ‘tare,’ meaning ‘sauce’ in Japanese, and is the main flavor component in ramen. It’s a concentrated mixture and where the main salt and umami profiles come from.
The rest is pretty basic and just mirroring the flavors of actual ramen. Crunchy, raw jalapeño for spice, a jammy 6-minute egg for texture, and enoki mushrooms for a bite. On a scale of instant to authentic ramen, this definitely leans more toward authentic; but at the end of the day it’s truly just a phenomenal fucking chicken soup with Japanese flavors. And I’ll own that.
Almost Ramen From Scratch Recipe
Ingredients
BROTH!
- ½ Tbsp garlic, minced
- ½ Tbsp ginger, minced
- ½ Tbsp scallion, white part only, minced
- 1½ cups mushroom broth
- 1½ cups water
- 1 tsp chicken stock paste, NOT LIQUID STOCK, THIS IS CRUCIAL!!! *fave pictured below
- 1 chicken thigh
- olive oil
- kosher salt
6 MINUTE EGG!
- 1 egg
SEASONING!
- 2 Tbsp white miso paste
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp mirin
- 1 Tbsp dry sake
TOPPINGS!
- 1 – 3.5 oz pkg instant ramen noodles, disregard flavor/veggie packs
- 1 jalapeño, sliced
- enoki mushrooms
- toasted sesame seeds
- green part of scallion, chopped
- black pepper
Instructions
BROTH!
- In a medium pot over medium heat, sauté garlic, ginger, and scallion in a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Cook until just fragrant and soft…do not brown.
- Pour in mushroom broth, water, and paste over garlic mixture. This is going to be our base! Yahoo!!!
- Bring base to a boil and drop in whole chicken thigh. Reduce immediately to a simmer, cover, and cook for 20 minutes. When timer goes off, remove chicken from broth, let rest a couple minutes, then shred using 2 forks. Keep broth on a very low heat.
EGG!
- While chicken is cooking, bring a small pot of water to a boil. It should be enough water to submerge egg completely, but don't add egg yet!
- When water comes to a rolling boil, using a spoon, carefully lower in your egg and boil for exactly 6 minutes.
- While egg is cooking, fill a small bowl with ice water. When egg is done, use spoon to remove from hot water, and immediately plunge it into ice water and hold there until we're ready for toppings. LOL, the egg's a top.
SEASONING!
- In a small pot or pan: combine miso, soy, mirin, and sake. Keep over lowest heat to warm through. Stir every-so-often.
THE BUILD!!!
- Carefully spoon miso seasoning mix into broth, stirring and tasting, until desired flavor is achieved. I love umami saltiness, so I use like 98% of the seasoning…but you do you!
- After you're happy with the flavor, bring broth to a boil. Once boiling, drop instant noodles in and boil for 3 minutes, no matter what the package says.
- While noodles are boiling, carefully peel your eggs. Make sure to get the membrane, which then makes peeling a breeze! Cut in half lengthwise, being careful not to loose the jammy yolk!
- When noodles are done, carefully pour it all into your large bowl that you'll be eating from.
- Top with pulled chicken, scallion, jalapeño, raw enoki, toasted sesame seeds, and a sprinkling of black pepper. This look is perfect for your instagrammable pic, but then you'll want to mix it all up so the chicken can absorb the broth, the yolk can get incorporated, and the enoki can heat through! WOOOOOOOAH BABY!!! Fuck it UP!
MY PREFERRED CHICKEN STOCK PASTE:
EQUIPMENT:
The equipment section above contains affiliate links to products I recommend, many of which I love and use daily!
My go-to ramen recipe!!! Just stocked up on all my ingredients for this new year, same ramen obsession!
OMG I remember creating this recipe for your Zoom cooking class!!! So happy to see it’s still in rotation 🙂
My go-to ramen recipe! So solid!!
YAY!!! THANK YOU! 🙂
Took a Zoom cooking class and created this masterpiece! So tasty! Santo’s guidance was awesome! He had great substitutions for those of us who didn’t follow the rules and get all the ingredients! Wonderful class! Wonderful chef! Wonderful recipe!
HAD SO MUCH FUN WITH YOU ALL IN THIS CLASS! THANK YOU FOR YOUR KIND WORDS AND I HOPE WE CAN DO IT AGAIN!