Easy Japanese Ramen Noodles recipe uses store bought soup and noodles, but the toppings are homemade. With a little bit of effort to make good toppings, you can enjoy great ramen almost like the ones you order at restaurants.
The recipe explains how to make ramen with 3 different toppings.
- 1 sachet of ramen soup (note 1)
- 80-100 g (2.8-3.5oz) fresh thin egg noodles (note 2)
- 2 slices of thinly sliced yakibuta (braised pork) (note 3)
- 1 boiled egg halved (note 4)
- 2 tbsp chopped shallots (scallions)
- 10 cm x 10cm (4" x 4") nori (roasted seaweed sheet)
- 70 g (2.5oz) thinly sliced pork
- 1 shiitake mushroom, thinly sliced
- 30 g (1.1oz) carrot halved vertically then diagonally sliced thinly
- 2 cups of cabbage chopped into bite size pieces
- 1 cup bean sprouts
- 4-5 small buck choy leaves (or 2-3 large leaves cut in half)
- 1 shallot (scallions) cut into 5cm (2”) pieces
- 20 g (0.9oz) garlic chives cut into 5cm (2”) pieces
- 1 tsp oil
- Happosai sauce ingredients per Happosai (Combination Stir Fry) recipe (1 person worth)
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1 tsp minced ginger
- 100 g (3.5oz) pork thinly sliced into bite size pieces
- 200 g (7oz) beansprouts
- 30 g (1.1) garlic chives
- 1 tsp Chinese style chicken stock powder (note 6)
- ½ tsp soy sauce
- 1½ tsp chilli bean sauce
- ½ tbsp corn flour (corn starch) diluted in 1 tbsp water
- Rayu (chilli oil)
- Ground pepper
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Open the ramen soup sachet (note 7) and squeeze the contents out into a serving bowl.
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Boil about 600ml (20oz) water in a kettle.
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Boil water in a small to medium pot to cook noodles. If noodles are stack together, untangle as much as possible then add to the boiling water.
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Using chopsticks or a fork, untangle the noodles to separate individual strands. If water starts bubbling and reaching to the rim of the pot, reduce the heat to medium high to medium so that the water is still boiling rapidly but does not overflow.
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Cook for about 30 seconds to 1 minute and drain (note 8).
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Add 400-500ml (13.5 – 16.9oz) of boiling water (note 9) from the kettle to the serving bowl with the condensed soup, then transfer the noodles into the bowl. Tidy up the noodles to submerge in the soup.
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Place topping of your choice and serve immediately with chilli oil and ground pepper if you are using.
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Make sure that the yakibuta and boiled egg are at room temperature. If direct from the fridge, warm up for 15 seconds or so in the microwave.
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Place yakibuta slices and egg gently on the surface of the ramen, add the challots, then slide the nori diagonally along the inside wall of the bowl.
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Start cooking when the pot of water for the noodles is placed on the cooktop to heat.
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Follow the instructions in the Happosai (Combination Stir Fry) recipe using the ingredients listed above.
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If topping is cooked before noodles are ready, turn off the heat and reheat when noodles are ready.
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Pour the topping over the noodles in the serving bowl.
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Start cooking when the small bubbles in the pot of water for the noodles start appearing.
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Heat sesame oil in a wok or a frypan over high heat. Add garlic and ginger and stir fry for 15 seconds.
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Add meat and cook for about a minute until the meat is almost cooked through.
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Add bean sprouts and garlic chives, stir for about 30 seconds to 1 minute.
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Add chicken stock powder, soy sauce, chilli bean paste and stir well so that the flavours mix evenly.
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Add cornflour/corn starch with water and mix quickly to evenly thicken the topping.
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Pour over the noodles in the bowl.
1. You can buy a sachet of condensed ramen soup stock at Japanese grocery stores. Any brand, any flavour is OK. Please see the sample photos in the blog.
2. My preference is fresh thin egg noodles but you could buy dried egg noodles if you wish. Hokkein noodles and Chow Mein noodles are not suited for this.
3. Please refer to my Yakibuta (Braised Pork) recipe. I often freeze sliced yakibuta when made and use them for ramen later.
Alternatively, you could buy char siu (Chinese barbequed pork) from a Chinese shop but the taste of pork slices will be quite different as char siu is very sweet.
4. I like the egg yolk to be slightly runny but it is up to you. I also marinate boiled eggs after making yakibuta so that the outside of the eggs have brown colour and soy sauce flavour. I touched on making marinated eggs in my post, Yakibuta (Braised Pork).
5. The meat and vegetables for tanmen can vary and you don’t need to have so many different kinds of vegetables. I sometimes make toppings with only vegetables or instead of using meat, I use tofu puffs.
6. You can buy a tin of Chinese style chicken stock powder at Asian grocery stores. Please see the photo of the stock powder in my blog, Happosai (Combination Stir Fry).
7. You don’t need to use scissors to open the sachet. It can cut anywhere on one side of the sachet, usually the long side where there are Japanese writings (which says you can cut anywhere from this side). If the sachet is not designed this way, there should be a slit on the side from which you can open the sachet.
8. If timing of cooking noodles and stir frying is difficult, try to finish cooking noodles last. Nothing is worse than having soggy noodles by leaving them in the sieves waiting to be placed in the soup, or sitting in the soup waiting for the toppings.
To cook them al dente, my fresh thin egg noodles takes just 30 seconds after the water starts boiling again. Depending on the thickness of the noodles and brands, it might take longer.
If you are using dried noodles, it will take much longer to cook. Please follow the instructions on the package. Don't forget that the noodles are continued to be cooked in hot ramen soup so don't over cook in the boiling water.
9. The instruction on the sachet probably tells you to add 300ml (10.1oz) of boiling water but I find that it is too salty. Adjust the amount of boiling water to your liking.
10. PS: I should note that since this post, I posted a recipe for home-made Rame broth. If you'd rather make you own, here is the link: Home-made Ramen Broth Recipe.