My version of Ramen Broth is made from a combination of pork bones, chicken carcasses and bonito flakes. It takes a few hours to make but it is not very difficult. It can also be made in the slow cooker or pressure cooker.
This Home-made Ramen Broth Recipe is one of the most popular recipes on my blog. So, I decided to republish it with a video showing how to make a broth on the stove top.
I thought of publishing a tonkotsu (pork bones) ramen but making a tonkotsu ramen broth is an extremely time-consuming process, requiring the broth to be simmered for a minimum of 6-8 hours, preferably 14+ hours. So to start with, I am posting a ramen broth that takes much less time to cook but still has a bit of tonkotsu flavour. It’s a kind of hybrid tonkotsu soup.
What’s in My Ramen Broth
Real tonkotsu soup uses just pork leg bones. But I used chicken carcasses and pork soup bones (the neck and back bones cut into smaller pieces). You will need about 1 kg/2.2lb of pork bones and 1-1.25kg/2.2-2.6lb of chicken carcasses to make 4-6 servings of soup.
- Chicken carcasses
- Pork soup bones
- A whole onion
- A few stems of green onions (green part)
- A cube of ginger
- A couple of cloves of garlic
- Bonito flakes
I add bonito flakes towards the end to give additional umami to the soup stock.
Keys to A Good Ramen Broth
If you let the bones and the other ingredients simmer for a long time, you will be able to make a soup stock. But it’s not going to be a good and tasty broth because coagulated blood on the bones and other unwanted substances gets mixed into the broth, making it extremely cloudy and degrading the flavour.
The following are the 4 key points to remember when making a good ramen soup stock:
- Blanch the bones and clean them first before cooking the bones for a long time
- Remove the scum as much as possible while cooking
- Simmer gently
- Do not mix the bones vigorously while simmering.
How to make Home-made ramen broth
In essence, you simply boil all the ingredients for about 2 hours. However, a few extra steps before and while boiling the ingredients gives you a clear and tastier broth.
- Bring water in a very large pot to a boil (I used a 7.2L stock pot) and blanch all the bones.
- Drain and clean the bones under running water.
- Put the bones and all other ingredients, excluding bonito flakes, in the pot.
- Add 4L / 8.5pt water to the pot and bring it to a boil.
- Remove the scum and reduce the heat to simmer.
- Simmer for 2 hours with a lid on, allowing for a small ventilation.
- Put bonito flakes in a spice bag into the pot and simmer for a couple of minutes.
- Turn the heat off and collect the broth through a sieve.
You can also make a ramen broth using a slow cooker or a pressure cooker, although the clarity of the broth is not quite the same – the slow cooker method produces clearer broth while the broth made in pressure cooker is a bit cloudy. See the instructions in the recipe card.
Ramen Soup Flavouring (Tare)
There are no seasonings added to the soup stock. When you taste it, you only taste the flavour of bones and vegetables, with a touch of bonito flakes.
If you have watched how the ramen shop makes a bowl of ramen, you probably know this, but the ramen soup is made by mixing the flavouring base with the ramen soup stock.
Soy sauce flavouring base.
This flavouring base is called ‘tare’ (タレ). Pronounce it as /tare/, not ‘/teː/’ or’ /teə/’. ‘Tare’ is actually a generic word for sauces that are made of two or more seasonings mixed together. The ramen flavouring base is hence called ‘ramen no tare’ to be accurate, but when the context of discussion is clear people simply call it ‘tare’.
There are many different tare and some unique flavours developed by Japanese ramen shops but all of them are based on the three common soup flavourings – salt flavour, soy sauce flavour and miso flavour.
Ramen with the soup made from these base flavourings are called ‘shio ramen‘ (salt flavoured ramen), ‘shōyu ramen‘ (soy sauce flavoured ramen – today’s ramen) and ‘miso ramen‘ (miso flavoured ramen). See my home-made base flavourings below.
Even in making these flavourings, there are many variations. Since the soup stock does not have flavouring, the ‘tare’ needs to be quite salty and often contain some kind of umami. The ramen shops make every effort to create ramen ‘tare’ that are packed with umami and some of them take many days to make.
Simplest Soy Sauce Flavour
The easiest of my three tare is the soy sauce flavour and I have included short instructions for making shōyu ramen in today’s recipe.
My soy sauce flavouring is made with just konbu (kelp) infused soy sauce (konbu soy sauce) and mirin. Soy sauce has umami in itself, but I thought adding konbu would boost the amount of umami. Simply add the Home-made Ramen Soup to the soy sauce flavouring base to make a shōyu ramen soup (photo above).
The method of making konbu infused soy sauce is in note 3 of the recipe below. You can find recipes for salt flavouring and miso flavouring in Home-made Shio Ramen and Home-Made Miso Ramen recipes. Today’s recipe is all about the ramen soup stock, but I added short instructions to make shōyu ramen (soy sauce flavoured ramen) using this soup stock.
My Home-made Ramen Broth is not as rich as tonkotsu ramen soup stock. It is surprisingly light, but full of flavour. I hope you try this.
Yumiko
Watch How To Make It
My version of Ramen Broth is made from a combination of pork bones, chicken carcasses and bonito flakes. It takes a few hours to make but it is not very difficult. You just have to be patient and pay attention to detail. (Watch the Video)
To make a ramen soup, you will need to add a flavour base (see the ingredients Syōyu Ramen Soup).
See notes 8 and 9 for making Ramen Broth using a slow cooker or a pressure cooker.
I also added instructions for how to make a soy sauce flavouring base to make shōyu ramen (soy sauce flavoured) soup. Also check out my Shio Ramen and Miso Ramen recipes.
Don't forget to see the section 'MEAL IDEAS' below the recipe card! It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and this recipe that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you.
- 1-1.2kg/2.2-2.6lb chicken carcasses (about 3 carcasses in total)
- 1kg/2.2lb pork soup bones (note 1)
- 1 onion , peeled
- 3 green onions green part only
- 3cm/1¼” cube ginger , cut in half
- 2 cloves garlic
- 10g/0.4oz bonito flakes in a spice bag (note 2)
- 2 tbsp konbu soy sauce (note 3)
- 1½ tsp mirin
- salt to adjust flavour
- 300-400ml/10-13.5oz Ramen Broth in this recipe , boiling hot
- 80-100g/2.8-3.5oz fresh thin egg noodles (note 4)
- 2-3 slices Yakibuta (Braised Pork)
- 1 Ramen Egg (Ajitsuke Tamago) , halved
- 2 tbsp shiraga negi finely julienned green onion, curled in iced water
- 1 10cm2/4"2 yakinori (roasted seaweed sheet)
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Bring 4L/8.5pt of water in a pot to a boil. Add chicken and pork bones and boil for 10 minutes. A lot of scum will surface.
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Drain and wash the bones under running cold water one by one, removing coagulated blood, guts along the spine of the chicken and other brown dirty bits.
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Add the cleaned bones and the rest of the Ramen Broth ingredients, excluding bonito flakes, to a large pot with 4L/8.5pt water, and bring it to a boil.
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When scum surfaces, occasionally scoop it off gently using a ladle (note 5). Do not mix the broth with the ladle when removing the scum as it will cause the broth to become cloudy.
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After removing the scum 4-5 times, turn down the heat to simmer gently.
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While simmering, remove scum a few more times in the beginning if required.
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Simmer for 2 hours with a lid on but allowing for slight ventilation. Then add a bag of bonito flakes. Simmer for a couple of minutes.
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Turn the heat off. Put the broth through a sieve and collect only the liquid.
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Makes about 1.6L / 3.4pt of soup (note 6).
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Put konbu soy sauce and mirin in a serving bowl.
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Boil water in a saucepan, and cook noodles and drain very well.
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Add Ramen Broth to the bowl and mix. Taste test the soup and adjust with salt.
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Add the noodles. Place sliced Yakibuta, Ramen Eggs, and shraga negi on top and slide a yaki nori on the side of the bowl. Serve immediately.
1. My soup bones were back bones chopped into small pieces. If you have pork leg bones, that’s fine too. Ask the butcher to chop them in half.
2. Spice bags are usually made with muslin. If you have a piece of muslin, you can wrap bonito flakes in the muslin and tie the edges to make a bag just like bouquet garnis.
At Japanese grocery stores, you can also buy a pack of disposable dashi stock bags in which you can stuff bonito flakes and seal (see the photo below).
Alternatively, you can use a store-bought granular bonito dashi pack as long as it does not contain anything other than bonito flakes.
3. How to make konbu soy sauce (4 servings):
Cut 10cm x 5cm/ 4” x 2” konbu into about a dozen small pieces.
Add the konbu pieces and 120ml/4.1oz soy sauce in a jar.
Leave it in the fridge overnight up to 1 week.
If you don't have konbu, just use the same amount of soy sauce.
You can use konbu soy sauce in place of pouring soy sauce to the dishes, e.g. Chilled Tofu, Spinach Ohitashi Salad, Japanese Okura with Bonito Flakes.
4. Time to cook noodles varies depending on the type of noodles. You may also change the duration if you prefer the noodles to be firmer or softer. Follow the instructions on the pack as a guideline.
5. Instead of a ladle, you can use a flat sieve with fine mesh like this.
6. Depending on the diameter of the pot and the temperature of the cooktop, the amount of the broth you get varies.
If the water evaporates too fast, add boiling water to increase the quantity. If too much soup stock is remaining, cook further to reduce the quantity.
7. The topping of shōyu ramen is based on my recipe, Easy Japanese Rame Noodles. You can of course change the toppings to your favourites.
8. Making Ramen Broth using a slow cooker:
- After step 2, add bones, vegetables, and water to a slow cooker. You may not be able to add 4L/8.5pt of water if the slow cooker is not large. Add as much as possible and ensure that bones are submerged in the water. You can place the pork bones inside the chicken carcass. Alternatively, break the chicken carcass into smaller pieces.
- Set the slow cooker to low for 10 hours (preferred) or high for 6 hours. Because the broth is cooked slowly at low temperature, there should be hardly any scum.
- Put the broth through a sieve and collect only the liquid into a large pot.
- Simmer for 15 minutes or so to reduce the liquid to 1.6L/3.4pt. If there is not enough broth, add water to make it 1.6L/3.4pt.
- Add a bag of bonito flakes to the pot and simmer for a couple of minutes, then remove the bonito flakes.
9. Making Ramen Broth using a pressure cooker:
- After step 2, add bones, vegetables, and water to a pressure cooker. You may not be able to add 4L/8.5pt of water if the pressure cooker is not large. I could add 3L/6.3pt.
- Follow the steps 4 & 5, then put the lid on over high heat.
- Pressure cook for 80 minutes. Turn the heat off and leave until the steam has naturally subsided.
- Put the broth through a sieve and collect only the liquid into a pot.
- If the liquid is more than 1.6L / 3.4pt, boil and reduce the quantity. If not enough broth, add water.
- Add a bag of bonito flakes to the pot and simmer for a couple of minutes, then remove the bonito flakes.
10. Ramen Broth can keep for a week or so in the fridge as long as it is brought to a boil every day and quickly cooled down, then place it in the fridge. You can also freeze the broth. It is more convenient to divide the broth into a serving size and freeze.
Originally published in October 2018, improved contents and added video in January 2022.
Meal Ideas
A typical Japanese meal consists of a main dish, a couple of side dishes, a soup and rice. I try to come up with a combination of dishes with a variety of flavours, colours, textures and make-ahead dishes.
When I order a ramen at a ramen shop, I always order a plate of gyoza. However, it is quite a challenge to serve both ramen and gyoza at the same time at home, since they both have to be served immediately while hot. If it is a challenge for you, I’d recommend Shumai (Steamed Dumpling) to go with the ramen instead. Shūmai can be reheated in a microwave.
- Main: Shōyu Ramen – today’s recipe Home-made Ramen Soup Recipe
- Side dish 1: Japanese GYOZA – from Nagi’s post in RecipeTin Eats, make ahead dumplings and cook when serving, or Shumai – make ahead dumplings and steam when serving
- Side dish 2: Scrmbled Tofu (Iri Dofu) – make ahead
- Salad: Tataki Kyuri (Smashed Cucumber Salad)
I’m sorry, I followed this recipe exactly as posted. It has…..no flavor. I was very exact in following the instructions. It smelled fantastic, but upon tasting it it tastes like water with a slightly fishy smell from the bonito. Is this normal? Our plan was to eat it as is but we will be adding the konbu to give it flavor to make it enjoyable. Otherwise it would be flavorless.
Hi Sebastian, you must be using only the Ramen Broth. This is meant to be mixed into the flavour base, i.e. Shōyu Ramen Broth. As mentioned in the post, ramen soup is made by mixing mixing the flavouring base with the ramen soup stock. In this recipe you need to mix Sh1ōyu Ramen Broth with Ramen Broth.
Thanks for the comment. I will add clarifications to the recipe.
Hi! I was curious, is there any benefit to simmering the bones longer, or do they start to break down if you keep it going too long?
I only ask because I work from home and thought maybe I could check on it over the course of the day.
Thank you!
Hi Travis, you can simmer longer and the soup will become whitish. Some professional ramen shops cook bones for 12-15 hours until the bones break down.
I followed this recipe thank you so much I’m having so much fun making this ramen broth. I have a question does people still eat the seaweed or the onion after the straining or you just tossed it to trash ?
🙂 i always wonder if I can just eat the seaweed kelp I put for base flavor
Hi Gilang, not many people do eat them after using them, but I eat the kelp. I sometimes just munch them as a snack, or freeze them and when I collected sufficient amount of kelp, I use them in a dish such as Konbu Seaweed Salad with Cucumber.
I can’t see why you can’t eat the onion either, but you probably need to add some flavours.
Just wanted to say keep up the great work okaasan!
I see a lot of similarities with my family. We came to Sydney in 1990, settled in North shore when I was a little boy. Had Korean food, grew up in a Korean way. My mother has always been a great cook and now I’m bothering her to pass her “legacy” down to me as I enjoy cooking and I truly believe her food is the best. I know for sure I will miss them so much one day so you are doing Nagi san a big favour!
I will always look here for Japanese recipes. I’m sure this is where Nagi san will look them up as well 😀👍
Hi JSK, thank you. It is true that all my children comes to my website when they want to cook Japanese dishes. Your mum can also start a recipe blog!
Hello, can you post the tonkotsu ramen recipe or share in the comment how you make it? I would very much appreciate it 🙂 Thank you in advance
Hi Anna, tonkotsu ramen is one of the recipes that I would like to post. I will definitely post it sometime in future.
In the sentence “Real tonkotsu soup uses just pork leg bones. But I used chicken carcases and pork soup bones” you are missing one “s” in the word “carcasses”. I am only mentioning this because I suspect you are a perfectionist, and you would rather have people point things out so you can correct them. I am not trying to be negative in anyway – I think you are a self-made superstar, and that is absolutely the best kind!
I love your website Recipe Tin Eats, and you have become my go-to source for lots of different styles. I just found your Japanese recipe site, and I am super excited to try a variety of dishes. How about a “curry from scratch” recipe?
A fan in California!
Hi Benjamin, thanks for pointing the typo out. I just corrected it.
I am Nagi’s mother, Yumiko, and this recipe is in my blog site RecipeTin Japan. I know some people get confused (understandably). Unlike Nagi, English is not my native language and I sometimes make mistakes. But I am always open for feedback to correct errors and improve my English. So, thank you!
On behalf of Nagi, thanks for your nice comments about her site.
I have one curry recipe made from scratch – Home-made Japanese Vegetarian Curry.
Hi,
Going to make this but wondered about timing if I used an Instant Pot
Thanks
Hi Jo-Ann, I don’t have an Instant Pot, so I can not tell exactly how it will convert my recipe. But, according to one of the articles on internet, Instant Pot can work as a pressure cooker. If that is the case, my guess is that you could pretty much follow the instruction in the note section for pressure cooker. The article that I referred to is here. It includes how to pressure cook/slow cook in Instant Pot, which might help you work it out.
I hope it works out.