Creamy Chicken Ramen
A from-scratch Japanese chicken ramen with a rich 5-hour chicken paitan broth, homemade shio tare, chicken meatballs and crispy chicken chashu.
🍳 Cook: 300 min
Ingredients
| 4 to 5 lb | 1.8–2.3 kg | whole chicken (organic/cage free) |
| 3 lb | 1.4 kg | chicken feet |
| 1 lb | 455 g | chicken back bones |
| 1 cup | 240 ml | sake |
| 25 cups | 6 l | cold water |
| 2 Tbsp | 30 ml | chicken powder |
| 1 oz | 28 g | kombu (dried kelp) |
| 1 | garlic bulb, halved | |
| 2 oz | 57 g | ginger, sliced |
| 1 | leek (white part), halved and washed | |
| 4 | dried shiitake mushrooms | |
| 3 cups | 720 ml | cold water (for tare) |
| 2 Tbsp | 30 ml | sea salt |
| 2 Tbsp | 30 ml | sugar |
| 4 to 8 Tbsp | 60–120 ml | gochugaru (Korean red pepper flakes), optional |
| 2 | chicken breast (for meatballs), skinned | |
| 2 Tbsp | 30 ml | unsalted butter |
| 1 clove | garlic, grated | |
| 1 tsp | 5 ml | ginger, grated |
| 1 Tbsp | 15 ml | cornstarch |
| 1 Tbsp | 15 ml | soy sauce |
| 1 Tbsp | 15 ml | mirin |
| 2 Tbsp | 30 ml | ground sesame seeds |
| 1 | egg | |
| ⅛ tsp | 0.6 ml | black pepper |
| 2 | chicken thighs and leg meat with skin (for chashu) | |
| 10 oz | 285 g | napa cabbage, bite size |
| 2 portions | ramen noodles | |
| 4 | green onions, chopped | |
| 2 | ramen eggs | |
| — | yuzu kosho, optional | |
| — | chili oil, optional |
Instructions
- Cut up the whole chicken: with the backbone up, pull each wing away and cut through the joint to detach the wings.
- Breast side up, pull each leg away, slice through the skin between breast and drumstick, bend each thighbone until it pops and detach the legs.
- Debone the breast: cut lengthwise into the highest part of the breast, cut along one side of the breastbone and separate the meat; repeat on the other side. Remove skin and set aside.
- Debone the leg and thigh (skin side down): slice the middle open, slice along both sides of the bones, then cut outwards to detach. Detach the joint between thigh and leg bone without cutting through. Wrap the leg meat and refrigerate.
- Cut through the rib cage and shoulder joints to separate breast bones from back bones.
- Place all bones, wings, chicken feet and extra backbones in a large pot. Cover with cold water and soak 30 minutes. Drain, rinse and drain completely.
- Pour in 25 cups water and 1 cup sake, bring to a boil over high heat and skim off all the scum (about 10-15 minutes).
- Reduce to medium, cover and simmer 5 hours. After 3 hours, smash the bones with a potato masher every 30 minutes.
- Make the tare: place all tare ingredients (kombu, garlic, ginger, leek white, shiitake, sake, water, salt, sugar) in a pot, boil hard 10 minutes, then reduce to medium, cover and simmer 1 hour. Strain and squeeze out the juice. This is shio tare; for spicy tare add 4 Tbsp gochugaru to half of it.
- Chicken meatballs: pulse chicken breast and butter in a food processor 8-10 times until finely ground.
- Transfer to a bowl and mix in garlic, ginger, cornstarch, soy sauce, mirin, black pepper, egg and ground sesame seeds until tacky. Cover and refrigerate.
- With 30 minutes left, smash the bones hard, add 1 more cup of water and the chicken powder, cover and finish cooking.
- Strain the broth twice (finish with a fine strainer). Return to a clean pot and bring back to a boil.
- Drop the meatballs into the boiling broth with a melon scoop, stir so they don't stick, then reduce to low and keep hot.
- High-broil the chicken leg meat (skin up) on the medium rack about 10 minutes until cooked. Slice this chashu and set aside.
- Blanch napa cabbage in salted boiling water, then cook the ramen noodles in the same water per package directions. Drain.
- Add ¼-⅓ cup tare and hot chicken broth to each serving bowl. Add noodles and stir to coat.
- Top with the blanched napa cabbage, meatballs, chicken chashu, green onions, ground sesame seeds and a ramen egg. Add yuzu kosho or chili oil to taste. Enjoy!