Spicy and Creamy Chicken Ramen
An ambitious from-scratch Japanese chicken ramen: a whole chicken is broken down for a rich 5-hour chicken paitan-style broth, with homemade shio (and optional spicy) tare, chicken meatballs, crispy chicken chashu and classic ramen toppings.
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 (broth) |
| 25 cups | 6 l | cold water (broth) |
| 2 tbsp | 30 ml | chicken powder |
| 1 oz | 28 g | kombu (dried kelp) |
| 1 | garlic bulb, halved (tare) | |
| 2 oz | 57 g | ginger, sliced (tare) |
| 1 | large leek, white part (tare) | |
| 4 | dried shiitake mushrooms | |
| 1 cup | 240 ml | sake (tare) |
| 3 cups | 720 ml | cold water (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 tbsp | 30 ml | unsalted butter (meatballs) |
| 1 clove | garlic, grated (meatballs) | |
| 1 tsp | 5 ml | ginger, grated (meatballs) |
| 1 tbsp | 15 ml | cornstarch |
| 1 tbsp | 15 ml | soy sauce (meatballs) |
| 1 tbsp | 15 ml | mirin (meatballs) |
| 2 tbsp | 30 ml | ground sesame seeds |
| 1 | egg | |
| 1/8 tsp | 0.6 ml | black pepper |
| 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
1-5. Break down the whole chicken: detach the wings at the joint; remove the legs (slice skin between breast and drumstick, pop and cut through the thigh joint); debone the breast along the breastbone and remove the skin; debone the leg and thigh, keeping the leg meat wrapped and refrigerated for the chashu; cut through the rib cage and shoulder joints to separate breast bones from back bones. 6. Put all the bones, chicken feet and extra back bones in a large pot. Cover with cold water, soak 30 minutes, drain and rinse, then drain completely. 7. Add 25 cups water and 1 cup sake, bring to a boil over high heat and skim off all the scum and foam (about 10-15 minutes). 8. Reduce to medium, cover and simmer 5 hours; after 3 hours start smashing the bones with a potato masher every 30 minutes. 9. Make the tare: put all tare ingredients in a pot, hard-boil 10 minutes, reduce to medium, cover and simmer 1 hour. Cool slightly, strain through a fine strainer squeezing out the juices — this is shio (salt) tare. For spicy tare, stir 4 tbsp gochugaru into half of it. 10-11. Make the meatballs: pulse chicken breast with butter in a food processor 8-10 times until finely ground. Transfer to a bowl and mix with garlic, ginger, cornstarch, soy sauce, mirin, black pepper, egg and ground sesame seeds until tacky. Cover and refrigerate. 12. With 30 minutes of broth cooking left, smash the bones hard, add 1 more cup water and the chicken powder, cover and finish. 13. Strain the broth twice (second time through a fine strainer), return to a clean pot and bring back to a boil. 14. When boiling hard, drop in meatballs scooped with a melon baller; stir so they don't stick. When it boils again, reduce to low and keep hot. 15. High-broil the chicken leg meat skin side up on the medium rack about 10 minutes until fully cooked; slice into chashu. 16. Blanch the napa cabbage in salted boiling water, then cook the ramen noodles in the same water per package directions; drain. 17. Pour 1/4 to 1/3 cup tare and hot chicken broth into serving bowls, add noodles and stir to coat. 18. Top with the blanched napa cabbage, meatballs, chicken chashu, green onions, ground sesame seeds and ramen egg. Add yuzu kosho or chili oil to taste. Enjoy!