EASY Real Tonkotsu Ramen Recipe!
You guys waited long enough!! It’s finally here, my EASY. REAL. Tonkotsu Ramen recipe!
Today, I will share a ramen recipe that will change not only your life but the ramen world… This easy tonkotsu recipe is that special!!
Tonkotsu is a type of ramen noodles, originated in Fukuoka, Japan. Tonkotsu means “pig bone” so you can guess what’s the base of the ramen. Tonkotsu is known for its own special rich, creamy white broth that is packed with flavors.
I have many different ramen recipes and every recipe I shared how to make tare (sauce for ramen) to goes with it. I’ve showed you shoyu tare, miso tare and shio tare. So check out down below my previous ramen recipes for more inspirations!
I’m SO excited to share this recipe, so let’s jump into it!!
You won’t believe how easy and quick it is but there’s no missing flavor, taste or texture. Trust me, if you make this recipe once, you won’t be able to stop making this ramen!!
Let’s get started!
The first step might scare you but this is the top secret of this easy tonkotsu ramen recipe. You must trust me and follow every single step and ingredients for this recipe for the REAL Tonkotsu ramen’s taste & texture.
Place 3 to 4 oz pork fat in a medium pot with enough water to cover pork. Bring it to boil over medium high then cook pork belly 5 to 7 minutes or until fully cooked.
Pork fat & collagen are the key ingredients for the rich creamy broth. But the traditional way of making tonkotsu broth will take a day if it’s not days. Cook a small amount of pork fat and blend with broth will make tonkotsu broth possible in 10 minutes. Actually some ramen restaurants do this technique plus in their pork bone broth.
We fully cook the pork fat because it will be so much easier to blend into soup in a blender.
Cut the pork fat into small chunks and place in a blender. Add 2 cups chicken stock and blend high speed until smooth, about 1 to 2 minutes. There shouldn’t be chunks of pork.
Pour the pork fat and chicken stock mixture back to now-empty-pot (rinse the pot quickly then use).
Do you see how milky and creamy this broth already is?! Adding fat and whipping/blending like this will promise you the rich creamy tonkotsu broth. It’s like magic! 🔮
Now, add in 2 cups dashi stock (you can substitute with chicken stock) and 2 cups unsweetened soy milk. Stir and bring it to simmer over medium heat.
Also, bring another pot of water to boil to cook our noodles and toppings.
Meanwhile, let’s prepare ramen toppings.
Chop 1 green onion per serving. Slice a few black fungus into long thin strips. Prepare 1 to 2 slices (per serving) of chashu by searing on a dry pan over high heat, torch or high broil for 3 to 5 minutes.
When the water is boiling, blanch handful bean sprouts for 1 minute then remove from the water. Drain well and set aside. Next, blanch the black fungus for 1 minutes then remove from the water. Drain well and set aside. Finally, start cooking ramen noodles. Fresh or frozen one will take only 2 minutes. Instant ramen noodles will take 3 to 4 minutes.
While noodles are cooking, add 3 to 4 tbsp tsuyu (Japanese soup base sauce) or chashu tare in a serving bowl. Carefully, pour 1 1/2 cup of broth we made earlier. Mix well. Drain cooked noodles well and add to bowl. Stir noodles to coat evenly with broth and arrange.
Arrange toppings on top of noodles – beansprouts, black fungus, green onions, chashu and ramen egg. Lastly, to your taste, grate in a clove of garlic. This sharp spicy garlic will perfectly balance this thick rich broth.
Enjoy!
EASY Real Tonkotsu Ramen
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
For the Broth (make 4 servings)
- 3 to 4 oz pork fat
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 2 cups dashi stock (you can substitute with chicken stock)
- 2 cups unsweetened soy milk, unsweetened cashew or unsweetened oat milk
For a Bowl of Ramen
- 1 portion fresh frozen or instant ramen noodles (for tonkotsu, I recommend thin noodles)
- 3 to 4 tbsp tsuyu (Japanese soup base sauce) or chashu tare
- 1 green onion, chopped
- Handful beansprouts
- Handful black fungus
- 1 to 2 slices of chashu
- 1/2 to 1 ramen egg
- 1 clove garlic, optional
Instructions
- Place pork fat in a medium pot with enough water to cover pork. Bring it to boil over medium high then cook pork belly 5 to 7 minutes or until fully cooked. Cut pork fat into small chunks and place in a blender. Add chicken stock and blend high speed until smooth, about 1 to 2 minutes. Pour pork fat and chicken stock mixture back to now-empty-pot (rinse pot quickly then use) then add in dashi stock and unsweetened soy milk. Stir and bring it to simmer over medium heat. Also, bring another pot of water to boil to cook noodles and toppings.
- Meanwhile, let’s prepare ramen toppings.
Chop green onion. Slice black fungus into long thin strips. Prepare chashu by searing on a dry pan over high heat, torch or high broil for 3 to 5 minutes. - When water is boiling, blanch bean sprouts for 1 minute then remove from water. Drain well and set aside. Next, blanch black fungus for 1 minutes then remove from water. Drain well and set aside. Finally, start cooking noodles. Fresh or frozen one will take only 2 minutes. Instant ramen noodles will take 3 to 4 minutes.
- While noodles are cooking, add tsuyu or chashu tare in a serving bowl. Carefully, pour 1 1/2 cup of broth we made earlier. Mix well. Drain cooked noodles well and add to bowl. Stir noodles to coat evenly with broth and arrange. Arrange toppings on top of noodles – beansprouts, black fungus, green onions, chashu and ramen egg. Lastly, to your taste, grate in a clove of garlic. This sharp spicy garlic will perfectly balance this thick rich broth. Enjoy!
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
36 comments
YES!!! I’ve been waiting for this easy tonkatsu soup recipe for a long time. I hope there will be a video. I love watching your videos and getting tips and tricks to recipe. I’m confused about the pork fat part though…Like is pork fat something you buy or is it the fat in the pork belly? Might be a stupid question. Sorry
The video will be published tonight on YouTube. And No such thing as a stupid question! I got my pork fat from cutting it out of the pork belly I was using. No need to go buy pork fat separately! Hope this helped (:
I just made this recipe and loved it. Question though.. when I was simmering the broth in one of the final steps, there was a layer of foam at the top of it. Could this be the pork fat separating from the chicken broth?
So I originally read it as 2 cups of chicken or dashi stock and 2 cups of soy milk but I see it’s 2 cups chicken stock AND 2 cups dashi stock? And with 2 cups soy milk that makes it over 1.4L of liquid?
Two cups of chicken stock are blended with the pork at the beginning. Then you add 2 cups of dashi or chicken stock to that mixture, along with the 2 cups of soy milk.
I really wanted to try this on, but because i’m a muslim i can’t use pork fat. Can i subtitute the pork fat with something else? I want to make the halal version of this ^^…
Sorry for my bad English
You do not have to be sorry! I would suggest replacing it with chicken bouillon, or something similar to it. But I do want to warn you Tonkotsu literally translates to pork and it is how it get its name, so it would no longer be “tonkotsu”. But it will still taste amazing! Hope this was helpful (:
intan, why not try the same thing but use the fat from a chicken thigh and chicken bullion cube, thats what i do for the meat, use lamb- fatty lamb, or beef or chicken thigh.
you can also do the same with lamb fat.
enjoy
Any substitute for soy milk ? I just don’t like the milky taste of it. Is it possible to replace soy milk with chicken stock or tahini /white miso paste? what would you recommend? Many thanx for recipe !
I would suggest using oat or even cashew milk!
Which Ramen noodles do you recommend? We live near several H-Marts and the choices are overwhelming! thank you!
Can you use cow’s milk instead? Also, how important is the black fungus and where would you find that?
Yes, cow milk should be fine and the black fungus is just my preference of topping! You can put any toppings that you would prefer! Hope this helped (:
Thanks for this awesome recipe! I’m going to make it for this weekend as we’re having a “Japanese” themed dinner 😀
Just one question: how long can I keep it in the fridge? Thank you!
Ouuuu! That sounds yummy! I wouldn’t keep this recipe longer than 5 days in the fridge before eating it. Hope this helped!
Thanks for the reply and the super easy and yummy recipe. Everyone loved it!
Could I use reserved bacon grease in place of the pork fat?
Did you try the bacon grease? It seems like a great idea as long as it didn’t impart too much smokiness to the broth…
It works so well!
Thank you, Seonkyoung! Been looking for a Ramen recipe like this. Should have known you would deliver! It is absolutely delicious and freezeable (it separates but can be mixed once thawed).
YAY~! So glad I could help!
We made this for 6 people today and it was superb. We tried ramen broth with cooking bones before and this one was just so much richer. Everybody loved it, definately will be a regular from now on. We also made the Chashu, also a dream. This website is a revelation to my cravings for authentic asian food!
Thank you so much for the love and effort!
YAY! I’m so glad I was able to help out! I hope you find my other recipes just as helpful (:
Made this tonight and it turned out so yummy! I also made the ramen egg and chashu and it also turned out so good!
Oh my gosh!!! This ramen is so amazing! I just had is for dinner. Nice rich, creamy broth, and delicious toppings 😍. I had to improvise with few things: I had pork belly in slices, so to make chashu pork belly i used tooth pick to roll it, meat turned out so tender, and infused with marinade. Loved it! For topping I used: shitake mushrooms, coriander, spring onion, egg, and carrot. Thank you so much for recipe!!!
is it ok to use sweetened soy milk instead of unsweetened
I used soymilk that had a sugar content in the nutritional label listed, and it made the ramen taste lightly sweet. I found it weird, so I wouldn’t recommend using sweetened soy milk.
Very tasty 😋 thank you!
I am going to send this recipe to all my friends because this recipe is amazing. Thank you♥️♥️♥️
Just made this. Found the Dashi was a bit overpowering on the flavor so cut the ratio of it and increased the chicken stock ratio. Also, I just use a 1/4 cup half and half for the creamy flavor and went with more chicken stock instead of soy milk. Still, using the pork fat makes making this MUCH easier than boil pig neck bones for hours on end. Also, I sous vide cooked pork belly seasoned with Slap Yo Mamma seasonings @ 170F for 10 hours then pan seared. Was amazing with this!
So I’ve made your Shoyu Ramen quite a few times. Every time I get better at it. Thank you!
I wanted to try this Tonkotsu. If I want to make a whole big pot of the broth do I just multiply the ingredients by how many servings? How come this Tonkotsu takes such a short time compared to the Shoyu. Is it a cheat?
Another question: If I wanted to just do the whole big bone broth 5 hrs but make it creamy like this one, can I combine the recipes? how much pork fat then do I add?
Thank you
I made this the other day and also found the Tare to be too sweet as the previous comment mentioned. The broth, I might’ve put too much pork fat in as I was making a bigger portion and miscalculated, and it made it quite fat, and not creamy. Will need to modify this and water it down a bit.
I don’t have any kind of broth at home at the moment so I was wondering if I could just do water and add in a chicken or beef boleyn and season it?
Yes! That is how I cheat with my broths when I don’t have them handy!
How can I modify this recipe so as to make bulk and store in freezer? Should i stop just after adding dashi and before adding soy milk?
Delicious! Tasted like real tonkotsu. Only issue was the clean up of the blender as the fat stuck on the blender. Next time I’ll try an immersion blender for less dishes!
I cooked the fat and blended in chicken stock. But not all the fat would break down. Some of it became a soft paste and I threw it out. Is that normal?