The BEST Ramen Recipe!
FINALLY!!!
Asian at Home Ramen Recipe is HERE!!! WHOOTWHOOT~!
Anybody as excited as I am about this real authentic, probably the BEST ramen recipe you will ever find online?!
When Jacob and I had this famous shoyu ramen in Kyoto, Japan, we’re just SO shocked!!
It was so simple, clean yet SO deep flavor…
We both thought tonkotsu is the best ramen out there, but we’re wrong.
If you can make this simple shoyu ramen right, it’s better than average tonkotsu (creamy milky fatty ramen)!!
Shoyu ramen is SO UNDERRATED because it’s so simple compare to tonkotsu.
Also because how simple it is, it’s hard to executed perfectly.
But now, you don’t have to worry about it.
My BEST Ramen recipe will take you to the right in Kyoto, Japan with the taste!
Even though this is probably the simplest, easiest and authentic ramen recipe out there, I still recommend you to watch the video tutorial to understand and get the most informations!!
It starts from pork neck bones. You can easily find pork neck or back bones at your local Asian grocery stores or ask your butcher shop! Most likely they have it with very cheap price!
Place pork neck bones in a large mixing bowl and pour enough cold water to cover. Soak the pork in cold water for an hour. This way we can get rid of lots of dead blood from the bones and meat for the clean broth!
Bring enough water (that will cover the pork) to boil in a large pot.
Carefully drop pork neck bones into the boiling water and blench the pork for 5 to 8 minutes. This way we can get rid of bone bits, dead blood and dirty scums in the pork neck bones. When it starts boiling again, drain and discard the water. Those are “dirty flavor” that we don’t want in our broth. Rinse the pork bones under running cold water one by one.
Wash the pot quickly and place all the clean pork bones into the now-clean-pot along with ginger, garlic, leek, kombu (dried kelp), chicken powder and water.
Bring it to boil over high heat, and hard boil for 15 minutes. During this 15 minutes, skim all dirty foams and scums coming up to the surface by using a skimmer. Do not stir the soup, just skimming.
Now, cover and reduce heat to medium heat then simmer the broth for 3 hours. Try your best not to open the lid or bother the soup, let them do their magic!
After 3 hours of boiling the broth, it’s the time to add 2 lb of pork belly or pork butt into the broth for chashu. Cook the pork until it’s tender and fully cooked. If your pork is one large piece, simmer 1 hour and 20 minutes. Or if your pork is 1 lb each (total 2 pieces), then simmer 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, let’s make tare!
Combine all ingredients for tare in a sauce pan, bring it to boil over high heat; keep hard boiling for 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from heat and let it cool.
When the chashu pork is done cooking, turn off the heat and remove the chashu portion pork pieces from the pot and drizzle 4 Tablespoons of the tare evenly over the pork to give color. Cover and let it cool in a refrigerator.
Drain the broth into a large mixing bowl or container, using a large strainer. Discard all the fragrance vegetables, but don’t waste the pork bones and meat! You can keep and enjoy it separately! (When I ran out the noodles and still have the soup left, I just added the pork bone meats into the soup and enjoyed with rice and kimchi!)
Now, if you are not making 8 to 10 bowls of ramen at this moment, go ahead and store the soup, the chashu and the tare into a container and keep it in a refrigerator, it will last up to 7 days. You can also freeze the soup, just store in a freezer safe container and it will last up to 30 days in a freezer.
Slice the now-cooled chashu pork into thin slices.
Let’s assemble a bowl of ramen!
Bring enough water to boil in a large pot, we are going to blanch beansprouts and cook ramen in this pot.
Bring 2 cups of ramen broth to boil in a pot.
Blanch bean sprouts for 2 minutes, remove from the pot and drain. Set aside.
Into the same boiling water, cook ramen noodles by following the package you are using.
Above the picture, the package of ramen is my FAV noodles for this recipe, because it’s almost identical with the noodles we had in Kyoto’s shoyu ramen shop. I got it from my local Asian grocery store in Sacramento (Korean Palaza), so if you are living close by, check it out or check your local Chinese/Asian/Japanese grocery out! They usually have fresh/frozen ramen or egg noodles! If this option is not for you, dried noodle is for you. 
Check out this dried noodles for ramen, it’s not as thick as I want for this recipe, but it will work just fine!
While the noodles are cooking, pour 1/4 cup to 1/3 cup of tare (depending on how salty you like your ramen to be) and hot ramen broth into a serving bowl.
When the noodles are ready, drain and carefully add into the bowl. Stir the noodles in the soup so it will coated evenly with the broth and arrange in the middle.
Arrange the blanched beansprouts, 4 oz of chashu slices, chopped green onions and soft boiled egg right top of the ramen. Finally, using a cheese grater, grate a fresh garlic clove direct into the ramen.
Serve immediately while it’s piping hot! Enjoy!
Special thanks to JINS Eyewear for Supporting this video!
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The BEST Ramen
- Cook Time: 4 hours
- Total Time: 4 hours
- Yield: 8 to 10 1x
Description
Ingredients
For the Broth (Makes 8 to 10 servings)
- 6 lb pork neck bones
- 2 oz ginger, sliced
- 2 bulbs garlic, cut into halves
- 1 large leek, cut into half and wash every layers really well then drain
- 1 1/2 oz kombu, dried kelp
- 1 1/2 Tbsp chicken stock powder
- 24 cups cold water
For the Chashu (Makes 8 to 10 servings)
- 2 lb pork belly or pork butt
For the Tare (Sauce) (Makes 8 to 10 servings)
For the Ramen Bowl (Makes 1 serving with below ingredients)
- 3 oz bean sprouts
- 1 portion of fresh, frozen (5 oz each) or dried (3 oz each) ramen noodles
- 2 green onions, chopped
- 1 soft boiled egg, cut into half
- 1 garlic cloves
Instructions
- Place pork neck bones in a large mixing bowl and pour enough cold water to cover. Soak the pork in cold water for an hour.
- Bring enough water (that will cover the pork) to boil in a large pot. Carefully drop pork neck bones into the boiling water and blench the pork for 5 to 8 minutes. This way we can get rid of bone bits and dead blood in the pork neck bone. When it starts boiling again, drain and discard the water. Rinse the pork bones under running cold water one by one.
- Wash the pot quickly and place all the clean pork bones into the now-clean-pot along with ginger, garlic, leek, kombu, chicken powder and water. Bring it to boil over high heat, and hard boil for 15 minutes. During this 15 minutes, skim all dirty foams and scums coming up to the surface by using a skimmer. Do not stir the soup, just skimming.
- Now, cover and reduce heat to medium heat then simmer the broth for 3 hours. Try your best not to open the lid or bother the soup, let them do their magic!
- After 3 hours of boiling the broth, it’s the time to add 2 lb of pork belly or pork butt into the broth for chashu. Cook the pork until it’s tender and fully cooked. If your pork is one large piece, simmer 1 hour and 20 minutes. Or if your pork is 1 lb each (total 2 pieces), then simmer 45 minutes.
- Meanwhile, let’s make tare!
Combine all ingredients for tare in a sauce pan, bring it to boil over high heat; keep hard boiling for 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from heat and let it cool. - When the chashu pork is done cooking, turn off the heat and remove the chashu portion pork pieces from the pot and drizzle 4 Tablespoons of the tare evenly over the pork to give color. Cover and let it cool in a refrigerator.
- Drain the broth into a large mixing bowl or container, using a large strainer. Discard all the fragrance vegetables, but don’t waste the pork bones and meat! You can keep and enjoy it separately! (When I ran out the noodles and still have the soup left, I just added the pork bone meats into the soup and enjoyed with rice and kimchi!)
- Now, if you are not making 8 to 10 bowls of ramen at this moment, go ahead and store the soup, the chashu and the tare into a container and keep it in a refrigerator, it will last up to 7 days. You can also freeze the soup, just store in a freezer safe container and it will last up to 30 days in a freezer.
- Slice the now-cooled chashu pork into thin slices.
- Let’s assemble a bowl of ramen!
Bring enough water to boil in a large pot, we are going to blench beansprouts and cook ramen in this pot. - Bring 2 cups of ramen broth to boil in a pot.
- Blanch bean sprouts for 2 minutes, remove from the pot and drain. Set aside. Into the same boiling water, cook ramen noodles by following the package you are using.
- While the noodles are cooking, pour 1/4 cup to 1/3 cup of tare (depending on how salty you like your ramen to be) and hot ramen broth into a serving bowl.
- When the noodles are ready, drain and carefully add into the bowl. Stir the noodles in the soup so it will coated evenly with the broth and arrange in the middle.
- Arrange the blanched beansprouts, 4 oz of chashu slices, chopped green onions and soft boiled egg right top of the rame. Finally, using a cheese grater, grate a fresh garlic clove direct into the ramen. Serve immediately while it’s piping hot! Enjoy!
60 comments
Great video! I’m a ramen fan, and I love Japanese and Korean dishes, but minus the soy sauce. I avoid soy altogether. Are there any alternatives to use instead of soy? I’m in the U.S. so all soy is GMO. No way!
You can find non GMO miso, that will work! It will be miso ramen! Or just simply use salt, it might not have much depth of flavor that soy sauce or miso can give, but it works as well!
Hey Flower Pig, I love all your recipes and the videos on Facebook. I like how meticulous you are in preparing this broth. When I worked in Japanese restaurants, it was more streamlined, but we still took a lot longer to prepare soup bases than many western kitchens. I will come back for the recipe and make it next time I have guests, it will be impressive!
Cheers!
KJ
How many cups should the broth come out to? I think mine reduced too much and I seem to have only 8 1/2 cups broth.
This is just the recipe I was looking for! I can’t wait to try it. My only question is regarding the Sake link. It takes me to a Chinese cooking wine m, which I did find in my local Asia market. Is that what we should use? Or should we buy Japanese Sake?
Thanks
Gregory – Richmond VA
I couldn’t find the Japanese brand sake I’m using online, so I linked to the most similar one. Either one will do the job!!
Hi Seonkyoung! Are there any sibstitute for dried kelp? They only places that sell them are beside dried shrimp and my boyfriend is severely allergic to shellfish 🙁
Thank you so much for all your Asian recipes – we can’t eat out at Asian places due to cross contamination. But we love making your recipes
Kelp is for the clean umami flavor.. but if you can’t use it, dried shiitake will do! about 4 to 5 of them!
THank you for posting the recipe! It did take me about 6 hours to make the whole thing-since my stove flames are a bit weak- but indeed good broth. Now that i have so much broth left, could you also post different tare(?)- such as spicy one or miso one or other varieties to use up the broth? Thank you.:-)
Hi,
The recipe looks amazing and I cannot wait to try it. The only problem is I do struggle to buy pork neck, is there any other bones I can use it?
Many thanks
Barbora
As far as i know, most other boney parts will do. The neck involves some joints, which will highten the amount of gelatinous parts, thus making the broth smoothe and creamy(-er). generally, any part with bone and fat on it will work. if it includes a joint (maybe the ankle part) the broth will get creamier.
Hello, I really love your receipes and your universe. I don’t eat pork, I would like to do ramen with beef. What is the best part of the beef I can use to do your receipe ?
Thank you very much (^<^)/
Hello,
Looks amazing! I would love to add mushrooms to this ramen! When would be the best time to add them?
Thankyou!
I made this recipe (with a few alterations because I’m lazy, like no kelp or sake) but it was still great! Took ages but would recommend 🙂
The man at the Asian market gave me pre-sliced pork belly instead of 1 or 2 pieces. How should I cook it in this recipe?
You can do the same as the recipe, but the cooking time has to adjust depending on how thick/big is the pork.
My ramen broth is boiling away as I write this, and the house is smelling phenomenal! So excited to let you know how it turns out. Fingers crossed it’s just as amazing as your Army based stew and Jajangmyeon recipes I have made in the past.
I just made this for my family a couple days ago and everyone loved it so much! I’ve been eating the leftovers for lunch and cannot WAIT to try some of your other recipes! Thank you for sharing these!!
Hello! I am planning my first dive into homemade Asian cuisine. The only issue is that I will be cooking for only 1 to 2 people. My concern is if I cut ingredient portions down, it will effect cooking times. Any recommendations on this or the best way to make leftovers?
I always cook only my hubby and myself too, we’re the only member of the house at this moment! hahaha This ramen recipe actually freezes really well and the pork can be used to any other meal!
Can I use pork shoulder instead of butt or belly?
Pork shoulder and pork butt are one in the same.
Can you make the broth in Instant Pot? If so, how long and what settings? Thanks!
Instead of Pork Neck bones could you use chicken wings?
Can you use Chicken Wings instead of the Pork Neck Bones?
Can you use chicken back bones instead of the pork neck bones?
will it be any where near the original?
It will still turn deliciously, but it will be chicken ramen and not as thick broth. The flavor will be also totally different as chicken and pork has 2 totally different flavors. Doesn’t mean less delicious, it’s just different!
Hi. What do you do with the left over pork bone meat? Also do you have any garlicky smell and taste ramen recipe?
Please help! Ive looked all weekend for the sake but I cant find it. Is there any substitutes that I can use? I have everything except the sake; I even have the mirin 😔
What other type of pork cut can be substituted? My small store does not have pork belly or small pork butt. The pork belly I saw had skin still on it and very little meat.
Hi there! Thanks for the nice recipe! I had one problem: The pork belly hasn’t got as tender as i expected it to be. Is it maybe because the heat was too high? Or is the quality of the meat not enough?
I used this broth recipe for my ramen and it was perfect!! soo tasty!! thank you very much!
How much chicken powder should I use? Can’t wait to try out this recipe!
Hi! Due to the lack of availability, would konbu work as a substitute for the konbu?
Hi there,
I am currently trying this recipe, and I think it is going to turn out great!
I had a question: if I want to use store-bought chicken stock instead of chicken stock powder, how does that change the numbers? Should I use 21.5 cups of water and 2.5 cups of chicken stock, for instance, instead of 24 cups of water?
Thank you!
Patrick from NC
Would this recipe and the flavours work with beef bones?
Yes of course!
Hi, just tried your ramen recipe here, i like it 🙂 a question though, can i change the pork belly (chashu) with other part like pork neck?
★★★★★
You can use pork butt shorter or country style boneless ribs instead!
I just had a question abou the amount of garlic used, I am not a big fan of alot of garlic is this dish really garlicy? I am makinf this recipe as i am typing please let me know.
The broth is cooking right now for the three hours. It smells yummy! I can’t wait to taste it. I work in Sacramento and live in Auburn. I went to the Korean Market after work yesterday that you recommended and was blown away at how large and extensive it is! I was able to get all the ingredients there.
I have one question. What brand is the chicken powder that you use? I just bought the Knoor brand but would like to know which brand you use. Thank you! I can’t wait to try some of your other recipes!
I made this ramen last weekend. It’s amazing! There’s such depth in the flavors. This is my go-to recipe for ramen. This is definitely 5 stars!!!
I’m hoping this comes out good. My kelp shattered and make my broth green. It’s simmering for 3 hours so I hope the fine strainer fixes this. I can’t wait to try it.
It should have been fine! but how did it turn out?!
My Asian grocer ran out of pork neck bones, will pigs feet give it the same taste? This will be the second time I make this.. the first time I had plenty of neck bones. This time I don’t have the same luck
It was delicious!! It had so much flavor, everything turned out perfect!! Better than my wildest dreams!!
haha, I wouldn’t go THAT far with my ramen recipes, but yes, I do try my best with all my recipes to perfect them!
Made this tonight and my family loved it! Got some browny points from the wife too…she said it tasted as if she was eating from an authentic ramen restaurant! I didn’t have sake so i used sherry cooking wine instead. Thanks will make this again!
★★★★★
AW! So glad you guys enjoyed my recipe (: Make sure to check out my other recipes too!
What’s better broken than whole?
What from the present will withstand the test of time?
I love this recipe! I’ve made it at least 10x. It is time consuming but very simple and I always freeze half of it for later in the month. Plus, my dogs love the leftover meat from the pork bones!
★★★★★
Thank you for your support! So glad I could help!
What cut of beef can I use?
Hi! What kind of soy sauce do you use (dark, light, Japanese, Chinese,etc.)?
Thanks! Can’t wait to try it this weekend.
I’m slightly allergic to soy and I use Coconut Aminos; it’s a little sweeter than soy sauce but still tastes really good as an alternative.
Yummy took the afternoon but it is totally worth it.
★★★★★
hiii, i’m from Italy and i love your ramen, i just ordered all ingredients, i have to buy a big pot. Can i know the capacity and diameter of your pot pleaseeeee? Thank you so much! i will try this recipe asap and then the katsuobushi-chicken one 🙂
Thanks a lot for sharing your recipes Seonkyoung-san, out favorite at home is the Chicken Chow Mein 😋! As for this recipe, we don’t eat pork, but do eat every other kind of meat, so I was wondering what the best substitute would be in your opinion? I read the backbone of chickens could be tasty but isn’t as close, would beef be a better option and if so what part of the beef? Thanks in advance!!
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My broth is so gelatinous it’s like jello! Is that okay or should I add plain broth to tin it a bit?