The Best Homemade Chicken Ramen (Easy Ramen Recipe)

Looking for an easy homemade chicken ramen that’s brimming with flavor and can be customized to your taste? Then this is the recipe for you!

A comforting, vibrant, flavor-packed easy ramen recipe to make at home that elevates your ramen bowl to a whole new level!

What is ramen?

Japanese ramen is a type of noodle soup that is widely popular in Japan and in ramen shops throughout the world. Although the origins of ramen (noodles in a soup broth) are rooted in China, and Chinese immigrants that settled in the country in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, it’s a distinctly Japanese dish today with all its toppings, flavorings, and variations.

While it’s mainly popular as a fast, inexpensive, convenient meal in Japan, ramen can also be a surprisingly intricate dish with layers of exquisite flavors.

If you love classic homemade chicken ramen, that is simple to make, but can still customize to your taste – then this chicken ramen recipe is for you!

My easy pork ramen has been a hit with my readers, but I realized that I’ve never shared my easy chicken ramen recipe with you guys! So here I’ll fix that with this flavor-packed easy ramen recipe.

I show you how to make a delicious bowl of ramen that tastes like an authentic shoyu ramen bowl, plus I’ll share shortcuts to make this homemade chicken ramen even easier.

The easy version of this recipe can be made in 30 minutes, and the more elaborate version (with the caramelized chicken) can take about 45 minutes.

Ramen ingredients

How to make the best chicken ramen

This is my favorite way to make homemade chicken ramen – Japanese noodles (straight or wavy) in a delicious soy sauce chicken broth (shoyu broth), topped with a jammy egg marinated in a sweet soy marinade (i.e. ramen egg), with flavor-packed caramelized soy chicken and vegetables!

I prefer using homemade chicken stock for ramen, but I don’t always have homemade chicken stock at hand.

So, I use store-bought in a pinch. To upgrade the store-bought chicken stock, I simmer it with ginger, spring onions, and some chili (because we like it a little spicy).

Bring the stock to a boil over medium high heat (or high heat, depending on your stove), with all the aromatics.

Then reduce the heat to a medium and let it simmer to infuse all the flavors. You can increase the amount of stock if you want to cook the noodles in the broth, but I prefer to cook the noodle separately.

Chicken

Here’s a pro tip on how to cook the chicken for this chicken ramen (easy chicken version vs classic chicken version).

For the easy version – To make this chicken ramen even easier, you can cook the chicken RIGHT IN THE BROTH, and then shred the chicken so that it gets mixed with the ramen noodles and broth.

This does save time, but personally, I much prefer to cook the chicken separately, because it adds another great layer of flavor to your ramen bowl.

For the classic version – Make the caramelized soy chicken separately. Making caramelized soy chicken is easy, and you wouldn’t believe how delicious the results are! The chicken is marinated in a soy, dark soy, and mirin mix (the same marinade that I use for ramen eggs), and then grilled in the oven OR on a pan.

I find it easier to do this in the oven, because this way I can cook more chicken at the same time (extras are great for fried rice!), and it leaves the stove free for the ramen broth and noodles.

For both versions of chicken, you can use chicken thighs OR chicken breast pieces. I prefer boneless chicken thighs, because chicken breasts dry out very easily when overcooked. Chicken thighs are more forgiving.

Ramen toppings

I could never have enough ramen toppings. But there’s only so much that your ramen bowl can hold…

There are several classic ramen toppings and they all add great flavor to your ramen bowl.

• Negi or chopped spring onions (green onions) – A must for any and every ramen bowl.
• Tamago or eggs – Another topping that I just have to have. You can serve the eggs however you like; hard boiled, soft boiled, plain, or marinated (ramen eggs – get the recipe here!).
• Sesame oil – I love adding a drizzle of sesame oil to my shoyu ramen, even if it isn’t a classic option. If I’m making shio ramen or miso ramen, then I might add a little butter instead.
• Sesame seeds – You can use white or black sesame seeds (the white stands out against the caramelized chicken, but the black will stand out against the noodles. Ultimately toasted sesame seeds are like little drops of flavor bombs!
• Radishes or sweet bell peppers – Another topping that’s not traditional, but I like them because they add a nice crunch and sweetness to my ramen bowl.
• Mushrooms – Shiitake mushrooms are my preferred choice for this shoyu ramen, but I also love enoki. Add a delicious umami flavor, and I also like how meaty they taste.
• Steamed or stir-fried greens – Baby bok choy (or Shanghai bok choy), bunch spinach, water spinach, gai lan, yu choy are all excellent toppings in a ramen bowl.
• Fried chili and garlic, or fried garlic – I buy this from the store, because it’s easier and we put it on everything. Even steamed rice.
• Naruto or Kamaboko – Steamed fish cake. I absolutely love this topping when I eat ramen at a restaurant, but I don’t add this when making homemade ramen.
• Nori or Furikake – Sometimes I add this, sometimes I don’t. I do love furikake on my Mazemen bowl though.
• Moyashi – Raw bean sprouts add some sweetness to the ramen, as well as a nice crunch factor.
• Crushed red pepper – I personally like to add a few flakes of red chili pepper on top. This isn’t traditional, but a personal favorite for me.

Pro tips to make the best easy chicken ramen bowl

Here are some pro tips to cut down the cooking time when making this easy chicken ramen.

This homemade chicken ramen recipe takes about 45 minutes because I cook the chicken separately. I prefer to cook the ramen noodles separately as well. But here are some ways to make this recipe even faster using accessible ramen ingredients, and cut it down to 25 – 30 minutes!

• Ready to use, store-bought chicken stock or broth eliminates one step altogether.
• Rather than adding large pieces of garlic cloves and ginger, mince or chop them finely in a spice grinder. That way you don’t need to worry about straining them out later.
• Add dried shiitake mushroom to the stock along with the garlic, ginger and spring onions, so that it will add even more umami flavor to the shoyu ramen broth.
• Add the chicken to the stock at the same time as the garlic, ginger, and spring onions. This will allow the chicken to cook as the stock is infused with all of the flavors. Once the chicken is cooked (about 20 minutes), you can chop or shred it and add it back to the base, along with mushrooms.
• Steam the greens in the microwave, or blanch the greens in the ramen broth. Spinach only takes 1 minute to steam in the microwave. I add a little oil, garlic, and soy sauce and steam in the microwave, and then it’s ready to be used.
• Using instant noodles will cut down on cooking time for the ramen noodles. If I do use instant ramen, I prefer to use NongShim Shin Ramyun ramen packets or Samyang ramen packets. They are thicker and hardy, and stay nice and firm for longer.
• If you’re using dried ramen noodles, you can increase the amount of stock (about 1/3 cup per person), and cook the noodles RIGHT IN THE BROTH too. Keep in mind though, this will make the broth more cloudy because of the released starches. This is why I prefer cooking the ramen noodles separately.
• If you didn’t have time to make the ramen egg earlier, no worries. It only takes about 10 minutes to make an egg, that’s not marinated. Just boil water, and cook the eggs for 6 – 6.5 minutes and then they are ready to eat as soon as they are cool enough to peel. You can boil the eggs while the ramen broth is being prepared.
• You can also cook the egg in different ways. If you don’t want to half boil an egg, you can just fry an egg, over easy, and serve it on top of the ramen too!
• You can also use the broth as a base, and top the ramen with leftover rotisserie chicken (or other leftover meat). This really cuts down on the time!

So, there you have it. This homemade ramen is nothing if not flavor-packed! I hope you guys love this chicken ramen recipe just as much as we do. If you are a fan of noodle recipes, then this chicken ramen is a must try!

If you liked this recipe, you may also like,

Easy chicken ramen stir fry

Easy pork ramen

Pork loco moco mazeman

Ramen eggs (ajitsuke tamago)

Miso ramen deviled eggs

Garlic Lime Shrimp Noodle recipe

Recipe

5 from 150 votes

Easy Homemade Chicken Ramen Recipe

Author: Dini Kodippili

Yield: Makes 4 servings of chicken ramen

Cuisine: Asian, Japanese

 Difficulty: 

Intermediate

An incredibly flavorful homemade chicken ramen with authentic flavors, but easy enough to make for dinner! Topped with caramelized soy chicken and a ramen egg. This classic shoyu chicken ramen can be made in about 45 minutes, and 30 minutes for the easier version.

You also have the option of marinating the chicken and ramen eggs overnight to increase flavor. 

INTERMEDIATE – This is an overall easy recipe, but it does have several components. It's recommended to make each component separately the first time you make this, but afterwards, it'll be easier to multitask and make the components simultaneously. An easier version of the recipe is also included.

Makes 4 servings of chicken ramen.

US based cup, teaspoon, tablespoon measurements. Common Measurement Conversions. Weight measurements are recommended for accurate results.

US based cup, teaspoon, tablespoon measurements. Weight‌ ‌measurements‌ ‌are‌ ‌recommended‌ ‌for‌ ‌accurate‌ ‌results whenever available.

Common Measurement Conversions

Prep: 5 minutes mins

Cook: 40 minutes mins

Marinating: 8 hours hrs

Total Time: 45 minutes mins

Print Recipe Rate SaveSaved!

Makes: 4 servings

Ingredients:

 

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Caramelized soy chicken

Marinade for the chicken

• ▢ 30 mL mirin 2 tbsp
• ▢ 15 mL dark soy sauce (or mushroom dark soy sauce) 1 tbsp, If you don't have this, you can substitute with light soy sauce but adjust for salt.
• ▢ 15 mL light soy sauce 1 tbsp
• ▢ ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
• ▢ 2 cloves garlic chopped finely
• ▢ 4 pieces chicken thighs boneless, skin off or on

Glaze for the chicken

• ▢ 2 tsp brown sugar
• ▢ 30 mL dark soy sauce (or mushroom dark soy sauce) 2 tbsp. or 1 tbsp light soy sauce + 1 tbsp water

Shoyu ramen

• ▢ 4 – 5 cups good quality chicken stock 1000 – 1180 mL. No sodium or low sodium
• ▢ 4 spring onions / scallions trimmed and cut into 3 inch pieces, or just in half
• ▢ 5 cloves garlic whole cloves are fine
• ▢ 2 inch piece of ginger sliced
• ▢ 4 fresh red chili or 1 tbsp dried chili flakes (crushed red pepper). Omit this if you don't prefer spicy food.
• ▢ 60 mL light soy sauce ¼ cup
• ▢ 60 mL mirin ¼ cup
• ▢ 8 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms stems trimmed and sliced, or cut in half
• ▢ 6 pieces dried shiitake mushrooms optional. See recipe notes below.
• ▢ 4 portions dried ramen noodles or about 340 g dry ramen (or 4 portions of fresh ramen noodles)

Regular soft boiled eggs (if you don’t want to make ramen eggs)

• ▢ 4 large eggs

Steamed greens

• ▢ 1 large bunch of yu choy OR spinach or any Asian greens
• ▢ Soy sauce to taste
• ▢ Sesame oil a drizzle
• ▢ 2 – 3 cloves garlic finely sliced, to taste

Ramen toppings (optional, and can be substituted with whatever you prefer)

• ▢ 4 spring onions / scallions finely sliced
• ▢ Sliced radishes or bean sprouts
• ▢ Ramen eggs marinated or plain
• ▢ Chili garlic oil

Instructions:

 

Caramelized soy chicken

• Place all the ingredients for the chicken marinade in a bowl. Mix well to coat the chicken. If time permits, allow the chicken to marinate for at least 1 hour.
  30 mL mirin, 15 mL dark soy sauce (or mushroom dark soy sauce), 15 mL light soy sauce, ¼ tsp cayenne pepper, 2 cloves garlic , 4 pieces chicken thighs
• Preheat the oven to 425°F / 218°C, and place an oven rack in the top third of your oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Place the chicken pieces on the baking sheet, skin side down (or smooth side down), evenly spaced apart. Then place the baking sheet in the preheated oven (upper third).
• Let the chicken roast for 15 minutes. While the chicken is cooking, mix the brown sugar and dark soy sauce for the glaze, and start making the ramen. (Please note that the cook time for the chicken will vary depending on the size and thickness of the chicken thigh pieces you are using. )
  2 tsp brown sugar, 30 mL dark soy sauce (or mushroom dark soy sauce)
• After 15 minutes, flip the chicken pieces over and spoon the glaze over them. Let the chicken cook for a further 10 – 15 minutes. Then remove from the oven and let them cool down.
• Slice the chicken and set aside.

Ramen

• While the caramelized soy chicken is cooking in the oven, make the ramen base.
• Place two saucepans on the stove. 
• As an optional step, you can chop the garlic and ginger. Or you can add them whole or sliced, and strain the ramen stock to remove the large pieces of garlic and ginger later. 
• In one saucepan (Pot 1), place the stock, ginger, garlic, spring onions, chili (if using), soy sauce, and mirin. Stir and cover the pot. Let it come to a boil at medium high – high heat. Then lower the heat to medium and let it simmer for 20 – 25 minutes. Taste the base and add more salt if needed. 
  4 – 5 cups good quality chicken stock, 4 spring onions / scallions, 5 cloves garlic, 2 inch piece of ginger, 4 fresh red chili, 60 mL light soy sauce, 60 mL mirin
• To add more flavor to the stock base, you can also add dried shiitake mushrooms to the broth. The dried mushroom will reconstitute as the stock heats up and add a lot of umami flavor to the broth.
  6 pieces dried shiitake mushrooms
• While Pot 1 is simmering, add water to the second pot (Pot 2), and bring it to a boil. Add the dried noodles to the boiling water and cook according to package directions. I prefer to cook the noodles for ONE MINUTE LESS than what's recommended on the package, since the noodles will continue to cook for a bit longer when served with hot broth. The straight ramen noodles I use here take 3 minutes to cook. Drain the noodles and divide into 4 bowls and set aside. 
  4 portions dried ramen noodles
• When the ramen base in Pot 1 has cooked for about 20 – 25 minutes, strain to remove the garlic, ginger, chili, and spring onions (or only the spring onions and chili). If you added dried mushrooms, remove these. Slice these mushrooms and set aside.
• Add the strained stock back into the pot and add the mushrooms (fresh and reconstituted dried mushrooms) , and let it cook for a further 5 minutes until the fresh mushrooms have softened. The ramen base is now ready. 
  8 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms

Ramen egg or unseasoned soft boiled egg

• Make ramen eggs the day before, according to this recipe. OR make regular soft boiled eggs to top your ramen bowl. (Ramen eggs need at least 2 hours to marinate.)
  4 large eggs
• To make regular soft boiled eggs – bring a pot of water to a boil. Lower 4 large eggs carefully into the water and cook the eggs for 6 – 6 ½ minutes.
• Immediately place the eggs in cool running water or an ice bath for a few minutes. Peel and set aside until ready to serve. This can be done BEFORE you cook the ramen as well.

Steamed greens

• Wash the greens and cut them in half, or into sections if necessary, to separate thick stems from the leaves.
  1 large bunch of yu choy OR spinach
• Place the greens in a bowl and drizzle a little soy sauce and sesame oil (and garlic) on top. Toss to combine.
  Soy sauce, Sesame oil, 2 – 3 cloves garlic
• Cover and microwave in 1 minute increments until the greens have softened, but not too wilted.
• Alternatively, you can heat a non-stick pan with a little oil, and pan fry the greens with soy sauce and garlic for about 2 – 4 minutes. You can also blanche the greens in the ramen broth for about 1 minute. Remove the greens and then drizzle soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, and toss to mix.

To serve

• Evenly divide the hot stock between the four bowls with ramen noodles.
• Top with the steamed greens, sliced soy chicken, ramen eggs, spring onions, radishes, and other toppings you like.
  4 spring onions / scallions, Sliced radishes or bean sprouts, Ramen eggs, Chili garlic oil

Recipe Notes

For an even easier chicken ramen version

Without cooking the chicken separately, you can marinate the chicken overnight and then add it to the stock at the same time as the garlic, ginger, and spring onions. This will allow the chicken to cook at the same time as the stock is being infused with all of the flavors.

Once the chicken is cooked (about 20 minutes), you can chop or shred it and add it back to the base, along with the mushrooms.

Adding more flavor to the broth

MSG

You can add MSG to the broth to increase the umami flavor. Just add a pinch at a time, as you don’t want the MSG to overpower the flavor of other seasonings. 

Using dried shiitake mushrooms

If you can’t find fresh shiitake mushrooms, you can use any type of fresh mushroom. However, you can also substitute with dried mushrooms. 

Add dried shiitake mushrooms to the stock at the beginning, so that the mushrooms can soften in the stock, AND add more umami flavor to the ramen broth. You can add a few pieces of dried mushrooms to the stock even if you use fresh mushrooms. 

Once the broth has simmered, and the mushrooms have reconstituted, remove them from the ramen broth and slice the softened mushrooms. Add them back to the broth, or serve separately over the ramen noodles. 

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 658kcal (33%) Carbohydrates: 88g (29%) Protein: 31g (62%) Fat: 21g (32%) Saturated Fat: 9g (56%) Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g Monounsaturated Fat: 9g Trans Fat: 0.02g Cholesterol: 172mg (57%) Sodium: 4123mg (179%) Potassium: 808mg (23%) Fiber: 4g (17%) Sugar: 13g (14%) Vitamin A: 448IU (9%) Vitamin C: 259mg (314%) Calcium: 557mg (56%) Iron: 9mg (50%)

“This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.”

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