| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 2 hr |
| Cook: | 2 hr |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 8 cloves garlic, smashed
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 8 thin slices ginger
- 1 pound sliced bacon
- 4 pounds chicken wings
- 12 dried shiitake mushrooms, rinsed
- 12 scallions, white and light green parts, chopped
- 1/4 cup sake or dry sherry
- 1/4 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
- Kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon white peppercorns
- 8 3-to-5-ounce packages dry or vacuum-packed ramen noodles (flavor packets discarded)
- Assorted toppings (see below)
Instructions
- Heat 3 tablespoons vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic, onion and ginger and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is dark brown, about 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make the broth: Put the bacon and chicken wings in a Dutch oven and add enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium and simmer 10 minutes. Drain and wipe the pot clean. Rinse the bacon and wings under cold water, then return to the pot; add 4 quarts water and the dried mushrooms. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium; add the garlic mixture and gently simmer 1 hour, 15 minutes.
- Strain the broth through a colander into a large bowl, pressing on the solids to extract as much of the liquid as possible. Skim any excess fat from the surface. Measure the broth, adding water if necessary to yield 2 quarts. (The broth can be made up to 4 days ahead; cover and refrigerate.)
- Just before serving, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon vegetable oil and the scallions in a medium skillet over medium heat until the mixture starts sizzling. Add the sake, soy sauce, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, the sugar, peppercorns and 1/2 cup water. Simmer, reducing to 1/2 cup, about 5 minutes.
- Bring the broth and the scallion mixture to a simmer in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the noodles and cook until softened, 1 to 3 minutes. Gently pull the noodles apart with tongs. Transfer the soup to bowls and top as desired.
- Toppings Bar
- Take your pick: These taste great in just about any combination.
- Shredded rotisserie chicken
- Sauteed mushrooms
- Nori strips (seaweed)
- Shredded kale
- Cubed firm tofu
- Snow peas
- Toasted sesame seeds
- Sliced radishes
- Sliced scallions
- Bean sprouts
- Kimchi
- Watercress
- Sliced jalapeno
- Pickled ginger
- Wasabi paste
- Fried egg
- Sesame oil
- Sriracha
- Roasted squash: Toss cubed butternut or kabocha squash (no need to peel) with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, sugar and red pepper flakes. Roast at 425 degrees F, 30 minutes.
- Sauteed shrimp: Stir-fry peeled deveined shrimp in hot olive oil with minced ginger, chopped scallions and a pinch each of sugar, salt and pepper.
- Roasted pork belly: Put 1 cup each sake and water, 1/2 cup each soy sauce and mirin, and 1/4 cup sugar in a Dutch oven. Add 2 pounds skinless pork belly, 1 quartered onion, 1/2 head garlic and 4 thin slices ginger. Cover with foil. Roast at 325 degrees F,3 hours; slice.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 8 servings |
| Calories | 1306 |
| Total Fat | 80 g |
| Saturated Fat | 27 g |
| Carbohydrates | 84 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 6 g |
| Sugar | 5 g |
| Protein | 61 g |
| Cholesterol | 289 mg |
| Sodium | 2965 mg |
Reviews
Love this! Time consuming but amazing.
4 quarts of broth for 8 packages of ramen? The recipe said it would yield 2 quarts, and that sounded very wrong, so I stuck with the 4 quarts, and the recipe was still a disaster. Not nearly enough broth, and it was not even close to a soup. There wasn’t enough flavor, and it was less tasty than just regular ramen from the package with the flavor powder. I’ll never make this ever again, or recommend any one does. I’ll stick to the ramen with 2-3 days of prep, thank you.
Delicious! My family loved it! A couple tweaks: food processed the onion, added 2 tbsp of miso paste, a smidge more soy sauce (gluten free tamari), frozen spinach and instead of chicken, I used a thick pork chop/skipped bacon and used the juice from pork chop in the broth! + hard boil eggs! 🙂
This soup is going in my arsenal of “things to cook when someone is feeling sick.” The onion and garlic in it really clears you up, and it’s nice to have something that’s different from chicken and noodle. Next time I might add just a bit more ginger since it got overpowered, and I may tune down the onion/green onion just a bit.
I do wonder though, would it be possible to somehow save the meat from the chicken wings once they are done making the broth? Maybe use them as part of the topping bar instead of buying another type of chicken? I felt wasteful throwing the wings out, and I thing they have you do that just because it’s time consuming to pick the meat off of them and they are bland. That’s not a big deal though… so unless that meat is really that bad, or not safe to eat, there’s got to be a way to use it.
Finally, if you do use Sriracha sauce at the end, it will sink to the bottom of the bowl when you stir it in! We found this out the hard way tonight… HA!
I do wonder though, would it be possible to somehow save the meat from the chicken wings once they are done making the broth? Maybe use them as part of the topping bar instead of buying another type of chicken? I felt wasteful throwing the wings out, and I thing they have you do that just because it’s time consuming to pick the meat off of them and they are bland. That’s not a big deal though… so unless that meat is really that bad, or not safe to eat, there’s got to be a way to use it.
Finally, if you do use Sriracha sauce at the end, it will sink to the bottom of the bowl when you stir it in! We found this out the hard way tonight… HA!
This was a fun project and a lot tastier (and probably somewhat healthier than using the flavor packets.