Cozy soup anyone?? This is comfort food at the tippy top of what it should taste like. When I want a hearty, healthy, delicious soup, Shortcut Chicken Ramen is one of the top recipes. If you don’t have time to make traditional ramen, and have the right ingredients on hand in your kitchen, this is relatively quick and easy. I went to a local Asian grocery store to get fresh ingredients. Highly recommend peeping one out in your area. It’s a fun experience! And you can get actual shiitake mushrooms that aren’t the dried ones that need to soak for what feels like 2 weeks.
I found this recipe from a really fun food blogger and tweaked it to my own taste. Meghan’s blog is really great, so check her out! I’ve made this twice so far, and am sure this will be a staple around me house. If anyone gets a cold, this seems like the best remedy. Bok choy has a TON of fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants in it that screams health kick. Plus it is nice to have some greens in your soup, just as long as you don’t overcook them. They even aid in the prevention of Cancer! I chose to use sweet bok choy in my soup, but I’ve also used baby bok choy. Any Box Choy will do. . Next time~
That’s it! The ingredients are so simple:
The secret ingredients:
Always try to shop at an Asian grocery store to find the goods. Viet Huong fish sauce is the best kind to buy. Remember it’s the one with the 3 crabs on the label. Silver Swan soy sauce is also a traditional brand to buy, but you can use whatever you like. Remember if you use low sodium soy sauce to add a bit more in the recipe, but taste it as you add. Not pictured is the hoisin sauce that my kitchen can not do without. It adds some sweetness to the broth, but keep in mind it is very thick so I only use a few tablespoons. The oyster sauce I like to buy has a cute woman adding the sauce to her wok, I’m such a sucker for packaging. But it is also quality oyster sauce. For the chili garlic sauce I use Huy Fong Foods’ brand, which you are most likely to see at any Vietnamese restaurant as a condiment. It adds a kick to whatever you are eating. It is an ingredient in this recipe, as well as a topping for each lucky diner to use in their own bowl, depending on how spicy they like their soup. Watch out though because it adds up, so always taste it after each spoonful!
Ramen Eggs:
These are so important! Leave them in the marinade overnight. They’ll last for up to 3 days, but dump the liquid after one day.
Before the broth, sauté onions, mushrooms, garlic, and ginger:
Shortcut Chicken Ramen
- February 12, 2021
- 1 hr
- Print this
Ingredients
- 1 T vegetable oil
- 1 onion, sliced
- 2 T freshly grated ginger (use the rotary grater and you get juice and rind!)
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 T chili garlic sauce
- 2 T oyster sauce
- 1 T hoisin sauce
- 1 T fish sauce
- scant 1/4 cup soy sauce (if using low sodium, barely double it)
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 1/2 - 3/4 Lb shiitake mushrooms
- 1 Lb boneless chicken breast
- 6 cups chicken broth (buy the good stuff, not watered down broth)
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1 huge carrot or 2 medium carrots, julienned with a peeler
- 1-2 pre-bound ramen noodles portions, cooked for 3 minutes and rinsed in cold water (see my recommendations below as the good ones are packaged in separately wrapped portions)
- EGG MARINADE:
- 4 eggs
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 1 cup water
- TOPPINGS:
- sliced green onion
- cilantro
- chili garlic sauce
- lime wedges
Directions
- Step 1
- FOR THE EGG (do this first):
- Step 2
- Bring a pot of water to boil, and when boiling carefully lower eggs into water, covering eggs with water completely.
- Step 3
- Cook for 7 minutes, then carefully place eggs in ice water for 3 minutes.
- Step 4
- Peel eggs and place in egg marinade. Ok to leave in marinade overnight, but if keeping longer they last for up to 3 days if you dump the marinade. Egg will reheat in the piping hot ramen broth!
- Step 5
- NOODLES:
- Step 6
- Bring pot of water to boil, add dry noodles and cook for 3 minutes. Remove and rinse with cold water. These will heat back up in the ramen broth like the eggs.
- Step 7
- RAMEN SOUP:
- Step 8
- Saute onion in a soup pot with the oil for 5 minutes, and then add sliced shiitake mushrooms for 3 more minutes.
- Step 9
- Add garlic and ginger for 30 seconds, so as not to burn.
- Step 10
- Add chicken broth with 1 cup of water, soy sauce, rice vinegar, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, fish sauce, chili garlic sauce, peeled carrot slices – stir and bring back to a simmer.
- Step 11
- Add chicken breasts and simmer for 15 minutes (or to 165 degrees).
- Step 12
- Remove chicken and shred apart. Return it back to the pot, along with the bok choy, and cook for 3-5 more minutes.
- Step 13
- Serve with ramen noodles, egg (halved), green onions, cilantro and lime wedges.
Song for the Prep: Know Your Chicken by Cibo Matto
If this doesn’t get you in a fun chopping mood I don’t know what will! Love this band so much. Little tidbit: I saw Yuka Honda do a sort of spoken word thing in NY when I lived there. Never forget. You got to know your chicken!
This was so good! We made it last weekend and definitely will make this ramen again. Really savory shredded chicken and mushrooms. Our only regrets were that we didn’t do the ramen eggs the way they are prepared in the recipe and that we didn’t halve the recipe. The leftovers we made were good, but just not the same as the fresh, day-of ramen. Next time we will either halve it or feed 4 people!