Ramen broth is by far the most important part of a bowl of ramen noodle soup. Do you think making a restaurant-quality complex flavored ramen broth at home is possible? You bet it is! Read on because I share my ramen broth recipe with secrets and tips to make an authentic, easy yet complex flavored broth.
Types of Ramen Broth
Ramen broth can be classified by ingredients into three categories. The first one is chicken broth made from chicken carcass. The second is a combination broth made from chicken and Japanese dashi stock. And the third is Tonkotsu which is made from pork bones.
Ingredients for Homemade broth recipe
Many ramen restaurant chefs create their own unique flavored broth for their ramen and that is their secret weapon. In order to make a similarly full of Umami flavored broth, I go for the second type of broth. You need to gather the following ingredients.
- Chicken Carcasses
- Chicken wings
- Scallions
- Ginger
- Garlic
- Sake
- Kelp
- Bonito flake
- Dried Shiitake mushrooms
Why are Chicken Carcasses used?
Well, it is because Chicken carcasses contain a large amount of one of the Umami components; glutamic acid. So this becomes the basis of the ramen soup flavor. Also, chicken feet, known as “Momiji”, are often used. However, it is a little difficult to get these so I substitute them with chicken wings.
Adding a little bit of meat on those chicken wings will add sweetness and deep rich flavor to the broth without turbidity. Chicken wings are readily available and quite cheap from supermarkets. I get Chicken carcasses from local butchers. It is also cheap. I got 4 of them for A$2 (approximately US$1.3)
Why add Ginger, Garlic, Scallions & Sake
Because those aromatic root vegetables and Sake (Japanese alcohol) conceal the gamey odor of the chicken carcass. Also, onion adds natural sweetness to the broth. So all the vegetables added enrich the flavor of the broth. (step by step photo 4-7)
3 tips to Make Rich and Super Clear Chicken Broth
- Clean the chicken carcass under cold running water carefully so that no organs and blood remain. (step by step photos 9 & 10)
- Poach the chicken carcasses and wings for 30 seconds or until they become white. Don’t do this too long as we may lose the Umami flavor. This process is important to clean the chicken carcass further. Drain the chicken carcasses and wings. Discard the poaching water. (step by step photo 11 & 12 )
- Place prepared chicken and vegetables in a large pot with COLD water. Turn the heat down to low when it boils and remove the scum. Simmer gently for 3 hours. Skim the scum off occasionally. (step by step photos 13-16)
How to Make it a Rich & Flavourful Ramen Broth?
You can make delicious ramen with this chicken broth but there is a Japanese secret to make it richer and more flavourful; Adding dashi to the broth. The easiest way to make dashi for the broth is to place all dashi ingredients in a large jar, add water and leave it overnight.
Dashi Ingredients for the Broth
You need Kelp, Bonito flakes and dried Shiitake mushrooms. Combining inocine acid extracted from the Bonito flakes and glutamic acid abundantly contained in kelp gives the broth a complex and robust umami flavor.
TARE
Tare (tah-ray) is the seasonings added to the ramen broth to make different flavored ramen. Three common and classic flavors are, Shio, Shoyu and Miso.
How to make each Tare
Shio – Combine dashi (you can take 1/4 cup from the overnight dashi made for the broth), Sake, and Mirin in a saucepan over low heat. Add salt and resolve it.
Shoyu – Convenient way to make Shoyu tare is to use the sauce that was used to make Chashu. After straining the sauce put it in a saucepan over low heat and reduce the amount to half. After it has cooled down, I usually divide the sauce into small portions and keep in the fridge/freezer for other uses.
Miso – Blend all ingredients with a stick blender or food processor and add miso to combine. You can keep this in the fridge/freezer and use for other recipes such as Yaki Onigiri Grilled Rice Balls and stir fry.
Putting them Together
You can combine them together in individual ramen serving bowls as ramen restaurants do. Or put them together in a saucepan then pour into individual ramen bowls. You need a different amount of each tare, so see how much you need in the recipe below.
How to Store the Broth
Although it is worth the effort to taste such robust flavourful ramen at home, we don’t have time to make such long process broth. So I make it in batches and divide the broth into one use portion in a ziplock bag and freeze them. The broth will keep for a couple days in the fridge and about a month in the freezer.
Ramen Toppings & Side Dish Suggestions
You can make everything from scratch and if you do, you know what’s in it of course. It is cheaper and delicious. Make melt in your mouth ramen pork chashu and use the sauce for Shoyu tare. Also, read this easy ramen egg recipe too. The best companion dish for Ramen is of course Gyoza!
FAQ
A: Yes, you can. Basically, after cleaning and poaching the chicken, you can place everything in a slow cooker and leave it for 7 to 8 hours on low.
A: I remove the meat part from the bone and keep it in the fridge or freezer. You can use it for adding to fried rice, soup, or making a chicken sandwich etc. I also keep the mushroom too. Remove the stem to discard and then slice the mushrooms. Use it for adding to miso soup, use as ramen toppings etc.
References and Resources
Resourceful website about Ramen in English that I referenced to write this post. Also I recommend this Ramen book Ramen: Japanese Noodles and Small Dishes
that I own.
Stay connected
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Basic Ramen Broth
Ingredients
Overnight Dashi stock *2
- 0.35oz/10g Kelp
- 0.35oz/10g Bonito flake * or 1 cup
- 0.7oz/20g shiitake mushrooms *or 5 dried shiitake mushrooms
- 6cups/1.5L water
Chicken Broth
- 2 Chicken carcassess *1
- 4 Chicken wings
- 1/2 onion cut into quarters
- 2 cloves of garlic peeled and smashed
- 1oz/30g of ginger thinly sliced
- 2 Scallions chopped into one third length
- 1/2 cup sake
- 12cups/3L water
Shio Tare
- 1/4 cup Dashi stock *2
- 2 tbsp Sake *3
- 1 tbsp Mirin *4
- 1 tbsp Salt
Shoyu Tare
- 2.5 tbsp Chashu leftover sauce *5
Miso Tare
- 1/2 onion finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic finely chopped
- 1 tbsp finely chopped ginger
- 1 white part of scallion
- 2 tbsp Smooth peanut butter *All natural, no sugar added
- 1 tbsp Sake *3
- 2 tbsp Mirin *4
- 1 tsp Rayu Chilli oil
- 1/2 cup Miso paste *14
Instructions
Overnight Dashi Stock *6
- Place all ingredients in a large jar, pour in the water.
- Put a lid on, and soak the dashi ingredients overnight.
Chicken Broth
- Clean the chicken carcasses and wings under running water. Remove all organs, and wash off blood.
- Boil the water (not listed in the ingredients) in a large pot, poach the chicken carcasses and wings for about 30 seconds or till the chicken colour becomes white.
- Strain the the chicken carcasses and wings. Discard the poaching water.
- Place all ingredients in a large pot, pour in the water and bring it to boil over high heat. *7
- Once it has begun to boil, reduce the heat to low. Remove the scum that forms on the top of the soup. *8
- Simmer gently over low heat for about 3 hours. *9
Ramen Broth
- Occasionally, remove the scum that forms on the top of the soup and keep adding the overnight dashi stock as needed.
- Once it has simmered for 3 hours, add the remaining of the overnight dashi stock with kelp, bonito flakes and shiitake mushrooms. Remove from heat and strain the soup into another large pot or bowl. Throw away the remaining chicken carcass and vegetables.
- Simmer gently again for further 2 hours.
- Remove from heat and strain the soup into another large pot or bowl with a sieve lined with kitchen paper towel. *10
- The broth should be reduced to about 10cups/2.5L *11
- Use straight away for ramen soup or store in the fridge or freezer. *12
Shio Tare
- Combine all ingredients and stir to dissolve the salt.
- Place 2.5 tbsp of combined shio tare in a ramen bowl.
- Pour 2 cups/500ml of ramen broth into the ramen bowl and stir all together.
Shoyu Tare
- Place 3 tbsp shoyu tare in a ramen bowl.
- Pour 2 cups/500ml of ramen broth into the ramen bowl and stir all together.
Miso Tare
- Place all ingredients in a small container. Beat all ingredients with a stick blender or food processor until it become creamy.
- Transfer the mixture into a small saucepan and cook over low heat for about 3 minutes.
- Keep stirring constantly to avoid it burning.
- Turn the heat off and add miso paste. Combine all together well. *13
- Place 2 tbsp of miso tare in a ramen bowl. Pour 2 cups/500ml ramen broth.
- Stir well to dissolve the miso tare into ramen broth.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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Is there a substitute for bonito flakes?
Hi Kati no, unfortunately. If you don’t have one you can omit it.
I sliced up the shiitake mushrooms before adding them with the kelp and flakes to soak overnight and it now smells really strong. Its kind of a funny smell to me? If you cut them before soaking does that ruin the whole process?
Hi Kasey, Sorry I can not really answer as I can not smell, but dry shiitake mushrooms usually has beautiful aroma, not funny smell…..
I LOVE this! My son is a big Naruto fan and we wanted to have authentic ramen to go with that theme. I made my own mirin and rayu chilli oil because I couldn’t find a grocery nearby that carried them – it wasn’t difficult. I used soy sauce instead of miso and then because I don’t typically have chicken carcass (or a pot large enough to fit the occasional whole chicken I have on hand), I used 2 Noor chicken stock cubes (a Moroccan cooking trick from my mother-in-law). I skipped peanut butter the first time I made this because I once again didn’t have natural peanut butter on hand – it was delicious. I also made this in a pressure cooker to speed the cooking process and it turned out beautifully. This is a new family favorite, thank you so much for sharing it!!!
Thank you Alissa for making this ramen broth. I am glad to know that your family loved it too 😀
Thank you so much for your recipe, i tried both your ramen broth and chashu recipes and my family and I enjoyed it so much as we have been missing Japan, thank you for such a reliable and detailed recipe that helps me so much as I enjoy Japanese cooking! Looking forward to trying your other recipes as well 😀
Thank you Rachel for making ramen broth with my recipe and 5 star rating 😀
Hi Shihoko
We made this last week and it was amazingly good. So.am now going to make some to freeze.
Question #1: the first stage of briefly poaching the chicken. Does that have any impact on the actual flavour of the broth later, or is it merely to kill any bacteria?
Question #2: Once we remove the chicken/dashi elements you state to simmer for two hours with nothing in the broth. Can that be speeded up – ie a fast boil – or is there some reason for the simmer. I did the slow simmer and it came out great. I measured 4 x 500ml portions of un-reduced broth into my pan and weighed it before adding the rest and then weighed the pot again at intervals to check where I was in the reduction process. Might be a good tip for other cooks.
Thanks !
Hi Stephen, Q1 is for cleaning and remove the gamey taste. Q2 gently simmering is for making clear broth and extracting umami flavour max. If you boil it, the broth become cloudy 😀
Thanks so much for this great recipe! I made it yesterday and it’s amazing!
Your instructions were clear and easy to follow. I’m not familiar with Japanese cooking and was able to make amazing Ramen at home!
Ohhh That’s fantastic to hear 😀 Thank you Paul.
Hi! I made this last weekend and it was super good! Thank you for the recipe 🙂
You are welcome Kace 😀
How much miso should be added when making the miso tare, in the last step?
Hi E Fung, Thank you for asking and bring my attention to the recipe. I fixed it 😀
Hello,
When you say “keep adding the overnight dashi stock as needed.” you mean that you don’t put all the dashi in one time but you add some slowly during the 3 hours cooking ?
Best regards,
François
Hello again,
Also I tried to understand when you say “Shoyu Tare
2.5 tbsp Chashu leftover sauce” what do you mean, you mean putting 2.5 tbsp directly in the 2.5 L remaining ramen broth ? Cause after you say “Place 3 tbsp shoyu tare in a ramen bowl.” so when you say place 3 tbsp shoyu tare un a ramen bowl, do you mean by that 3 tbsp of the chashu leftover sauce ? Thanks for yours anwsers and help.
Best regards. François
Hi François, the tare(any of them) goes into ramen bowl and mixed with ramen broth in ramen bowl.
Hi Françis, yes add as it needed, because the broth liquid will be reduced while it’s being simmered for long time.
Very cool – looks delicious – can’t wait to try it. The broth in Japan was sooooooooo good (at a ramen restaurant in Japan.
I can tell from the ingredients and steps that this is going to be delicious 😋.
I meant to say in Okinawa lol. I’m doing 2 things at once.
Thank you Erika san 😀 Please let me know how it turned out when you make the broth 😀
great recipe, thank you! The broth was really flavourful
You are welcome 😀 Thank you for the comment and great rating!
Hi Shihoko, I’ve been craving noodles lately — can’t wait to try this recipe! Just wondering what else I would need to add to this broth in order to make shoyu ramen? (I couldn’t see any instructions for this option on your shoyu ramen page.) Also, would it be possible to use dashi (instant granules) instead of konbu? And if so, how much would I need to add…? Your blog is so lovely, by the way. The pictures in particular are just gorgeous!
Hi Le, you need to add 1-2 tbs of soy sauce par bowl. If you don’t have konbu, you dont need to replace it with dashi, because this broth will get umami flavour from chicken.
Thanks Shihoko! Looking forward to trying it out soon!
You are welcome 😀
Hi, is the chicken carcass raw or cooked?
Hi Alana, I bought raw carcass from a local butcher.
What is kobu pls
Hi Julia it is “Kelp” in English.
so clear all the information thank you
I’m glad it is helpful 🙂 thank you for the comment
Would this still work vegetarian (without the chicken)?
I’m not entirely sure, I think it might work but the taste will definitely be different because all the flavour and stock comes from the chicken. But definitely give it a try!
Hi Margaret, I’m not entirely sure, I think it might work but the taste will definitely be different because all the flavour and stock comes from the chicken. But definitely give it a try!
This sounds delicious and I’m excited to try it however I was wondering if there was any thing I could use to replace the sake or just omit it all together(if it wont mess up the flavor )?
Thank you! ??
Hi Monika, Sake can be replaced with Shaoxing wine(Chinese wine) or dry sherry:D