In my opinion, Ramen Egg is the must-have topping in any Ramen. The gooey inside half-boiled egg marinated in a deliciously flavourful sauce does it for me. I just can not have ramen without a Ramen egg in it. However, they are also great on their own too. So read on and discover my ramen egg recipe!
What is Ramen Egg?
Ramen egg is a Japanese egg dish also known as “Ajitsuke Tamago” or in short “Ajitama” in Japan. Aji means flavour and tamago means egg, so it is translated to flavoured eggs. It is basically a soft boiled egg marinated in a soy sauce-based marinade and usually used for topping ramen. But as I mentioned it is delicious to eat on its own.
How to Cook Ramen Eggs
It is actually very easy though due to the marinating it takes a little bit of time. First of all, we need to make soft boiled eggs. Further down this post, you will see tips to make perfect soft boiled eggs. Then after the boiling of the egg, you make a marinade with two secret ingredients which make the ramen eggs robust with flavour! Leave the soft boiled eggs in the marinade overnight, and tada, you have delicious ramen eggs!
Tips to Make Perfect Soft Boiled Eggs
In order to make consistently fabulous eggs, follow the tips below.
- Leave the eggs in room temperature.
- Add the eggs into boiling water gently using a ladle. You can add a little bit of vinegar or salt. This helps because if the egg cracks, the vinegar or salt in the boiling water prevents the egg from spreading out too much.
- Cook eggs for 7-8 minutes and keep rotating the eggs. This makes sure the egg yolk will be centred. If you like a runny egg, cook only 7 minutes. I like mine a little more solid so I usually cook them for 8 minutes.
- Remove the eggs into icy cold water so the eggs will not be cooked further by the residual heat.
What are Ramen Eggs Marinated in?
Ramen restaurants which use eggs have their own secret ramen egg recipes. Generally speaking though, the marinade is made from soy sauce, sugar and mirin. My secret ingredients (Kakushi aji) are Miso and Toban Djan
(Chinese Chilli bean paste). Miso adds more Umami flavour to it and Tobanjan gives a little bit of a spicy kick to the eggs.
A Tip to Marinate Evenly
To Marinate the soft boiled eggs evenly, follow the steps below.
- Place soft boiled eggs and marinade in a ziplock bag.
- Seal the bag by leaving just the last inch.
- Prepare water in a tall container.
- Submerge the bag into the water. When the bag gets lowered, water pressure will push the air out of the bag.
- Seal the bag completely.
How to Cut an Egg Neatly?
The eggs in ramen are usually neatly cut, aren’t they? How is this possible when the yolk is runny soft? This is my trick (I did not invent it but I learnt in Japanese home ec class when I was a high school student a long time ago). Use a cotton thread. Wrap the thread around an egg where you would like to cut it, then cross both ends and pull the thread. Easy!
FAQ
Ramen egg will only last a few days in the fridge because they can not be frozen. So use them within a few days.
If you don’t have mirin, it can be substituted with sake/dry sherry and sugar. Read more about Japanese food substitution post.
Apart from eating with ramen, they can be just eaten as a snack, or you can add to your Bento Box. If you are going to add to your bento box, make your soft boiled eggs a little firmer.
More Recipes to Make a bowl of Ramen
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Ramen Egg
Ingredients
- 4 eggs ( room temperature)
- 2 tbs soy sauce
- 2 tbs sugar
- 1 tbs miso
- 1 tbs mirin
- 2 tsp honey
- 1/4 tsp Tobanjyan Chinese broad bean chilli paste *5
- 1 clove garlic crushed
Instructions
Soft Boiled Eggs
- Bring water to boil in a large saucepan.
- Add the eggs one by one gently into the boiling water with a ladle.
- Set a timer for 7-8 minutes. *1
- After boiling for 7-8 minutes, remove the eggs from the boiling water into a bowl of icy cold water. *2
- Peel off the shells and set aside.
Marinade
- Combine all sauce ingredients except miso in a small saucepan over medium heat.
- Turn the heat off just before the sauce boils. Do not completely bring the sauce to boil.
- Add miso paste and dissolve it. *3
- Cool the sauce down and marinate the eggs in a ziplock bag and refrigerate for about 5 hours at least. *4
Notes
Nutrition
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Hi,
Could you specify what type of miso (colour) you use?
Many thanks.
Hi Tess, I used my home made miso You can use any type of Miso. If you like strong taste use Aka(dark brown) and if you like mild and sweeter Miso use Shiro(white) miso 😀
Would it be terrible to leave out the honey?
Hi Tania, I like sweet taste, if you like savoury I don’t thinks it would be terrible.
I’m curious if any water is used when simmering the sauce ingredients?
Hi Michele, no no water.
Is there anything I can use in place of the broad bean paste, or would it be totally offensive if I left it out altogether? I have all the other ingredients. If I can make a tasty enough egg without the paste, I want to go for it!
Hi Elaine, do you have chili paste? or chili? add a little bit of chili instead. If you don’t you can left out 😀
wow nice recipe i enjoyed it !
I’m glad! Thank you 🙂