a simple chicken ramen

I did it! I made ramen! To me, this is comfort in a bowl. Chicken, noodles, perfectly boiled, runny eggs. I'd heard horror stories of ramen gone wrong and how it can take days to perfect those deep ramen flavours... so I was a little apprehensive to get started. 

A simple chicken ramen recipe.

After lots of pinning and recipe hunting, I found this seemingly straightforward recipe - too good to be true? Nope! Perfect, rameny loveliness. I've tweaked and made UK ingredients and measurement friendly. This makes enough ramen for two hungry folk. 

You will need

2 chicken breasts

3 tsp garlic paste (here)

2 tsp ginger paste (here)

3 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp mirin 

(a sweetened rice wine, find it in most large supermarkets)

1 litre chicken stock

(I used two knorr chicken stock pots in boiling water)

1 handful dried shitake mushrooms

(soak these in boiling water for 20 minutes in preparation)

2 eggs

1 handful spring onions

100g dried noodles

(I used these from the world food aisle, perfect!)

Coriander to serve

Start by frying the chicken in a non-stick pan to seal and brown the outside. A few minutes on each side is plenty, or until golden. Place in a tin foil parcel and cook in the oven for a further 15 minutes or until cooked through. You can add any chicken juices into your jug of chicken stock!

In a large saucepan, fry the garlic and ginger paste on a low heat before adding the soy sauce and mirin - stir to combine. Add the stock and bring to the boil and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Add the dried, soaked mushrooms and simmer for a further 10-15 minutes. You may need to season to taste, however if you've used a dark soy sauce like I did, you probably wont need to. A light, lower salt soy sauce might be better to use in this. 

Whilst this is simmering, make your soft-boiled eggs! Bring a pan of water to the boil and then add the eggs carefully. I don't keep my eggs in the fridge, so they are at room temperature. Set a timer for 6 minutes. Once the time is up, remove from the boiling water and put into a bowl of iced water. This stops the cooking process. Leave in the icy water for 5 minutes before peeling and slicing lengthways. 

In the water you used to boil the eggs, cook your noodles. Follow packet instructions - usually 4-5 minutes. 

Assembly time. Pour the broth into two bowls then place the noodles, chicken breast (sliced), eggs and top with the spring onions (sliced) and a sprinkling of coriander. Season with black pepper and enjoy!

Slimming World - syn values

Mirin, 2 syns per tablespoon