Ditch the Instant Noodles and Upgrade Your Chicken Ramen, Restaurant-Style

Since I came down with a summer cold after my trip to Cabo, I've been slurping a lot of soup, and all of that soup has been ramen. But ramen and I have a tortured history of love and hate, poverty and wealth. Primarily because when I was growing up in the Midwest, there was no Momosan (my favorite: try the spicy Tan-Tan!) or Momofuku serving up gourmet noodles as they do in NYC. There were only 10 packs of Top Ramen on a cardboard pallet at the grocery store. They used to sell them individually for less than a dollar; they came in flavors like chicken and shrimp, and I didn’t even know they existed until college. 

My roommates and friends ate it all the time, along with Hamburger Helper and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese—fast, cheap meals my mom never made because she cooked most things from scratch. (Before I get accused of true food snobbery, my mom's homemade efforts weren't always the most delicious. For most of my young life, I thought spaghetti with meat sauce was a soup, and that steak always had the consistency of shoe leather. But we didn't go to restaurants very often, so I had nothing to compare her food to growing up.) 

Still, I scoffed at Top Ramen as they cooked it on the illegal hot plates they kept in their dorm rooms, confused about why anyone would willingly eat it. I was the rare college student who actually lost weight in school because I hated both the food in the cafeteria … and the food you could throw together in a dorm room.

I chose to live off one chicken sandwich and chef's salad a day. I lost 20 lbs in less than three months.

While I was clearly a picky eater, I was also raised on bricks of Velveeta cheese “food product” that my cooking-adverse mother used to make stovetop macaroni and cheese. But I had a line I didn’t want to cross until I got out into the working world as a journalist in 2001 and found I could barely survive on my initial salary of $18k a year at the Midland Reporter-Telegram in West Texas.

Suddenly, it all made sense.

So, just like my Arkansas-born-and-raised, frugal mom kept a ton of Riceland rice and Great Northern beans on deck at all times, for most of my very broke 20s, I kept a palette of chicken-flavored Top Ramen in my house. I almost always needed it by the end of the month when my accounts were overdrawn and I didn’t have enough money for food. To this day, I hate Top Ramen and can’t bring myself to eat it under any circumstances, as I associate it with my former food insecurity. (That and the Sonic hamburgers that I used to save my change to buy when I was a broke reporter in Bakersfield, Calif, only to shamefully eat them alone in my car.) But I don’t hate “ramen.” I actually love the chewy, delicious noodles when done right. 

Two decades later, during the pandemic, I learned how to make Vietnamese pho, but I was never a fan of the vermicelli glass noodles used in the dish, so I substituted them with frozen ramen by Sun Noodle, made in New Jersey. I was so impressed with the noodles' consistency that I ate the entire bowl. The brand's frozen kaedama ramen was the closest I could get to having the noodles I loved at Momosan Ramen and Sake in Manhattan at home.

It became my favorite restaurant-style, homemade soup.

Today, I’m often too lazy to go through the rigamarole it takes to make the flavorful pho broth. Especially when I’m sick and craving a quick soup. (The fastest I’ve ever been able to whip up some pho is 3+ hours.) But I still keep several packs of frozen Sun Noodle Kaedama ramen on deck along with 32-oz boxes of chicken broth and cubes of chicken-flavored bouillon, so I can throw together the easiest and tastiest chicken ramen soup without being reminded of the dorm room horrors of Top Ramen.

Tasty, Fast 'Restaurant-Style' Chicken Ramen

Ingredients:

Serving size: enough for two large bowls of soup

1 32 oz can or box of Chicken broth*
2 cups of water
1 cube of chicken bouillon
1 tbsp of butter
1 tsp of salt
½ tsp of garlic powder
½ tsp of onion powder
¼ tsp of crushed red pepper
Freshly cracked pepper
2 packs (or one box) of frozen Sun Noodle Kaedama Ramen noodles (or a pack of dry ramen noodles, if you prefer)

Optional modifications:

Half a boiled, jammy egg seasoned with salt and pepper
2 boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts, seasoned** and pan-fried in 1 tbsp of olive oil
1 sprig each of basil and cilantro
2 green onions, chopped
1 tbsp of Hoisin sauce
The juice of half of one lime
2 tsp of low-sodium soy sauce
1 tsp of honey or agave (or more to taste)
⅛ tsp of cayenne pepper or a few dashes of hot sauce/tobasco

Directions:

Step 1

Season chicken breasts or thighs (if adding), then let them sit until they reach room temperature.

Step 2

Cook chicken breasts or thighs in a heavy metal pan over medium-high heat with olive oil. Cook for 10-12 minutes, flipping the chicken over halfway through.

Step 3

Once the chicken is done, set aside to make the soup.

Step 4

Combine water, chicken broth, bouillon, butter, garlic powder, onion powder, crushed red pepper, salt, and pepper in a large pot and bring to a boil.

Step 5

Add frozen ramen*** to the boiling broth mixture; cook uncovered for about 2 to 3 minutes. Watch the pot to make sure it doesn't boil over.

Step 6

Remove the pot from the burner; the ramen will continue to cook in the hot, seasoned broth while you add your preferred modifications.

Step 7

Slice the chicken into strips and add it to the soup along with any additional seasoning or modifications, if using.

Step 8

Pour the soup and noodles into two large bowls, garnish with herbs (if using), and serve hot!

Notes: *You can also make your own broth, but that eliminates the "fast" portion of this recipe.

**If not using frozen ramen, follow the package directions for how long the noodles should boil.

***Seasoning mix for chicken:

½ tsp of salt
½ tsp of pepper
1 tsp of garlic powder
1 tsp of onion powder
1 tsp of ground sage
¼ tsp of white pepper and crushed red pepper