Ramen Noodles With Homemade Chicken Broth

This recipe is brought to you from our friends at Macknade - set on the outskirts of the historic town of Faversham, in Kent, their Food Hall & Café is a food lovers paradise, featuring a range of incredible produce - including Sutton Hoo Chicken. It was originally published here.

The key to the perfect bowl of ramen is using a good broth. Image credit: Macknade

Ingredients

Serves 2

All these ingredients can be found in the Macknade Foodhall

FOR THE HOMEMADE CHICKEN BROTH

• 2 raw chicken carcasses (buy online here if you aren’t local to Macknade)

• 1 small onion

• thumb sized piece fresh ginger

• 1/2 head garlic cloves

FOR THE RAMEN NOODLES

• 180g ramen noodles

• 2 small pak choi

• 2 soft boiled eggs

• 2 generous forkfuls kimchi 

• 800-900ml chicken broth 

• 2 tsp white miso paste

• 1 tsp mirin 

• sea salt, to taste

• 2 spring onions

• 4 seaweed snack sheets

• soy sauce, to serve

Method

Tip: pick up a pouch of great-quality, pre-made broth for a speedy weeknight dinner!

HOMEMADE CHICKEN BROTH

1. Nestle the chicken carcasses into the bottom of a large casserole dish, and using a pair of strong, sharp kitchen scissors break down the carcasses a little if needed to make them fit. If there are excess pieces of fat or skin still attached, removed them.

2. Peel and halve the onion, cut the ginger into coins (no need to peel!) and peel the garlic cloves. Add them to the pot, and top up with 2l cold water.

3. Bring to the boil over a high heat, then reduce to a generous simmer, allowing it to blip away uncovered for 2 hours. After about 30 minutes, you’ll need to skim the dark scum from the top of the pot.

4. Strain the broth, and use a gravy skimmer or baster to remove some of the fat if there is more than 1cm floating on top. You want a decent amount of chicken fat in the soup for flavour and mouthfeel, but not too much!

5. The amount of broth you’ll get from this will vary each time from 500ml to just over 1 litre. If you’re a little short for the ramen bowls, make the difference up with water

FOR THE RAMEN NOODLES

1. Cook the noodles as per the packet instructions. Drain, run under cold water, and drain again. Don’t worry if they seem slightly underdone; they’ll keep cooking in the soup.

2. To prepare the toppings, halve the pak choi and blanch in a pan of boiling, salted water for just 2 minutes. Peel and half the eggs, and slice the spring onion.

3. Gently heat the broth in a saucepan. Meanwhile, stir together the miso paste and mirin in a small bowl. Add a splash of the broth, whisk well, then whisk the mixture into the broth along with sea salt, to taste.

4. To assemble the bowls, divide the noodles and pour over the broth. Arrange the pak choi, eggs, a few forkfuls of kimchi and the seaweed snack sheets on top. Serve immediately with soy sauce on the side.

Top tip: If you have any leftover chicken from your Sunday roast, use some to top each serving!