Since posting my recipe for Tonkotsu ramen two years ago, I’ve been getting requests to make a non-pork version of the rich collagen laden broth. Well… here it is finally!
Tori Ramen (鳥ラーメン) is nothing new. People have been using chicken stock to make ramen since the early days of ramen’s popularity in Japan. Sadly, it just doesn’t get as much respect as its unctuous porcine cousin. It probably has to do with the fact that chicken contains a lot less marrow fat than pork, so it’s almost impossible to get the same richness in the soup. That’s why chicken stock is often used in lighter styles of ramen such as shoyu (soy sauce) or shio (salt)
But getting a rich stock isn’t totally impossible. What chicken lacks in fat, it makes up for in collagen, especially in the joint areas and skin. Because chicken wingtips have a high ratio of cartilage and skin to meat and bone, they’re perfect for getting a rich sticky broth.
If you’re looking for an exact replica of Tonkotsu ramen, you’re going to be disappointed, but in many ways, this chicken ramen is better. First of all, it takes a lot less time to make. Secondly, while it may not qualify as healthy, it’s certainly healthier than a broth made of pork fat. Lastly, the relatively mellow flavors of the chicken stock base allow all the other flavors to shine through. To put it simply, it’s more Pierce Brosnan than Daniel Craig.
I usually top Tonkotsu ramen with Mayu (burnt garlic oil), but since the burnt garlic might overwhelm the milder chicken, I made a fried scallion oil instead. After mincing the white parts of a few scallions I fried them in sesame oil until they were just shy of burnt, then I added a splash of soy sauce to the hot oil which bubbles up furiously, caramelizing around the scallions and giving off a savory aroma that will make you want to lick the air around you.
Since topping this chicken ramen with pork chashu would negate the benefits of a purely chicken ramen I came up with a chicken chashu you can use as a topping. Since it’s hard to get good ramen noodles in the US, I like to make my own noodles, but thin Chinese style yellow noodles will work in a pinch. Add some scallions menma and boiled egg and you’ll have a world-class ramen worthy of any ramen shop with a line wrapping around the block.
Units
Ingredients
- 900 grams chicken bones
- 450 grams chicken wing tips
- 1 small leek (cut into 4 pieces)
- 1.5 inches fresh ginger (sliced into 8 coins)
- 4 large cloves garlic (unpeeled)
- vegetable oil (for frying the aromatics)
- 3 inches dashi kombu
- 10 cups water
- ¼ cup toasted sesame oil
- 3 scallions (white part only, minced)
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 cup soy milk - unsweetened
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 4 portions ramen noodles (boiled according to package directions)
Instructions
- Bring a kettle full of water to a boil. Lay the wing tips and chicken bones in a clean sink, then pour the boiling water over the chicken. Wash the chicken with cold water, scrubbing off any clumps of blood. This step solidifies some of the blood on the chicken so you can wash it off and it doesn't end up in your soup.
- In a small saucepan, add the leeks, ginger and garlic, then cover with vegetable oil. Gently fry over medium low heat until the aromatics are dark brown, but not burnt (about 30-40 minutes).
- Add the kombu, wingtips and bones to a pressure cooker and cover with 10 cups of water. Bring it to a boil uncovered, then skim off the scum that floats to the top. Continue skimming until you don't see any more scum. Remove the kombu and discard. Drain the fried leeks, ginger and garlic and add them to the pressure cooker.
- Turn off the heat and seal the lid on the pressure cooker. Set the pressure to high and the bring the cooker up to pressure over high heat (you should hear whistling). Turn down the temperature until there's a gentle whistling sound coming from the pressure regulator. If it's hissing violently your heat is up too high, if you don't hear anything your heat is down too low. Cook for 1 hour.
- When the stock is done cooking, let it cool to room temperature. Pour it through a large strainer into a large bowl. Squeeze the solids with your hands to extract as much liquid as possible. You'll notice that the liquid starts turning a creamy white. This is what gives the soup its body so be sure you get every last drop. Pour the strained soup through an extra fine sieve (such as a tea strainer) into a clean container. You can either stop here and refrigerate the stock or keep going.
- If you refrigerated the stock, it should be fairly easy to scrape off the excess fat with a spoon. If not, use a fat skimmer to skim off the extra fat and set the fat aside. In either case, you want to leave a little fat behind. Measure your the soup. You should have about 6 cups, if you have more, you should boil it down to 6 cups, if you have less, add water.
- To make the caramelized scallion oil, add the sesame oil along with about 2 tablespoons of chicken fat that you've skimmed from the soup to a small saucepan. Put the saucepan over medium heat, then add the minced scallions. Fry the scallions until they are medium to dark brown in color. Turn off the heat, then carefully add 1 tablespoon of soy sauce. The oil will sputter, so be very careful. This caramelizes the soy sauce, giving it a wonderful toasty aroma.
- To make the soup, add the 6 cups of strained stock to a pot, add 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of salt, and the soy milk and gently heat.
- Boil your noodles according to the package directions or make a batch of homemade ramen noodles.
- To finish the ramen divide the noodles between four bowls, pour the soup over the noodles then top with your choice of toppings. I served this with a soft boiled egg, menma, shredded scallions, and chicken chashu, but what you top it with is up to you. Boil your noodles according to the package directions. Put the boiled noodles in the bowl and add the toppings. Cover with the hot soup, then drizzle on some of the caramelized scallion oil. Serve immediately.
Ben Sand Ghostkamera says
I guess an easy way to see if the broth has reduced to the correct level is to fill the pot with 10 cups of water first, scratch or make a mark inside the pot where the level is, then start making the broth and keep boiling it down to that mark?
Ben Sand Ghostkamera says
I know some pots already have measurements inside, but not all do
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Ben, the goal isn’t to reduce the liquid to 6 cups, it’s to get all the flavor and collagen out of the bones and surrounding tissue. If you’re not using a pressure cooker, you’re going to have more evaporation during the longer cooking time so your soup will not be done when you’ve reached 6 cups (you’ll need to add some more water during cooking). The amount of time the soup takes to finish will depend on a lot of factors including the thickness of your bones, whether you use a pressure cooker or not, your altitude, etc.
Ben Sand Ghostkamera says
Thanks Marc! Will try this very soon and post results.
Susanne says
Great, thanks. This answers my question and solves my problem. I would turn into a ramen addict if there were any decent ramen restaurants in the country.
Making it at home has until now not been successful. The problem is the stock. I’ve tried any kind of buyable stock, even the butchers own. But they all contain too much salt. Either I can achieve a proper salt level with unsufficient chicken aroma or vice versa. Chicken bones cannot be bought anywhere, but the Palestinian merchant sells chicken wings in huge bags (frozen) at a reasonable price. 🙂
Ramen, here I come…
mark says
Hi Marc, hopefully you’re still monitoring this recipe. I’m trying to figure out the measurement for the kombu dashi. It reads as 7 centimeters?
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Mark, I’ve converted the measurements into inches. It doesn’t have to be exact, but you want about a 3-inch piece of konbu
mark says
Ah! Sorry! I followed the Dashi Kombu link which I thought was to make the following recipe. That’s why 7 centimeters didn’t make sense to me.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Mark, sorry about that that link’s a mistake, should be pointing somewhere else. Will get that fixed.
Adam says
Hi, will chicken feet do any justice as well compared to chicken wing tips? Since it’s a pretty fatty part of a chicken as well?
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Adam, I’ve never tried using chicken feet in this particular recipe. That said, I have used them before and they do have a good amount of collagen and so they may be worth trying.
Anna De Guia says
Any chance I could use the slow cooker to cook the broth? I don’t have pressure cooker 🙁
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Anna, you can use a regular pot (though it will take you about 6 hours), but a slow cooker will not work. The reason is that this broth needs the constant agitation of a low boil to keep the collagen and fat emulsified with the soup. If you use a slow cooker, you’ll end up with an oil slick on top and a much thinner soup.
Yzrael Angeles says
Hi Marc, I love Ramen. I may have to try to make my own this time. The procedures look complicated, though. I noticed that Japanese cuisines really call for, say, overnight marinatings and the likes. Nonetheless I love Japanese way of really putting your heart and soul into the dish. I guess it’a all about love. I have a question for you, if that’s allowed. Since I wanna try making my own ramen noodles and soup, like the whole thing, I have also started researching about dashi. From what I gathered, dashi is basically soup stock or base. I even got a recipe and instructions on how to make my own homemade dashi out of kombu and bonito flakes. Now, I know dashi is a light soup base. I know dashi of kombu and bonito is perfect for a miso soup and other soups. My question is, is it also used for chicken ramen, like for cooking the chicken broth itself? Im talking about preparing a dashi out of kombu and bonito and making use of it as the liquid itself to cook chicken broth. Is this a practice in Japan or in any ramen-loving place? Thanks
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Yzrael, dashi literally means “stock” in Japanese. And while it’s most common used to refer to a clear stock made with konbu and some kind of dried fish, it can refer to other things too. Ramen stock is prepared differently in different parts of Japan, and while most traditional broths are made with a rich pork soup as the base, in the Tokyo area for example, they use a combination of pork, chicken and fish and the soup is often clear. There are also more modern places that use only fish. I guess the short answer is that it’s not very traditional to use a bonito/konbu base, because ramen is so diverse you can pretty much do whatever you want. In my chicken ramen I don’t use the bonito because it has a very strong smoke flavor that would overpower the chicken, I do use konbu to add umami to the soup without adding any flavor.