Easy Chicken Ramen – ready in 20 mins

Craving a fast and flavourful dinner? My Quick Chicken Ramen recipe uses all the shortcuts including, instant noodles and shredded, cooked chicken to create a delicious soup with a rich, savoury broth. Ready in just 20 minutes, it’s the perfect go-to for busy weekdays.
Plus, I’ll show you how to make the perfect soft-boiled egg to top off your ramen!

It can be a challenge to make a really flavourful chicken ramen soup broth without spending hours simmering bones or roasting veggies.
But it is possible!! This ramen is super quick, but it’s rich and silky with lots of umami flavour.

📋 What do we need?

It looks like a lot of ingredients, but it’s mostly just a sprinkle and a dash here and there with minimal actual prep and if you’re like me you have a lot of thes key ingredients in your store cupboard already.
The only bit that takes a little time is chopping the carrots and spring onions and peeling the egg.
I do that bit while the sauce is simmering and the noodles are cooking.

The Noodles

Yes, I’m using instant noodles from a packet – because they’re super quick to cook. Plus I like the lightness of them. Also the squiggly-ness of them is a bonus for ensuring they don’t slip off your chopsticks when you’re eating. You can get rid of the flavour sachet that comes with it as we’re making our own broth which will be soo much tastier!

The Ramen Broth

For the chicken stock you can use homemade stock or stock cubes for this. I use 4 chicken Oxo stock cubes with water.
Don’t worry about using stock cubes – it’s these other ingredients that REALLY lift the flavour of the broth:

• Soy sauce – a mixture of light and dark. Light for that salty seasoning, and a dark for that wonderful colour and a tiny bit of sweetness.
• Chinese rice wine – it’s like a magic ingredient to add depth to your broth. You only need a bit (1 tablespoon), but it’s REALLY important. Sherry is a good replacement if you haven’t got any rice wine.
• Sesame oil – for a golden toasty-ness and beautiful aroma.
• Sriracha – for a little kick of heat.
• White pepper – adds a touch of mild, warming heat.
• Ginger and garlic. They’re going to be fried in butter with that sesame oil. So good.

📺 Watch how to make it

🔪 How to make this Chicken Ramen

Full recipe with detailed steps in the recipe card at the end of this post.

• Fry minced garlic and ginger in butter with a little sesame oil. Then add in chicken stock (chicken broth).
• Next in goes soy sauce, chilli sauce, rice wine, white pepper, a little brown sugar and shredded cooked chicken.
• That’s all boiled together for a few minutes. Then we add in the noodles and cook for 3 minutes more.
• That’s it! We’re ready to plate up. Use tongs to transfer the noodles to ramen bowls, then ladle over the stock and add that chicken.
• Now you can top with whatever toppings you like. I like a soft boiled egg (see tips on this below), spring onions (scallions or green onions), strips of carrots and a few sesame seeds. I also like to drizzle with a little chilli oil, chilli paste or chilli sauce.

How to make the perfect soft-boiled egg for ramen

1. Take an egg and tap the thicker end gently on a hard surface. You should hear a slight ‘cracking’ sound. We don’t want to actually crack the egg shell, just give it a light fracture. This will help to separate the egg membrane from the shell and make peeling easier later.
2. Place room temperature large eggs in a medium-sized saucepan (no more than 4 in a pan) and just cover with cold water.
3. Bring to the boil, then simmer very gently for 6 minutes.
4. Turn off the heat and place the eggs in a bowl of water with ice for 5 minutes to stop the cooking process.
5. Carefully peel the eggs before slicing in half.

👩‍🍳PRO TIP I like to lightly tap, then roll the boiled egg on the work surface to crack the shell all over before peeling it off.

Gooey egg perfection!

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Toppings for a Ramen

I LOVE my toppings for soups so, along with that perfectly cooked gooey soft boiled egg, I also like to add some:

• thinly sliced carrot,
• spring onions (green onions),
• some chilli crisp (or chilli oil) and,
• a sprinkling of black and white sesame seeds.

You can change these up for how you want to serve it with some fresh bean sprouts, spinach or nori.

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A beautiful silky broth, packed with loads of flavour!

If you’re happy to spend a few hours simmering a pork joint for fall-apart meat try my spicy pork ramen.

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• Heat the oil and butter in a large saucepan, over a medium heat, until the butter melts.

  1 tsp sesame oil, 2 tbsp unsalted butter

• Add the garlic and ginger, and fry for 1 minute, stirring often to ensure the garlic doesn’t burn.

  4 cloves minced garlic, 2 tsp minced ginger

• Add the stock, light and dark soy sauce, sriracha, rice wine (or sherry), brown sugar, and white pepper.

  1.4 litres (approx. 6 cups) chicken stock, 2 tbsp light soy sauce, 2 tbsp dark soy sauce, 1-2 tbsp sriracha hot sauce, 1 tbsp Chinese rice wine or sherry, 1 tbsp light brown sugar, 1/4 tsp white pepper

• Stir together, then add in the cooked shredded chicken breast.

  3 cooked chicken breasts

• Turn up the heat to high, and bring to the boil, then simmer for 3 minutes to heat through the cooked chicken breast.

• Add the instant noodles, bring back to the boil then simmer for 3 minutes, stirring a couple of times to separate the noodles.

  210 g (which is 3 x 70g/2.5oz) packets of instant noodles

• Use a set of tongs to divide the noodles between four bowls. Ladle over the sauce and add the pieces of chicken.

• Top each bowl with springs onions, 2 pieces of egg and strips of carrot.

  5 spring onions, 4 hard-boiled eggs, 1 carrot

• Sprinkle on the sesame seeds and drizzle on a little chilli oil or chilli paste before serving.

  1 tsp black and white sesame seeds, 2 tsp chilli oil or chilli paste

A note on salt

Stock cubes plus soy sauce means there’s a good amount of salt in there – which is needed for a great ramen. You can replace with low-sodium stock and soy sauce if you prefer.

Make ahead

Make a batch of the broth ahead (without the noodles and chicken). Then you can cool and refrigerate for up to two days. 
Reheat in the pan until boiling, then continue on with the recipe, adding the chicken and noodles.
You can freeze portions of the broth (without the chicken, noodles or toppings), so you can whip up an EVEN QUICKER ramen whenever you like.
Just defrost the broth in the refrigerator overnight, then reheat in a pan until boiling before continuing with the rest of the recipe.

Ingredient swaps

Swap out the instant noodles for dried, fresh or frozen ramen noodles (frozen Yutaka Ramen Noodles are great).
Rice noodles or soba noodles Are good too. Medium egg noodles aren’t bad at a push. They have more of a rich egg taste.
You could swap the cooked chicken breasts for cooked shredded chicken thighs if you prefer, or even some leftovers from your Roast Chicken Dinner!

How to scale up and scale down this recipe

You can double or half the quantities, sticking to the same ratios and cooking time.
If you’re just making for two, use one pack of noodles for a lighter meal or two packs for more filling ramen.
Nutritional information is per serving – including the toppings.

Calories: 584kcal | Carbohydrates: 43g | Protein: 42g | Fat: 26g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Cholesterol: 275mg | Sodium: 3306mg | Potassium: 527mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 3152IU | Vitamin C: 7mg | Calcium: 87mg | Iron: 4mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

This quick chicken ramen recipe was first published on the 4th January 2021. Updated in November 2024 with updated information and for housekeeping reasons.

Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links – which means if you buy the product I get a small commission (at no extra cost to you). If you do buy, then thank you! That’s what helps us to keep Kitchen Sanctuary running. The nutritional information provided is approximate and can vary depending on several factors. For more information please see our Terms & Conditions.