21 Ramen Recipes to Build a Perfect Bowl at Home

These days, a growing number of Americans realize there's a lot more to ramen than the dried bricks you can buy with loose change at the supermarket. There are ramen restaurants all over the country serving traditional styles, and thanks to Sun Noodle, you can even make fresh ramen at home that's totally respectable.

But while people are getting used to eating great ramen, making it at home is still a stretch. Preparing a tonkotsu broth takes at least a day—add to that finding the right noodles and preparing the toppings, and you've got a serious project on your hands. But it's worth the effort for a bowl of rich, creamy, hearty ramen. If you're ready to give it a try, we've rounded up our favorite recipes for classic (and not-so-classic) broths and flavorful toppings like marinated eggs and braised pork. And if you're feeling especially ambitious, we have a thorough guide to making fantastic ramen noodles at home, whether you want something similar to commercial ramen, a more advanced lower hydration recipe, or one that uses AP flour.

Ramen

Rich and Creamy Tonkotsu Ramen Broth

For our money, the king of all ramen broths is rich, creamy tonkotsu. We make it by simmering pork trotters, chicken backs, and pork fat back for hours and hours until their collagen is extracted and turns to gelatin. We chop the pork fat into tiny pieces to add to the finished soup, as if it wouldn't be porky enough anyway.

Miso Ramen With Crispy Pork and Burnt Garlic-Sesame Oil

Hailing from Hokkaido, miso ramen is one of the newer varieties of the dish. Our recipe starts out with the same intense process as our tonkotsu broth, but we also add nutty red miso and salty soy sauce. To top the ramen, we like to simmer pork shoulder in the broth, shred it, and crisp it up in a pan carnitas-style.

The Ultimate Rich and Creamy Vegan Ramen With Roasted Vegetables and Miso Broth

Don't be put off by this recipe's daunting ingredient list—it's a lot of work, but you'll be rewarded with a bowl of ramen so rich and satisfying that you'd never guess it was vegan. The broth is made with roasted vegetables, kombu, and both fresh and dried mushrooms, and it is spooned over a shiitake-soy tare.

Turkey Paitan Ramen With Crispy Turkey and Soft-Cooked Egg

Paitan refers to a class of ramen broths that are super thick and opaque. Pork-based tonkotsu is the most famous variety, but it's not your only option. This version is made with turkey bones and drumsticks, the latter of which provide tender meat to fry up to top the ramen. The turkey flavor is a little overpowering on its own, so we balance it with miso paste and tahini.

Homemade Shin Cup-Style Spicy Korean Ramyun Beef Noodle Soup

"Traditional" ramyun is an easy, Korean-flavored version of Japanese instant ramen. Our reverse-engineered version uses a homemade broth made with dashi, short ribs or oxtail, aromatics, gochujang, and kimchi. The Chinese chile and bean paste doubanjiang rounds out the flavors.

Quick Kimchi Ramen With Shiitake Mushrooms and Soft-Cooked Egg

Making traditional ramen takes all day—if you're craving noodles and want them fast, this is your best bet. This Korean-style ramen gets plenty of flavor fast from kimchi, mushrooms, miso, and soy sauce. You don't even need to go to the trouble of tracking down ramen noodles—cook spaghetti with baking soda, and it'll mimic the taste and texture of ramen surprisingly well.

Seafood Ramen With Squid Ink, Mussels, and Salmon Roe

This jet-black seafood ramen is made with squid-ink spaghetti cooked in baking soda and topped with lots of treats straight from the ocean: squid, mussels, and salmon roe. The broth is dead simple—just chicken stock and miso paste. If you're using store-bought chicken stock, add a few packages of unflavored gelatin to make it richer.

Hiyashi Chuka (Cold Ramen) With Shrimp, Ham, and Vegetables

Ramen doesn't have to be a hot dish—in hiyaski chuka the noodles are served cold in a vinegary dressing made with soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, sugar, and grated ginger. Potential topping combinations are limitless, but for something traditional, try poached shrimp, sliced ham, and fresh veggies.

Pressure Cooker Chintan Shoyu Ramen

This soy sauce–flavored ramen features a clear broth that gets its punch from a garlic- and ginger-aroma oil. Pleasantly bouncy ramen noodles and crisp pork complete the rich bowl of soup. It may not be fast or easy, but it'll also leave you with everything you need for a follow-up batch of classic chintan shoyu ramen. Trust us—it's well worth the trouble.

Miso Tori Paitan Ramen (Creamy Chicken Broth Ramen)

Creamy chicken broth forms the base of this incredibly complex bowl of ramen, which is spiked with miso and funky dried-fish powder. Finish the soup off with a marinated soft-boiled egg (recipe below), finely diced white onion, sliced scallion, and lime.

Vegetarian Mazemen With Beans and Eggs

A soup-less ramen, mazemen gets much of its flavor from a variety of toppings that are thoroughly mixed once served (in Japanese, maze means "mix"). Here, we make use of some pantry staples like dried beans and their cooking liquid. The liquid offers a savory flavor base, while the cooked and puréed beans add creaminess. Mazemen is the perfect vehicle for leftovers, so don’t be shy when topping with any roasted or poached meats and stir-fried vegetables you have on hand.

Bacon and Egg Mazemen

When creating this riff on pasta carbonara, we wanted to do more than just sub ramen for spaghetti. Inspired by the version served at Yuji Ramen in New York, we reached for soy sauce, mirin, and rice vinegar to give the dish a more Japanese flair. Your noodle of choice is tossed with these ingredients, as well as bacon fat, to create a creamy sauce that coats each noodle perfectly. Finish with scallions, katsuobushi, bacon, and an onsen egg.

Turkey Chintan Ramen

Believe it or not, you can do more with Thanksgiving leftovers than turn them into a sandwich. Your leftover turkey carcass is perfect for making a clear, gelatin-rich ramen broth, and using your pressure cooker will cut down the cooking time significantly. Season with tare, drop in your springy noodles, and top with turkey fat, a slice of turkey breast, seared Brussels sprouts, and scallions. It's a leftovers creation that’s much lighter than the original meal.

XO Mazemen (Broth-less Ramen With XO Sauce)

Our favorite savory condiment is the star of this broth-less ramen. Originating in Hong Kong, XO sauce is packed with flavorful ingredients like cured ham, dried shrimp, and dried scallops. When mixed with soy sauce, vinegar, rice vinegar, and rendered pork fat and tossed with noodles, it serves as a creamy sauce that clings to every strand.

From-Scratch Shio Ramen

Instead of using miso or soy, shio ramen leans on salt to achieve its salinity and flavor. The light and clear broth is made up of chicken stock and dashi, which gets flavored with a shio tare consisting of salt, lemon, and kombu. While you can top it with any ingredients you want, we suggest keeping it simple, especially if you have some great noodles to show off.

Toppings

Japanese Marinated Soft-Boiled Egg for Ramen (Ajitsuke Tamago)

The most important parts of ramen are the noodles and the broth, but that doesn't mean you should forget about toppings. One of the most classic options is ajitsuke tamago, a runny soft-boiled egg marinated for hours (at least four and up to 12) in a mix of soy sauce, sake, mirin, and sugar.

Chashu Pork (Marinated Braised Pork Belly for Tonkotsu Ramen)

Chashu is another standard ramen topping. It starts with pork belly, which gets rolled up and braised in soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, sugar, and grated ginger. After the pork is done cooking, we let it sit overnight in the fridge before slicing. You can reheat it in hot ramen broth, but even better is to hit the pork with a blowtorch to give it a crispy char. We also have a pressure cooker version that cuts down the process significantly, as well as methods for reverse-seared and sous vide pork shoulder chashu.

Smoked Eggplant

This unusual ramen topping came about when we had leftover grilled eggplant after testing baba ganoush recipes. Turns out that smoky, tender eggplant works wonderfully with Japanese ingredients like bonito flakes, soy sauce, and mirin. The topping is flavorful and umami-rich but not as heavy as a piece of chashu.

Mayu (Black Garlic Oil)

No bowl of ramen is complete without a drizzle of flavorful fat. One option is mayu, or black garlic oil. Burnt garlic sounds unappealing, but if you blacken it in oil slowly enough, it gets dark and complex without turning acrid. As soon as the garlic is fully blackened, blend it up with sesame oil.

Burnt Garlic-Sesame-Chile Oil for Ramen

Once you've mastered a basic mayu, you can use it as a base for other condiments. For something with more of a kick, we like to blend up the garlic oil with minced Thai bird chiles, fresh garlic, and toasted sesame seeds ground with a mortar and pestle.

Shio Tare (Salt Seasoning Sauce for Ramen)

An essential element of most ramen bowls, tare adds salinity and a punch of umami flavor. Though this recipe does take a couple of days to make, much of the time is hands-off and the ingredient list is minimal: lemon rinds, salt, and kombu.