Easy Homemade Ramen With a Little Help From Nona Lim
Updated: Dec 22, 2022
If you haven’t had the mind-blowing experience of a freshly made bowl of ramen at a Japanese restaurant or ramen bar, it might be hard to not think of ramen as an easy-to-make college food with little nutritional value.
It’s a soup I can’t help but associate with the word cozy. When I lived in New York it seemed like I would always end up eating ramen on cold or rainy days - Setagaya was always one of my favorite spots. If you’re feeling slightly under the weather it will leave you feeling ship shape by the end of the meal.
I would be lying if I were to say it could cure depression, but on some days it honestly felt like it did.
Unlike the Nissin or Top Ramen varieties, a more traditional ramen is often made with a well-seasoned bone broth making it more instantly filling and nutrient-rich. The word ramen in Japanese directly translates to pulled noodles and fresh ramen noodles are a fair rival to the best handmade Italian noodle recipe.
Pro tip: If they say it’s spicy it seriously is. But if you want to quickly remedy a cold I highly recommend the spiciest one they have.
Toppings can certainly vary, but common ones are sliced pork, scallions, seaweed, and egg. For this one, I went with a few of my favorites that I could easily get at my grocery store: chicken, green onions, mushrooms, and jalapeno.
While I have an excellent pho spot in Louisville, KY I go to (seriously make a trip out to Vietnam Kitchen if you’re ever in the area) I haven’t been able to find a good ramen spot here.
So I was pretty excited when I found out about Nona Lim authentic pre-made ramen broths and noodles.
I ended up getting their Noodle Night Variety Pack for my first order so I could try out more than just their spicy chicken ramen broth and traditional ramen noodles. It also came with two packs of laksa rice noodles, coconut lime chicken bone broth, and pho beef bone broth. So essentially you have the hard part of the meal ready for you and then you just have to boil the noodles, heat up the broth (you must do these things separately or they will come out wrong - I know this from experience lol), and just slice some of your favorite veggies and proteins to add in.
So here’s my super easy recipe for spicy chicken ramen made with Nona Lim:
Ingredients:
Nona Lim spicy chicken ramen broth
Nona Lim traditional ramen
Roughly half a pound of sliced chicken tenderloins
1 cup of sliced baby bella mushrooms
1 jalapeño
Spring onions - enough to garnish two large bowls
1 lime
Season the chicken with salt, garlic, and ginger (I just eyeballed it)
Drizzle a tablespoon of sesame oil into a fry pan on medium heat. Add chicken. Cook chicken for five minutes and then add the mushrooms to the pan.
Slice jalapeno and spring onions to use as toppings. Cut lime in half.
Cook chicken until it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees. If you don't have a meat thermometer, you can check if it's cooked enough by cutting it in the center and making sure that it's not pink at all.
Heat all of the Nona Lim spicy chicken ramen broth in a pan on high heat.
In a separate pan boil water for the noodles. Once the water is boiled add in the Nona Lim traditional ramen noodles for approximately three minutes. Drain noodles and place them in bowls.
Pour broth over the noodles leaving room for the chicken, mushrooms, and toppings.
Add the desired amount of chicken, mushrooms, spring onions, and jalapenos. Optional: Drizzle with a bit of sriracha for extra spice.
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