My best Korean instant ramen noodles recipe jazzes up Nongshim Shin Ramyun, which are the best instant ramen noodles as far as I’m concerned. I like the spicy soup seasoning of Nongshim’s Shin Ramyun, especially the Shin Black Noodle Soup, so all I do is add slices of pork, blanched bean sprouts and Chinese greens, a boiled egg, chilli oil, and fried shallots.
Instant ramen noodles get a bad rap as fast food for lazy people or poor students, but as Lara said in her recent post in which she shared her best instant ramen recipe and now not-so secret formula for upgrading instant ramen noodles, all you have to do is take the dried instant noodles themselves, discard those little packets of dehydrated veg and seasoning, and add your favourite ingredients to really take instant ramen to the next level.
But while Lara may love her Nissin ramen noodles, for me the best instant ramen noodles are Korean instant ramen noodles and Nongshim Shin Ramyun in particular. My best Korean instant ramen noodles recipe upgrades Nongshim’s Shin Ramyun, which are easily the best instant ramen noodles as far as I’m concerned, but I’ve still used those little packets of seasoning in this case.
The spicy soup base of Nongshim’s Shin Black Noodle Soup hits the spot, so I just add melt-in-your-mouth slices of char siu pork, crisp Chinese greens, blanched bean sprouts, a boiled egg, deep-fried shallots, and my heady homemade chilli oil. I generally don’t find instant noodles very satisfying, but with a little planning, you can easily turn instant ramen noodles into a ‘real’ meal.
This instant ramen recipe won’t be in our epic Cambodian culinary history and cookbook, which documents recipes of cooks in Cambodia, but if you love Asian food and like what we do here on Grantourismo, you can support our work by becoming a patron on Patreon for as little as US$2, US$5 or US$10 a month or whatever you can afford, or you can make a one-off donation. If you can’t, we get it, but please spread the word and take time to browse our recipes.
And here’s my best Korean instant ramen noodles recipe.
Best Korean Instant Ramen Noodles Recipe
If you’re not familiar with Nongshim Shin Ramyun, the South Korean noodles are apparently the most popular Korean instant ramen noodles. Note that if you are in the USA, you will probably be eating noodles made by Nongshim America.
However, oddly enough, here in Cambodia, our Nongshim noodles come via Australia, where our local Siem Reap supermarket chain buys a lot of their products, which they ship to Cambodia. (The owner tells Lara she uses it as an excuse to holiday in Australia).
The best Korean instant ramen noodles are thicker than your average wheat noodles and are cooked accordingly. The American version even has a graphic on the back of the packet informing you that you cook the noodles in hot water for four minutes for al dente, four and a half minutes for medium, and five minutes for soft.
These are not your average packet noodles that cook for three minutes before turning to mush.
I like Nongshim’s Shin Black Noodle Soup, which I cook for four minutes, having added about half the soup powder first, and having blanched any extras that need cooking before that, such as the Asian leafy green vegetables and the bean sprouts. I generally don’t use the vegetable flakes packet at all, as I don’t like the texture.
Here are some more tips for making my best Korean instant ramen noodles.
Tips for Making my Korean Instant Ramen Noodles Recipe
My best Korean instant ramen noodles recipe begins with eggs – as most of my best recipes do! I add eggs to the noodles for extra protein in the dish. You could quickly fry an egg (with crispy edges, please!) and even poach an egg.
You could also put an egg in with the boiling noodles to make a form of drop egg soup, the famous Chinese dish with ribbons of whisked egg added to the hot broth.
However, my favourite way to add eggs is any kind of boiled egg, preferably soft boiled.
The next addition is real vegetables. We nearly always have bok choy or similar leafy Asian greens in our vegetable draw in the fridge. We often use them as a side for Cambodian and Chinese meals. We put leafy greens in our version of Hokkien noodles for instance.
If your noodles didn’t come in that convenient throwaway cup, you need to boil some water on the stove anyway, so why not throw some bok choy in?
Another addition that we like are bean sprouts. It’s important to blanch bean sprouts briefly, so I do that in boiling water, too, suspending them in a fine mesh colander.
The final key ingredient is char siu pork. You might think it’s odd to have char siu pork just hanging around in the fridge, but I often make it to add to my special fried rice and Hokkien noodles.
There’s nearly always leftover char siu pork in our fridge, and you just need a couple of slices to make your instant ramen noodles into a more complete meal.
If you have leftovers from the braised pork belly recipe I posted last night, you could always pop a few pork belly pieces into your ramen bowl too.
When it comes to garnishing my best Korean instant ramen noodles, some sliced spring onions or sprigs of coriander are perfect. Crunchy dried shallots add extra texture and flavour as well.
As for sauces, I add my homemade chilli oil for some extra oomph but a dash of Sriracha will also get your tastebuds tingling. We prefer the original Thai Sriracha sauces but the American-Vietnamese Rooster Sriracha brand will also do the trick.
Finally, if it’s a late night dinner for us (dinner is nearly always late), I like to serve my best Korean instant ramen noodles in big ceramic bowls with proper chopsticks and spoons rather than the cardboard instant noodle ‘bowl’ and plastic spoons inside.
Why? It just makes it feel like it’s a real meal rather than a wasted meal. Just don’t tell anyone.
Korean Instant Ramen Noodles Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 packet Nongshim Shin Ramyun
- 1 boiled egg
- 1 bunch bok choy
- 3 tbsp bean sprouts
- 3 slices char siu pork
- 1 tbsp chilli paste
- 1 tbsp chilli oil
- 2 stalks spring onions chopped finely
- 1 tsp fried shallots
Instructions
- Bring a pot of 550 ml of water to the boil.
- Using a small colander, blanch the bok choy for 30 seconds.
- Using a small colander, blanch the bean sprouts for 30 seconds.
- Add the Nongshim soup powder, to taste (it’s quite hot).
- Add the disc of noodles and cook for 4 minutes on a gentle boil.
- Tip the stock and noodles carefully into a soup bowl.
- Add the bok choy and bean sprouts.
- Add the egg and the pork slices.
- Add a good dob of chilli paste to the bowl and pour over some chilli oil.
- Sprinkle with spring onions and fried shallots.
Nutrition
Do let us know if you make our best Korean instant ramen noodles recipe as we’d love to know how they turn out for you.
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