Easy homemade spicy shoyu ramen recipe. Top with soft boiled egg, fish cake, nori and fall-apart tender chashu, this delicious bowl of spicy delight will sure satisfy your ramen craving!
Are you ready for some toothsome noodles, melt-in-your-mouth chashu pork, pickled bamboo shoots, fresh chopped scallion and a spicy broth that you can’t stop slurping? I hope you are hungry because we’re going to make some hot bowl of Spicy Shoyu Ramen together.
This spicy delight was requested from my friend Cindy from Weeknite Meals before the summer and I finally finished my recipe after testing several times. If noodle soup is your comfort food, you are going to enjoy this one.
What is Shoyu Ramen?
‘Shoyu’ means soy sauce in Japanese. Shoyu Ramen simply refers to ramen served with a soy sauce base broth that is usually in a clear, brown color. If you’re in Tokyo, Shoyu is the most familiar form of ramen you’ll find.
To make a good bowl of ramen is an art form itself. Ramen chefs pull together different elements to define the bowl of noodles. Even the simplest of ramen requires close attention to the ingredients, be it the broth or noodles, making sure each one interacting harmoniously. But, please don’t let this stop you from making ramen at home. So long you have a well-stocked Japanese/Asian pantry, it is possible to whip up ramen bowl that is of chef’s quality. The beauty of homemade ramen is you get to control the saltiness of the soup.
The Key Ingredients for Spicy Shoyu Ramen
Since we’re making Spicy Shoyu Ramen today, the key ingredient for the recipe is spicy chili bean paste (la doubanjiang). You can always make slight modification with the spiciness level. If you can’t handle spicy food at all, you can use regular chili bean paste (doubanjiang) instead.
The Noodles
The noodles used in Shoyu Ramen is usually the springy curly type. In my local Japanese grocery stores, they sell packages of fresh ramen noodles (with soup packages included, but I don’t use them). Sun Noodles make great noodles if you can find them locally.
The Broth
We all know that the broth defines ramen. It is what brings the dish together. But not many of us have the time to simmer the soup stock with bones and all for hours. To avoid compromising the flavor of homemade ramen broth, dashi is elemental to give it the extra depth. The rest is all about putting together the other condiments such as soy sauce, chili bean paste, sesame oil, chicken stock, sake and aromatics such as ginger and garlic in a pot and bring everything to a boil. A little bit of salt and sugar goes a long way. This will a yield a flavorful, rich soup in less time.
The Toppings
There are various toppings that can go into this Spicy Shoyu Ramen. In this recipe, I top the ramen with chashu pork, menma (bamboo shoots), narutomaki (fish cake), scallion, shiraga negi (Japanese green onion), nori and soft-boiled egg. It may read like a long list of toppings, but you can definitely decide what you’d like to add on to your ramen. Feel free to keep it simple or complex as you like, although I do think that a soft-boiled egg is almost compulsory. You can make ramen egg which I shared here.
The workflow of assembling the ramen is to gather all your toppings first. Follow by cooking the soup broth and then the noodles. Make sure you cook the noodles just al dente because the hot broth will continue to cook the noodles. Soggy noodles in ramen is a no-no. When the bowl is ready, serve and slurp! Swirl in a little bit of la-yu (Japanese chili oil) if you like an extra kick of spice. Enjoy!
Try Other Ramen Recipes Similar to Spicy Shoyu Ramen
Tsukemen (Ramen with Dipping Sauce)
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- 2 packages ramen noodles
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil (roasted)
- 2 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1½ inch ginger (minced)
- 2 tsp Doubanjiang (spicy chili bean sauce/broad bean paste) (See Notes)
- 2 cups chicken stock/broth
- 2 cups dashi
- 2½ Tbsp soy sauce
- ½ Tbsp sake
- 1½ tsp kosher/sea salt (use half for table salt)
- 1 tsp sugar
- Homemade Chashu
- Menma (fermented bamboo shoots)
- 1 soft-boiled egg
- green onion/scallion (chopped)
- 2 nori (seaweed)
- 2-4 slices Narutomaki (fish cakes)
- Shiraga Negi (Recipe)
- Korean Chili Thread (optional)
- white pepper powder
- la-yu (Japanese chili oil) (for more spice)
- Prepare toppings. Fresh ramen noodle will be done cooking in less than 2-3 minutes therefore you should prepare all of your toppings before you start cooking the ramen noodle.
- Prepare noodles. In a large pot, fill 2/3 of the pot with water and bring it to a boil. Turn off the heat and set aside until you are ready to cook ramen noodle.
- Meanwhile, mince garlic and ginger.
- Heat sesame oil in a pot that fits 4 cups of water. Add garlic and ginger and sauté until fragrant.
- Add spicy chili bean paste and stir.
- Add the rest of Soup ingredients and simmer for a few minutes.
- Check the flavor. It should be a little salty. Strain the soup through cheese cloth and put the soup back into the pot.
- Keep the soup simmering (not boiling) until you are ready to serve.
- Now ready to cook noodles. Loosen up the noodles before putting them into the boiling water. Cook noodles according to the package instructions. My personal recommendation is to reduced the noodle cooking time than what is on the package label. The reason for this is because once you pour the soup over the noodle, it continues to "cook" it.
- Drain the noodles completely and put it in a serving bowl.
- Pour the soup in the bowl and decorate with your toppings. Serve immediately.
Doubanjiang (spicy chili bean sauce/broad bean paste): You can buy non-spicy version online.
Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe in your own words and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.
Editor’s Note: The post was originally published on Nov 28, 2011. The content and photos have been updated in July 2017.
