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. 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-based broth that is usually in 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 modifications to the spiciness level. If you can’t handle spicy food at all, you can use regular chili bean paste (doubanjiang) instead.
1. 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.
2. 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 yield a flavorful, rich soup in less time.
3. 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 long green onion), nori, and a 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 soy-marinated ramen egg.
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!
Japanese Ingredient Substitution: If you want to look for substitutes for Japanese condiments and ingredients, click here.
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- 2 servings ramen noodles (10-12 oz or 283-340 g fresh noodles; 6.3 oz or 180 g dry ramen noodles; For gluten-free, use these GF 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 (click to learn more anout this soup stock)
- 2½ Tbsp soy sauce
- ½ Tbsp sake
- 1½ tsp kosher/sea salt (I use Diamond Crystal; 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.
Other Delicious Ramen Recipes on Just One Cookbook
Editor’s Note: The post was originally published on Nov 28, 2011. The content and photos have been updated in July 2017.
Thank you Nami for the great recipe. I will definitely try it out.
Hi Rogelio! Thank you!! I hope you will like this recipe! 🙂
I’ve made this ramen today and it was totally delicious!!! Thank you so much Nami! 🙂
I have one question though… I chose corn as one of the toppings and I must say I was really struggling while trying to pick up those little grains with chopsticks. Is there a secret to how you can eat them? Do you use a spoon or is there a special chopstick technique? 🙂
Hi Alina! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you for your kind feedback! We usually serve ramen with a pair of chopsticks and a special Chinese style spoon (we call it “renge”). It looks like this:
http://product.rakuten.co.jp/product/-/8a4a91839c4fa823a6d7a49463ce23dc/?sc2id=gmc_501061_8a4a91839c4fa823a6d7a49463ce23dc&scid=s_kwa_pla
Hope that helps! 🙂
I made your spicy shoyu ramen soup today, and it turned out perfect! I made my own chashu, ramen eggs and menma. I am lucky to have a large Japanese market near my home where I found everything I needed. I will be trying the miso ramen soon. Thank you for the wonderful recipes!
Hi Leslie! I’m happy to hear that you liked this recipe! Wow, you did a great job making all the toppings! Yes, we’re very lucky to live near Japanese supermarkets as a lot of Japanese ingredients are unique and hard to find it elsewhere even in Asian grocery stores… Hope you like the miso ramen too! 🙂
You have some great recipes here, will be trying some of them tonight!
Thanks!
Hi Alex! Thank you! Hope you enjoy my recipes! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Hi I was wondering would it be ok to leave the chicken stock and the sake
out of this recipe and just use water in instead .
Hi Chris! Are you vegetarian? If not, I still recommend using chicken stock for more flavor. Water is okay but it’s a bit too bland and doesn’t create the “depth” of the flavor. 🙂
I am vegetarian thank you . I’ll be trying this once the ingredients get delivered
Hi Chris! I see! Then please use 4 cups of Kombu dashi total (instead of 2 cups chicken broth and 2 cups of dashi).
https://www.justonecookbook.com/how-to-make-kombu-dashi-vegetarian-dashi/
Water doesn’t give any umami flavor, and kombu will definitely help! That’s best you can do without chicken broth or regular awase dashi (bonito flakes + kombu kind).
Thanks a lot for your precise instructions! Last night I managed to do ramen including homemade ramen eggs and charshu meat which I made for the first time following your recipe. It was a big hit, especially charshu which went out better then those we usually eat in local ramen restaurants. As my husband is a ramen fan, we often eat ramen out so can compare places and tastes. I hope next time I’ll make more soup and toppings to enjoy ramen for two or three days.
Hi Olha! I’m so happy to hear you and your husband enjoyed this simple recipe. Compared to ramen shop, we spend much less effort and time. Yet I think this ramen recipe is much better than packaged ramen soup you can get from Japanese grocery stores. The ramen shops I go make great soup so I know this is not comparable but I think it’s pretty good overall. Thank you for your kind feedback! Try miso ramen or vegetable ramen (you can add chashu). Their soup is rich and delicious!!!
If you really want to make it interesting, then add a quarter of a teaspoon of yuzu zest to the soup. There’s a Ramen restaurant near me in Nakameguro called Afuri that does a yuzu shouyu that’s delicious, so I tried it at home with great results.
Hi Angelo! Thank you for your suggestion! It’s Yuzu season now and some of the Japanese grocery stores here sell yuzu (but $3 for one yuzu!). We featured Afuri’s Yuzu Shio on the blog before:
https://www.justonecookbook.com/japanese-ramen-guide/
I love everything with yuzu~~. Thanks for your feedback. xo
I made them and they’re REALLY good! I was wondering if I could / should use the liquid left from the chashu as tare for the ramens, before pouring the soup?
Hi Yowan! Thank you for your kind feedback! I’m so happy you enjoyed it! Sure, you can use the tare. 🙂
Made this for dinner today. It was SO delicious!
Hi Emily! I’m so happy to hear that. Thanks so much for your kind feedback! xo
Just made this and it was easy and fantastic! We also added two chopped jalapeños to the soup (pre-strained) for some extra spice. The broth is quite salty but was to my taste and perfectly spicy.
When I first made the soup I was afraid it wouldn’t be enough for two so I doubled the recipe, but we have a lot left over- I forgot the noodles will take up a lot of room in the bowl!
I had it with ramen egg, green onions, sesame seeds, and a drizzle of sesame oil. My boyfriend had the same plus shrimp and sautéed mushrooms.
Delicious and super easy!
Hi Cameron! Thank you for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback! I’m glad you and your BF enjoyed it. Yes because of the noodles, we do not need that much liquid. I made the same mistake before too. 🙂
Another delicious recipe: this broth is very fragrant and quick to put together! I didn’t have any chashu ready, and fish cakes are not available where I live, so I had to make some substitutions. But we enjoyed a very good dinner!!!
Hi Rolanda! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe. Thank you for your kind feedback! xo
I left out the doubanjiang or spicy chili bean paste because I made this for my kids. It was delicious! Thank you.
Hi Katie! So happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe with your children! Thank you very much for your kind feedback. 🙂
This looks really nice. Just wondering, have you ever made Taiwan Ramen (I think it’s a Nagoya specialty, maybe?) before? I tried to find a recipe, but their a little hard to come by.
Hi Liliana! Taiwan Mazesoba, right? Not yet… I want to, but I can’t find the right texture of noodles. I’ll try to make it one day, and I added it to my list. 🙂
Hi Nami,
I love your recipes and your detailed instructions!
I want to make Shoyu Soup Broth – do I just leave out the chili paste?
Also, I am cooking for 16 people. Should I multiply the soup ingredients by 8?
Thank you SO much!
Hi Ivy! I would say the chili bean paste is crucial in this short ingredient list… If someone is not into spicy, I recommend getting non-spicy doubanjiang (https://www.justonecookbook.com/doubanjiang-chili-bean-paste/). Yes, you will need to multiply that. Adjust the saltiness based on your stock because some are saltier than others. 🙂
I made this four times now. Super delicious. My son doesn’t like things too spicy, so I went with the regular broadbean paste. Success. Instead of the pork I made Karaage chicken. That worked well too. Once we even just had vegetarian toppings. I think you can get really creative with the toppings and never get bored. Thank you for giving us this yummy and easy to follow recipe.
Hi Kayelle! Definitely! It’s great that you are very creative with your toppings and I like your thinking! 🙂 Thank you so much for your kind feedback!
First time I have attempted anything like this and it was definitely a success! I started by making ramen eggs, then the stock. I used chicken, edamame, shiitake mushrooms and an egg as toppings. The only thing that was a little tricky was getting everything ready at the same time: the noodles, the heated stock and the toppings all need to be at the right temperature. I will definitely be making this again at some point. I would like to replace the chicken with pork belly next time.
Hi Helen! Thank you for trying this recipe and I’m happy to hear you enjoyed it! Once you tried making ramen, you can set up everything much faster and in a more efficient manner next time. You know what needs to be done, so you will do better! Hope you enjoy making ramen at home! 🙂
Hi Nami,
Was wondering if you have the intention to make a tonkotsu based ramen at some point? I was going to make this without the spicy bean paste. But would also love to see a tonkotsu ramen as well!
Hi Ollie! It takes HOURS (DAYS if you have to prepare the rest of ingredients) and we don’t really make this broth at home in Japan (unless you are ramen fanatic and really want to make your own tonkotsu broth). At this time, I don’t have the plan. Maybe one day. 🙂 Thank you for your request. I think there are some tutorials on Tonkotsu broth online. It’s a pretty daunting process! xD
Can I use chunjang (https://www.amazon.com/WANGS-Fermented-Black-Paste-Chunjang/dp/B077WRLGG5/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=chunjang&qid=1578717135&s=grocery&sr=1-3) in place of doubanjiang? I can’t find the non spicy doubanjiang :c
Hi MC! Thank you for the link so I could check. No, this doesn’t work… it’s a different flavor profile. I found one online (and on Asian Food Grocer – they are good shop!).
https://www.asianfoodgrocer.com/asian-food/sauces-seasoning/chinese-sauces/lh-reg-broad-bean-paste-8-oz
This recipe is AMAZING. It tastes just like the real ramen I had in NYC without the whole process of making broth from bones. My friends were so impressed and people didn’t believe I actually made it when I posted the pics lol. Tysm!!(:
Hi Annika! I’m so happy to hear you liked this recipe! Thank you for trying it and for your kind feedback! 🙂 xo
I made this tonight and it was amazing! This time I used a dashi packet, but which dashi do you usually use for this if you make it? Awase?