This is the basic chicken ramen stock I use for my lunch ramen (when working). It’s a hybrid of a French and a chintan-style stock, with ingredients that are easy to find.
This recipe uses a pressure cooker and a family-size pan (or stock pot) to reduce. You can replace the pressure cooker with a stock pot, given 3–4 times the cooking time.
Ingredients
Base stock
- 4 L water, or enough to cover
- 2–3 chicken carcasses, including backs, necks, and wing tips
- Pork fat or bones (optional)
- 2 large onions
- 4–6 large garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 knob of ginger
- 1 bay leaf
- Black peppercorns
Dashi
- 10–15 g bonito or saba-bushi flakes (optional)
- 1 medium or large piece of kombu
Method
Roughly chop the onions, garlic, and ginger, trimming off any dirty peel or root.
For a darker broth, roast the vegetables and chicken on a sheet pan at 230°C (450°F) until browned, about 20 minutes (optional). The darker the roast, the darker the broth.
Put the base stock ingredients in a large pressure cooker, add water to cover, and cook at high pressure for 30–40 minutes (check your cooker’s manual for broth times).
Let the pressure release naturally. Lift the solids into a metal bowl with a spider and tongs. Pour the stock through a fine-mesh strainer into a smaller pot.
With the heat off, add the bonito and kombu to the strained stock and steep for 15–25 minutes. Lift them out with a fine-mesh spider, or strain again.
Reduce the stock at a low simmer until it’s down by half, 2–3 hours. A rolling boil emulsifies the fat for a richer, cloudier broth, if you want that. Skim any remaining scum with the fine-mesh spider.
Notes
- Draining over the cooktop is safer than straining in the sink, as you’ll never accidentally pour your stock down the drain. NOT THAT I’VE EVER DONE THAT.