This post is sponsored by The National Pork Board, but all opinions are my own of course! Thanks for supporting the amazing brands that keep The Food Charlatan chugging along. I have a business coach who helps me keep my head on straight. At our last meeting, I was telling her how overwhelmed I felt with all the things going on in my life. Toddler! Blog! Kid’s homework! Making kids do chores! Kids screaming about chores! Not strangling screaming kids! It’s a lot, you know? I saw a meme the other day that said, “Having a two-year-old is like having a blender with no lid on in your house.” Truer words ne’er were spoken. Anyway, coach told me to do a “brain sneeze,” where you get a piece of paper and write down all the to-do’s circling around in your brain. (Then I’m supposed to categorize and give them space on my calendar.) So I sat down at the kitchen table and mentioned my brain sneeze plan to 4-year-old Valentine, who was doing a puzzle. I get out a crisp clean white sheet of paper. I poise my pen. I think for a moment. Then I realized I had to blow my nose and I’m sitting there with a tissue for a minute. I look up to find Valentine watching me intently, with the hugest round eyes I’ve ever seen. And that’s when I realized she was waiting for me to ACTUALLY sneeze my brains out. I’ve never seen a kid look so concerned, fascinated, and horrified all at once. Well, here’s to getting the to-do list done right? Hopefully this time without traumatizing any children in the process?? Even with the crazy schedule, family dinner always makes the list. Here in our neck of the woods, fall is FINALLY making it’s debut! The cooler weather always makes my whole family want to cozy up with a bowl of soup, and what could be more satisfying than slurping up giant bowls of ramen together? Ramen that is topped with crispy pork no less??
How to make Easy Pork Ramen
Tell the truth. I know your first exposure to Japanese ramen was Top Ramen. Or was it Cup O’ Noodles? Raise your hand if this was the first thing you ever “cooked” as a 9-year-old. (My dad taught me to add frozen peas and an egg into my Top Ramen, see it’s just natural to add toppings! Even to Americans cooking the dumbed down version of ramen!) But today’s recipe is definitely not dumbed down! This Pork Ramen recipe is a thousand times more delicious and flavorful than anything that packet of spices can give you. We start off with a salty marinade to make our pork shoulder ultra-flavorful. I love using pork shoulder in this recipe because it is so versatile and easy to adapt for so many recipes. I always have one tucked away in my freezer. Once it’s done marinating, we are slow cooking the pork with veggies and liquid to make the most delicious broth. Next, we are sautéing more veggies and crisping up the shredded pork in a skillet. Top with a hundred garnishes and slurp your way to happiness! This recipe is a bit of a labor of love, but it’s 100% worth it! Let’s get started.
Ingredients to make Pork Ramen
It looks like a lot, but don’t be intimidated! I’ll break it down for you in the recipe below!
What kind of pork is used for ramen?
Let’s start off with this gorgeous cut of pork shoulder. I am partnering with the National Pork Board on this post! Pork is a staple in our kitchen, especially the magical pork shoulder. It is incredibly versatile (Try this Cafe Rio Pork! Or this Pulled Pork with Peaches!) and always results in melt-in-your-mouth tender meat. Plus it’s a great way to make sure my kids are getting enough protein! They are obsessed with this crispy pork! You want to choose a pork shoulder that is nicely marbled with fat. Chop it into a few chunks to make sure the marinade can penetrate the meat well. Most pork shoulders are about 3-4 pounds, but you only need 2 pounds for this recipe. If your shoulder is very large you can halve it and freeze for later, or if it’s on the small side (3 pounds-ish), you can use the whole thing for this recipe. You will have a higher proportion of crispy pork than you need at the end, but who’s going to complain about that?? Toss it on a salad for dinner tomorrow with all your other leftover toppings! I like to marinate my pork shoulder in salt, brown sugar, fish sauce, rice vinegar, and sesame oil. This blend of ingredients gives the meat this amazing umami flavor! Let the pork sit in the marinade for at least a few hours if you have time, or even overnight. But a 30-minute marinade is better than nothing! Do what you have time for! Add the pork and all the marinade to a 6-quart crock pot. A mini crock pot is not going to work for this recipe! We need a big pot for all that broth.
This broth is kind of a big deal
Ramen is all about the broth. If you don’t have a delicious broth, you don’t have delicious ramen. So it’s worth spending some time on! We are creating our broth using water and high quality chicken bouillon, but we’re not stopping there! It’s going to be slow cooking for about 8-10 hours, so of course the pork is going to infuse a ton of flavor and delicious fat into the broth. We are also adding carrots, celery, onions, garlic, ginger, and jalapeno. These are great veggies for cooking over long periods and lend amazing flavor to our broth. We are also adding those beloved Asian flavors with a few special ingredients: soy sauce, rice vinegar, fish sauce, sriracha, and some brown sugar to balance the saltiness. We are on our way to something totally amazing here, guys.
The toppings: crispy pork, jammy eggs, sauteed veggies, oh my!
Besides our beloved broth, the other most important thing for our ramen is of course the toppings! Making Pork Ramen is kind of an endeavor, so enlist help if you can. If there is none to be had, make sure you have everything ready to go, and follow the order I’ve shown you in the recipe. Read through it carefully to make sure you don’t end up with cold pork and overcooked noodles, nobody wants that!
Jammy eggs
What’s a bowl of ramen without a couple jammy soft-boiled eggs? It’s always my favorite part for sure! (I’m always so offended if I order ramen somewhere and it comes to the table and I realize I didn’t order one with an egg. Like what do you MEAN ramen is a thing without eggs?? They are essential in my book, haha!) Making perfectly soft-boiled eggs is so easy. Put some eggs in a pot, cover with water, and bring to a rolling boil. Turn off the heat, cover with a lid, and wait 3-5 minutes depending on how soft you like your egg to be. If you want it to be slightly runny, wait 3 minutes. If you want it like a very soft hard boil texture, wait 5 minutes. (See recipe notes for steaming eggs times.) Whatever amount of time you choose to wait, remember that plunging into an ice bath after the allotted time has passed is essential! This stops the cooking process so your eggs don’t get overcooked. Set aside until you are ready to slice them and add to your ramen.
Sauté your vegetables
Now it’s time to prep some of our toppings! I love lightly sautéing a bunch of vegetables and throwing them on top of my ramen. You can use any veggies you like. I chose to use carrots, leeks, and spinach. Mushrooms are another great option and very traditional.
Matchstick carrots will make you feel fancy. Plus, they are just the perfect size for eating with ramen! Here’s how to do it:
Chop your carrot in half, then slice off the round edge so that you can put it flat on the cutting board. Then thinly slice. Stack up your slices and chop into small matchsticks. Voila!
Have you ever cooked with leeks? They have such great flavor. They are also very dirty, so make sure you take the time to rinse them under cold water before dicing them up. Discard the tough outer layers too.
Just remember, you don’t HAVE to sauté your veggies. I’ve tried lots of different veggies in ramen, both cooked and uncooked, and I prefer the softness (and sweetness!) of cooked carrots, leeks and spinach (or mushrooms). The photos actually show raw carrots and raw leeks, with cooked spinach. Do whatever sounds most delicious to you!
The other thing to remember is that you can sauté all these veggies together if you like! It’s faster that way. If you are going for an impressive presentation, it’s better to sauté them one at a time. We’re only sautéing each veggie for a minute or two, so it doesn’t take too long, but I get it sometimes it’s just one more thing. Do what you have time for!
Cook your noodles
About 20 minutes before you want to eat, add your ramen noodles to the broth in the crock pot and crank it up to high heat. They will cook in just a few minutes! You can find ramen noodles on the Asian aisle of your grocery store. OR! You can totally use Top Ramen noodles! They are not as high quality, but they will do in a pinch. Toss the flavor packet in the trash, we already have an amazing broth!
Crispy pork
There’s fall-apart tender pork shoulder, and then there’s CRISPY-CARAMELIZED fall-apart tender pork shoulder. We’re going for the latter today! Here’s how it’s done. First, shred up your pork using two forks. After 8-10 hours in the crock pot, it’s totally falling apart. This shredding process takes about 2 seconds. I love slow cooking pork shoulder because you don’t ever have to worry if it’s at the right endpoint temperature. If it’s falling apart this easy, it’s definitely cooked enough! Next we are going to use the same pan that we sauteed the veggies in to get this pork next-level crispy. Add some sesame oil into the pan and add about half of the shredded pork in a single layer. Don’t pile it in! We’re going to work in batches. Sprinkle some brown sugar over the pork and let cook without stirring for about 30 seconds. Add in some rice vinegar and soy sauce. It will steam up and get all hissy at you. Use a spatula to flip the pork over in sections. Add more brown sugar if necessary to keep the caramelization process going. Once both sides of the shredded pork has crisped, remove the pork to a plate and repeat the process with the remaining pork. Then add it all back into the pan and keep warm while you finish the rest! We’re almost done! I mean, you could almost just stop right here. Noodles and crispy pork forever. But come on…let’s amp it up!
The garnishes: never enough!
It is basically impossible to over-garnish your ramen. There’s always room for one more! Here are some of my favorite raw garnishes to throw on top of a big steaming bowl of ramen:
Green onions Jalapeno Corn, fresh or frozen White sesame seeds Black sesame seeds Crushed red pepper, if you like it spicy!
What to serve with Pork Ramen
Gyoza (or called pot stickers/dumplings sometimes in the US) are a great option! You worked so hard on this ramen I feel like you deserve to buy some frozen ones, haha! Dunk them in some soy sauce and call it good. A side of edamame or maybe green beans would also be delicious! Or maybe a simple green salad. But honestly, I never do appetizers or side dishes with ramen. I feel like it qualifies as a stand-alone meal. Happy slurping!
More Asian recipes you are going to love!
Soups with ALL the toppings
I love me a good soup, but I especially love soups like Ramen where I get to pile on a bunch of toppings. Check out a few of my favorites!
Pozole Rojo Like Abuela’s » tender pork and hominy in a rich chile broth, with cabbage, radishes, avocado, cilantro, and much more piled on top!! Creamy Chicken Enchilada Soup (Chili’s Copycat Recipe) » the super creamy soup combined with fresh pico de gallo topping is an amazing combo Lasagna Soup to end them all » lasagna in soup form, with the best herby cheesy ricotta mix spooned into each bowl Best Ever Cheeseburger Soup » all the cheeseburger flavors you love, including lettuce, tomato, pickles, and bacon stirred right in
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