Bacon, Mushroom & Egg Ramen Chicken Noodle Soup
I’ve got serious issues with Ramen noodles. Sure, they are cheap. But after I watched Marc Summers in 2008 school me in the ways of how this block of noodle was made, I vowed never to return to the 10 cent package of wonder. (For those curious minds, check out this YouTube video. While not exactly Unwrapped, it is pretty close to the production I saw. Only difference is Marc took us behind the scenes and showed us the process and all of the ingredients. It was kinda, yuck.)
Until now.
Thanks to the October 2013 issue of Food Network Magazine Ramen noodle entered into my life again.
Now I know there is a huge different between the Ramen you can buy at the Asian mart and those little blocks in the supermarket. But this recipe actually called for the grocery store kind, but you have to toss the flavor packet.
The Ramen Noodle Soup recipe is available on the Food Network website but it doesn’t do justice for the photographs and topping choices that magazine showcased. What caught my attention was the bowl of Ramen with the egg right smack dab in the middle of it. I love eggs. I want to eat their creamy center all the time.
The basic Ramen Noodle Soup recipe had a few issue for me. First, I had no desire to sit and boil 4 pounds of chicken wings. Nor did I want to boil, boil, and boil some more. I wanted to make this as quick and simple as possible, otherwise I would abandon the project.
The magazine suggest plenty of toppings for this basic recipe. Shredded roasted chicken, mushrooms, seaweed, kale, tofu, snow peas, scallions, bean sprouts, sesame seeds, radishes, kimchi, watercress, jalapeno, pickled ginger, wasabi, the fried egg, sesame oil, squash, shrimp, pork belly and sriracha.
With a list like that I knew I could toss together the basic stock and then the husband and I could add our own toppings.
I preferred mushrooms, friend egg, scallions and then there was the bacon and chicken from the stock recipe.
I don’t know where this has been all my life but let me tell you, it completely changed how I look at Ramen. Although, I’m still not sure I am a fan of the 10 cent packages. For now, I am OK since it’s not like I am eating them daily.
Our recipe was greatly inspired by the recipe in the magazine but we didn’t follow the complicated heat, cook, reheat, boil this and that method at all. I think ours is much simpler. (even though after I type it out it doesn’t seem so simple, but it really is.
Mushroom & Egg Ramen Noodle Soup
Ingredients
- 6 packages of Chicken Ramen
- 3 TBSP Olive Oil
- 8 Stalks of Green Onion sliced
- 8 Garlic Cloves smashed
- 8 Slices of Ginger
- 1/2 pound of Bacon
- 4 Chicken Breast
- 1 cup Frozen Mushrooms
- Parsley dry
Instructions
- In a medium size frying pan add 1 TBSP olive oil. Then add the green onions, garlic gloves, and ginger.
- Saute until warm.
- In a second frying pan begin cooking the bacon. Once done leave in pan.
- Remove the seasoning mixture from the first frying pan and set aside. Use this pan to cook your chicken. If you have a George Foreman type grill you could use this for your chicken instead and use the season pan to cook your mushrooms.
- Once your chicken is done, remove from pan and set aside.
- In a large stock pot, fill half way with water.
- Bring to a boil.
- Crumble the cooled bacon.
- Add the bacon fat, bacon, green onion, garlic and ginger mixture.
- Add the Ramen noodles and flavor packet.
- Reduce heat to low.
- Stir.
- While this is cooking shred or dice your chicken.
- Add the chicken.
- Allow the soup to simmer for a few minutes but do not overcook or your noodles will get mushy.
- Place soup in bowls and garnish with parsley.
- For the mushroom and egg variety, add the cooked mushrooms to the bowl. Fry an egg and add it to the top of the soup.
This soup looks delicious. Soups taste so good during the cold weather. I made chicken pot pie soup last night from Skinnytaste.com, and WOW! So good.
I made that exact soup a few weekends ago. It was so yummy! I have to tweak it next time though as we really felt it needed more chicken flavor. I also never follow recipes exact so mine turned out a little different.
For the price I always figured there was an issue with production although I never saw the film you mentioned. However, what always concerned me was the sodium levels. I always found them to be incredibly salty and sodium is one of the things I’m trying to watch.
I like the way you keep finding ways to redo old meals.
I wasn’t going to use the season packet. I usually only use a little when I make them. Those little packets have way too much sodium. But the noodles have no nutritional value at all. So, they are a treat when I eat them.
Wow Chrystal! This is quite the departure for my favorite Irish cooking girl. The flavors you use in this soup would be fantastic. I have recently fallen in love with ginger. I want to use it in everything! Yes, I’m strange like that. I made a version of ramen and used super thin whole wheat noodles to add some nutrition. Not quite the same as ramen, but it was delicious. My kids would flip over eggs in their soup. They would be looking for toast. LOL! Sounds so good to me.
Oh I know! My husband is the one with the oriental flavor palate. There are a few dishes I like but its not the sort of thing I like to cook. That is all him and it always smells like he is burning down my kithchen! (LOL) I have been cooking a lot of traditional Irish recipes to get ready for March. I am trying to get a whole month or Irish related recipes. Key word being ‘trying.’ There are a lot of things in the cookbook that are just too old fashioned, even for me.
I do hope to have a cute blog design ready then too. I’m trying to do it myself and have a huge war with Photoshop. We’ll see if it plays nicely.
We do have some brown rice noodles that I think would work well with this dish if I were to make it again. I would have to change the noodle boil time because too long with these and they get grossly mushy. Yuck.
It was a fun recipe and well worth the calories/sodium for a one-time test. Now I know things I can do to make it a bit healthier.
I would have never thought to put a fried egg in soup, but it looks Delicious! I love egg drop soup and I imagine it tastes a little like that. Thanks so much for being my bloggy friend and hosting The Yuck Stops Here with me! HUGS
I wasn’t a huge fan of using ramen, but it turned out so good!
This looks so good! And I like the idea of tossing the salt-laden packets. My almost 7-year old is pretty noodle obsessed, I bet that she would love this recipe and I like the added protein that you don’t usually get in noodle dishes.
We’ve gone through many packages of ramen in this house over the years. My hubby has always canned the packets and used a pat of butter.
This soup looks delicious. We eat a lot of soup during the winter.
YUM! I love Ramen “upgrades!” Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Did you say bacon? Sign me up! I love soup on a cold winter day.
That soup sound very tasty. I made homemade vegetable soup tonight. My Hubs told me it was the best he ever had. He is kissing up if I do say so myself.
My daughter used to eat ramen almost every day. This looks a lot tastier than the way I usually think of it!
This is a pretty simple and easy way to make a soup that sounds very delicious. It is one way to really pretty Ramen soup up and I like that idea.
This looks good. My son is a big fan of Ramen noodles, I will have to make this for him.
This reminds me of Pho which is so yummy!! I have seen a lot of people get creative with Ramen Noodles. You can add so much to this soup too. meats and veggies. yum!
What a delightful idea to top the Ramen with the egg. My oldest daughter is a sunny-side up egg lover, while I would just as soon skip them. Since it is soup weather, I will make some Ramen, add some of the ingredients you suggested, and top hers with an egg. Thanks for the great ideas.
Oh how I love ramen recipes. This looks super tasty!
I will not lie to you honey I do not like mushrooms at all. I do love the presentation of this meal I would just have to take out the mushrooms.
Wow, this looks delicious. I love getting fancy with my Ramen.
I bet this is a good way to get my teen to eat soup! She does love everything in there… it’s worth a try.
I have been having the biggest ramen craving lately. My husband LOVES it and my toddler recently discovered it;)
Honestly that looks really great! My boyfriend and I have experimented a lot with ramen considering we’re college students. I’ll surely pass this along to him since I’m a vegetarian and will have to pass. Happy Holidays! 🙂