This Duck Fat Ramen is made with ginger, shallots, garlic, and duck fat, which is easy to find at Whole Foods. It is topped with fresh vibrant vegetables ladled over ramen noodles.
Using duck fat to make ramen is a really easy way to add a lot of flavor with minimal effort. Duck fat can be found at Whole Foods, enabling you to throw this super tasty dish full of healthy vegetables together fairly quickly. The duck fat adds a ton of richness, which leaves room to focus on adding heaps of fresh vegetables over those satisfying curly noodles.
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
The Broth: Ramen is all about the broth, and this broth is made simply by incorporating savory duck fat, simplifying what could be an hours-long process. Ginger, shallots, and garlic create an aromatic broth.
Great for Leftovers: Double the broth and you’ll have easy leftovers for days. Or freeze any leftover broth for a super easy meal another time.
Recipe Inspiration
When visiting some of my old college roommates in Florida recently, they took me to a restaurant in walking distance that had the most incredible ramen. One of the things that stood out about this ramen was that it was made with duck fat. Almost a year later, and on the road in Austin, TX, I tried making this at “home” (aka our 2 month Airbnb stay as we travel around the country). It was so good and saved so much time in the process, not having to cook or prepare any meat.
Ingredients
Below are the ingredients needed to make Duck Fat Ramen.
- Olive Oil: I use extra virgin olive oil.
- Duck Fat: This can be found in the oils section at Whole Foods. See further discussion on duck fat below.
- Aromatics: Add flavor to the broth.
- Ginger
- Shallot
- Garlic
- Chicken Stock: Store-bought or homemade. If you have homemade chicken stock, this would be a good place to use it.
- Soy Sauce: Many different brands will work here. I typically use low-sodium soy sauce from Kikkoman or Trader Joe’s.
- Sriracha: Adds heat/spice, but can be omitted if it's not something that you regularly keep in your pantry. Add more if you like it spicy, or add it to your individual bowls if someone in your group does not like spicy food.
- Toppings: All are sliced thinly so that they soften in the hot broth.
- Red Bell Pepper
- Baby Bok Choy
- Jalapeno
- Frozen Corn
- Soft/Hard-Boiled Eggs: Adds protein. I will usually make a whole bunch of hard-boiled eggs (8-10), thinking that if there are any extra, I’ll use them for egg salad sandwiches during the week. But usually, we end up eating them all between the first night and leftovers.
- Ramen Noodles: I use Ocean’s Halo Brand. One box of Ocean’s Halo Ramen Noodles is enough for one meal for a family of 4. However, you’ll need another box for any of the leftover broth the next day. I have been able to find packaged ramen noodles fairly consistently at Whole Foods (different Whole Foods markets around the country), and I’ve also seen the Ocean’s Halo brand at Kroger.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
More On Duck Fat
- Using duck fat means that you get all the flavor of that fat without all the work of preparing, cooking, or cutting any meat.
- It's an unusual ingredient and not one that ends up on our typical grocery list. I can’t imagine most people have ever bought duck fat at the store. I hadn’t until wanting to make this recipe. But it is fairly easy to find at Whole Foods.
- Depending on the time of year (if it's near Thanksgiving) it can be found in the refrigerator section in the same area as the hot dogs/sausages/bacon in a small round white tub, almost like margarine. Locally we have one called, "Mary's Rendered Duck Fat." Otherwise, it can be found in the aisle with oils.
- Taste: duck fat does not have a strange taste, and it doesn’t really stand out as having any strong flavor. If anything it resembles the flavor of chicken, but mostly it just adds a nice savoriness.
Doubling the Ramen
I make a habit of doubling this recipe to have tons of broth left over for lunches during the week. Consider doubling it (it is not double the effort) and have the rest as leftovers or freeze the leftover broth and pull it out anytime you need dinner ready in about 15 minutes. All you have to do is make the noodles and cut up a few veggies.
How to Make Duck Fat Ramen
Below are the step-by-step instructions and photos for how to make Duck Fat Ramen.
*Note: The recipe card with instructions, ingredient list, and quantities is included further below these step-by-step photos.
Step 1. Bring a large pot or Dutch Oven to medium heat. Add the olive oil and allow to warm through for 1 minute. Add the ginger and shallot and saute for 2-3 minutes.
Step 2. Add the garlic and saute for 1 more minute.
Step 3. Add the chicken broth, soy sauce, and sriracha (if using). Bring to a boil and reduce to a summer. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure nothing gets stuck to the bottom.
Step 4. Prepare the eggs. If you prefer hard-boiled eggs, fill a small saucepan with water and bring it to a boil. Add the eggs and remove the saucepan from the heat. Allow the eggs to sit in the hot water for 12 minutes. Then plunge the eggs into ice water. Then peel the eggs.
If you prefer softer eggs, remove them from the hot water earlier. At 10 minutes the egg yolks will be slightly soft. Reduce the time from there to 6-8 minutes if you prefer even softer eggs.
Expert Tip: The best way to ensure easy peelable eggs is to add the eggs directly to hot boiling water, then remove the pan from heat. Then after your preferred time, plunge them into ice water.
If you were to add the eggs to cold water and bring the water to a boil it would be much more challenging to peel the eggs.
Step 5: Prepare the corn. Add the corn to a small microwavable bowl and cover with water. Then microwave for 1 minute or until warmed through. Then drain the water.
Step 6. Prepare the ramen noodles according to the package directions. Typically this is to bring a sauce pan of water to a boil, remove the pan from heat and add the ramen noodles. Let the noodles sit for 3 minutes, then drain the water.
Step 7. Using a fine mesh strainer remove all of the garlic, shallots, and ginger from the Dutch Oven.
Step 8. Assemble the Ramen: Add the ramen noodles to a bowl. Top with the thinly sliced red pepper, bok choy, jalapeño, eggs, and corn. Ladle the boiling broth over the vegetables and noodles. The broth should be so hot that it starts to soften the vegetables.
Recipe Tips
How to Simplify: This recipe calls for quite a few toppings, but you really only need 2. To simplify choose just 2 toppings such as bok choy and eggs, or red peppers and corn. The fewer toppings, the less prep involved.
Adjust the Amount of Duck Fat: You can scale the amount of duck fat up or down. This recipe calls for ¼ cup duck fat, but you could reduce this to 2 tablespoons, or add more if you like an extra savory ramen.
Duck Fat Ramen FAQs
Duck fat does not have a strong taste, it is pretty mild and somewhat resembles the taste of chicken fat.
Yes, duck fat can be added to ramen to make it more savory and enhance the other flavors in the dish.
To make ramen broth quickly, use duck fat, shallot, garlic, and ginger for a quick and flavorful broth.
How to Store, Reheat, Freeze
To Store: To store leftovers, store each of the items separately. Store the broth in one container, noodles in another, and any vegetables and toppings in a third container. Do not store the noodles in the broth or they will become soggy.
To Reheat: To reheat the ramen bring the broth back to a boil and pour it over the noodles and thinly sliced vegetables and toppings.
To Freeze: Leftover broth is great to freeze. Add it to a container or a gallon-sized freezer bag and freeze for up to 3 months. Reheat on the stovetop or in the microwave and make up some fresh noodles and veggies for a quick and easy freezer meal.
Looking for other dinner recipes? Here are some ideas:
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Duck Fat Ramen
Ingredients
- 2 tbsps olive oil
- ¼ cup duck fat
- ¼ cup peeled and sliced ginger
- 1 shallot, sliced (not minced)
- 5 garlic cloves, sliced (not minced)
- 8 cups chicken broth
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon sriracha
- 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
- 2 bulbs baby bok choy, thinly sliced
- 1 jalapeño, thinly sliced
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
- 1 cup frozen corn
- 4 eggs (to be hard/soft boiled)
- 15 oz Ramen Noodles + more for leftovers (Ocean’s Halo brand can be found at Whole Foods)
Instructions
- Bring a large pot or Dutch oven to medium heat, add olive oil and duck fat. Add the ginger and shallot and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for another minute.
- Add the chicken stock, soy sauce, and sriracha. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Continue to simmer for 10 minutes.
- Separately, hard or soft boil eggs to your preference. To hard boil the eggs bring a pot of water to a boil. Add the eggs and boil for 10 minutes. Drain, then plunge the eggs into a bowl of ice water. Peel and slice the eggs.
- Place the corn in a bowl along with a little bit of water and microwave for 1 minute until warmed through, strain out the water.
- Cook the ramen according to the package directions in a separate pot. I’ve used Ocean’s Halo ramen noodles, which comes in a 10.5 oz package at Whole Foods. The whole package is enough for one dinner for 4, but you will likely need more to use with any leftovers.
- Using a fine mesh strainer remove and discard all of the ginger, shallots, and garlic so that you are left with only broth.
- To serve, place ramen noodles in bowls and top with bell peppers, bok choy, jalapeño, green onions, corn, and sliced eggs. Ladle the still piping hot broth over the vegetables and noodles. The broth should be so hot that it starts to cook the peppers and bok choy so that they become slightly soft.
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