This Short Rib Ramen is made by sautéing garlic, shallots, and ginger to make a richly flavored and aromatic broth along with slowly cooked short ribs. It's topped with fresh vegetables and eggs over ramen noodles.
This soup is great for a cold winter day. Pour the piping hot broth over the noodles and vegetables, warming the bowl and your hands around it. There's something about a good bowl of Ramen that makes you feel like it is bottomless and you can just keep on eating and eating and eating.
This recipe requires that you invest some time in slow-cooking the short ribs. This breaks down fatty pieces of meat, just like in this slow-cooked Pot Roast Recipe. If however, you are short on time, you can make this Duck Fat Ramen in much less time.
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💡 Recipe Inspiration: New York City
When I lived in New York, my roommate would take me all around the city to get ramen. Sometimes the restaurant would be unmarked in the basement of an office building or on the fourth floor of a walkup or some other non-obvious, unmarked location.
This recipe is inspired by those nights of meandering NYC looking for ramen. This version, rather than chicken or pork, is made with beef short ribs.
🌟 Why You'll Love This Ramen
Broth: Ramen is all about the broth. This broth is made with shallots, ginger, and garlic, and slow-cooked short ribs.
Short Ribs: Short ribs are fatty pieces of meat and that fat lends a lot of flavor to the dish. They are cooked low and slow, flavoring the broth and leaving you with meat that falls off the bone.
Leftovers: This recipe rewards you with lots of leftovers in exchange for the time upfront to slowly cook those short ribs.
Ingredients:
Below are the ingredients needed to make Short Rib Ramen.
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil: Use extra virgin olive oil, if possible, but you could also use a neutral oil such as grapeseed oil.
- Ginger, Shallot, Garlic: Aromatics that add flavor to the broth.
- Short Ribs:
- Short ribs can be tricky pieces of meat to cook. Ultimately it comes down to the quality of the meat and time. Depending on the quality of the meat you can end up with a meal that totally blows you away, or is very subpar.
- Choose the highest quality version of short ribs available. Select ribs that are marbled, with fat incorporated throughout the meat, BUT choose ones that have more meat and less fat overall. Steer clear of ones that have big chunks of fat.
- Chicken Stock: To make the broth.
- Soy Sauce: I tend to go with low-sodium Kikkoman.
- Sriracha: Optional, but provides a spicy kick.
- Bell Pepper, Baby Bok Choy, Jalapeno, Green Onions: Veggie toppings that are all thinly sliced and cooked slightly in the hot broth.
- Eggs: For hard or soft boiling.
- Ramen Noodles: Look for packaged ramen noodles at Whole Foods (I've seen them at different Whole Foods markets around the country), and I've also seen the Ocean's Halo brand at Kroger. One box of Ocean's Halo Ramen Noodles is enough for one meal for a family of 4. Buy a second box for leftovers.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
📝 How to Make Short Rib Ramen
Below are the step-by-step instructions and photos for how to make Short Rib Ramen.
*Note: The recipe card with instructions, ingredient list, and quantities is included further below these step-by-step photos.
Step 1. Sear the Short Ribs: Bring a large Dutch Oven to medium heat. Add the olive oil and allow to warm through. Add the short ribs and sear on each side for about 2-3 minutes per side. Remove and set aside.
Step 2. Add the Aromatics: Add the ginger and shallot and saute for 2-3 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute. Do not allow the garlic to brown.
Step 3. Simmer: Add the chicken broth, soy sauce, and sriracha (if using) and stir to combine. Add the short ribs. Cover and simmer for 1 ½ - 2 hours or until the meat starts to fall off the bone.
Remove the meat and shred it on a cutting board.
Tip: If you check the meat at the 1 ½ hour mark and it is not falling off the bone, then it needs more time. The larger the short ribs the longer they will take to cook, and it may take up to 2 hours for roughly 1 ½ lbs of meat.
Step 4. Strain the Broth: Strain out the ginger, shallot, and garlic with a small fine mesh strainer. Or if you have a second large pot, you can pour the broth from the Dutch oven through a large fine mesh strainer into a second large pot.
Step 5. Boil the Eggs: While the short ribs are simmering, prepare the eggs. Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Add the eggs. Cook for 12 minutes for hard-boiled eggs, and 7-8 minutes for soft-boiled eggs. Remove the eggs and place them in an ice water bath. Peel the eggs.
Tip: For easy peelable eggs, bring the water to a boil first, then add the eggs and cook, then plunge in an ice bath. Don't be tempted to add the eggs to the water then bring it to a boil. They will be very difficult and time consuming to peel.
Step 6. Make the Ramen Noodles: Make the ramen noodles according to the package directions. Typically this is to bring a pot of water to a boil, add the noodles, remove it from heat, and let them sit for 3 minutes before straining.
Step 7. Prep the Veggies: The veggies can be prepared while the short ribs are simmering. Wash and slice the veggies thinly so that the hot boiling water softens them slightly when assembling the bowls of ramen.
Step 8. Assemble in Bowls: To each individual bowl, add a portion of ramen noodles, short ribs, sliced vegetables, and eggs. Pour the hot boiling broth over the noodles and toppings so that it slightly softens the vegetables. Serve with additional sriracha if desired.
❄️ How to Store and Freeze
- To Store: Store the broth, meat, eggs, vegetables, and noodles separately. Then assemble a bowl and reheat it in the microwave. Or bring the broth to a boil on the stove and assemble.
- To Freeze: If you're going to freeze this dish, freeze the broth on its own (the broth is ideal for freezing - you could even double the batch just to have leftover broth to freeze), and make prep veggies and noodles the day of.
✏️ Short Rib Ramen FAQs
For a spicier broth add 1-2 tablespoons of sriracha, for a less spicy broth leave out the sriracha entirely. You can also add sriracha to each individual bowl according to each person's heat preference. Or adjust the number of jalapeños served in each bowl.
Yes, definitely. This is a great dish to make ahead of time. You can make the broth and the meat ahead of time. You can also make the eggs and prep the veggies ahead of time too. Wait to make the ramen noodles until right before serving if possible (though we reheat them all the time and it's fine too).
You could also use mushrooms, spinach, nori, or even corn.
If you're looking for other Ramen or Soup recipes, you may love these:
If you tried this Short Rib Ramen Recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. I'd love to hear from you!
Short Rib Ramen
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoon olive oil plus more if needed
- 1 ping-pong-ball-sized piece of ginger, sliced (not minced)
- 5 cloves garlic, sliced (not minced)
- 1 shallot, sliced (not minced)
- 1½ lbs bone-in beef short ribs
- 8 cups chicken stock
- ¼ cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sriracha
- 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
- 2 bulbs baby bok choy, diced
- 1 jalapeño, thinly sliced
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
- 4 eggs (to be hard/soft boiled)
- ~15oz ramen noodles plus 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 2 tbsps olive oil and allow to warm through for 1 minute. Add the short ribs and sear, turning after 2-3 minutes on each side. Remove and set aside.
- Reduce the temperature to medium-low and add another tablespoon of olive oil. Sauté the ginger and shallot for 3-5 minutes. Next, add the garlic and sauté for another minute.
- Add the short ribs, chicken stock, soy sauce, and sriracha. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Cover and cook for 1 ½ hours or until the meat starts to fall off the bone.
- Separately, hard or soft boil eggs to your preference. To hard boil: bring a pot of water to a boil, add the eggs, and cook for 12 minutes. Then plunge the eggs into a bowl of ice water. Peel and slice the eggs. For soft-boiled eggs cook for 7-8 minutes. Then strain, place in ice water, peel and slice.
- Cook the ramen according to the package directions in a separate pot. I’ve used Ocean’s Halo ramen noodles, which come in a 10.5 oz package at Whole Foods. The whole package is enough for one dinner for 4, but you may need more to use with any leftovers.
- Once the short ribs are cooked, remove them from the Dutch oven/pot and shred the meat.
- Skim any extra fat/gunk from the pot. 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. Top with short ribs, bell peppers, bok choy, jalapeño, green onions, and sliced eggs. While still piping hot, ladle the broth over the noodles and vegetables. The broth will start to cook the peppers and bok choy making them slightly soft.
Notes
- Short Ribs:
- Short ribs can be tricky pieces of meat to cook. Ultimately it comes down to the quality of the meat and time. Depending on the quality of the meat you can end up with a meal that totally blows you away, or is very subpar.
- Choose the highest quality version of short ribs available. Select ribs that are marbled, with fat incorporated throughout the meat, BUT choose ones that have more meat and less fat overall. Steer clear of ones that have big chunks of fat.
- Ramen Noodles: Look for packaged ramen noodles at Whole Foods (I've seen them at different Whole Foods markets around the country), and I've also seen the Ocean's Halo brand at Kroger. One box of Ocean's Halo Ramen Noodles is enough for one meal for a family of 4. Buy a second box for leftovers.
- Cooking the Short Ribs: If you check the meat at the 1 ½ hour mark and it is not falling off the bone, then it needs more time. The larger the short ribs the longer they will take to cook, and it may take up to 2 hours for roughly 1 ½ lbs of meat.
- Boiling Eggs: For easy peelable eggs, bring the water to a boil first, then add the eggs and cook, then plunge in an ice bath. Don't be tempted to add the eggs to the water then bring it to a boil. They will be very difficult and time consuming to peel.
- Broth: The broth is ideal for freezing, so consider doubling the batch and freezing the leftover broth.
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