Calling all At-Home-Masterchefs!
Try making our much-loved Chilli Chicken Ramen recipe!
METHOD
Salt Base:
Reduce the vegetable stock from 150ml to 75ml in a sauce pan by boiling. Retain a table spoon (25ml) of this reduction for the eggs below, and then add all the Salt Base ingredients. Once the sea salt has dissolved, set aside and let it cool. Can be kept in the fridge until required.
Marinated eggs:
Add all the ingredients other than the eggs from the marinade recipe into a saucepan and heat until the sugar and sea salt have both dissolved (do not let it boil) and let it cool to at least room temperature, or the marinade can be made before and kept in the fridge.
Boil eggs so they have perfectly soft yolks. You can use an egg timer to cook from cold water, or you can put eggs into a boiling water and time 6mins 30secs (depending on the size of the eggs). Whichever method you choose, it’s always best to start from eggs being in room temperature. Peel the eggs then put them into the marinade (in a container so when all six eggs are added they’re all submerged in the marinade). Put a piece of kitchen paper ontop as the eggs will float above the surface of the marinade, it helps to keep the upper part to be submerged.
Leave in the fridge for 48 hours.
Japanese chilli oil:
Chop garlic, onions, Thai red chillies and spring onions as finely as you can.
Add these vegetables into a heavy bottomed saucepan with the two oils and put on low heat.
You’ll need a thermometer and take the oil to 160degrees centigrade. You need to see the oil bubble and garlic and onions start to colour. Make sure hot to burn them as this will give the chilli oil a bitter taste. When it reaches 140 degrees and the garlic and onions have a light golden brown colour, take off the heat.
Meanwhile, mix all the ingredients below the dotted line in a bowl into a nice smooth paste.
Pour the mixture into the oil once the temperature has reached 120 degrees.
Be careful – the temperature has to be at 120degrees. Too hot and the wet ingredients will cause the oil to boil over. Too cool and the sugar and miso won’t dissolve properly.
Mix until the paste has been incorporated into the oil, about 5 mins.
Let it cool and put it into a jam jar, making sure to get all the bits into the jar.
Chicken stock:
Choose a heavy bottom and deep saucepan so the whole chicken can easily fit, place the chicken and cover with water.
Chop the vegetables (you don’t need to peel ginger and garlic but roughly chop) and toss them in, and put it on low heat. Once boiling, turn heat further down so you only see bubbles come up very slowly. Skim off impurity as you go, but after about an hour, you should start to see clean and clear chicken oil on the surface. Skim this but retain.
After three hours, turn off heat and let it cool slightly before lifting out the chicken. Cover the chicken and when cool enough to handle, pull meat off the bones into bite size pieces and set aside (or in the fridge). Skin is a little rubbery so discard along with the bones.
Sieve the stock, discard the vegetables and set the clean, clear stock aside (or in the fridge).
Garnish:
Boil a pan of water and cook the mange tout for 1 min, then cool under cold water and set aside.
Chop spring onions finely.
To put the dish together:
Put a handful of pulled chicken and a table spoon of the bits (drain off as much of the oil as possible) from the Japanese chilli oil into a saucepan and reheat the chicken.
Cut the marinated egg in half.
Boil a large pan of water with a table spoon of salt.
Reheat a table spoon of chicken fat.
Reheat 350ml per portion of the chicken stock in a sauce pan.
Cook 100g per person of ramen or egg noodles according to the instructions. (Or I’d cook 30 seconds less than recommended to retain the bite).
Pour 25ml of the salt base into a ramen bowl and add 350ml of the chicken stock.
Drain off the egg noodles fully then throw it into the ramen bowl.
Top with the chilli chicken, egg, mange tout and spring onions.
Drizzle over a teaspoon of the Japanese chilli oil (just the oil part).
Same with the chicken fat.
Slurp!