Tonkotsu Ramen
The real Hakata-style bowl at home: a milky, emulsified pork broth built on a rolling boil, springy noodles, chashu pork, jammy eggs and nori, made patiently in one honest day.
The whole recipe in 60 seconds
Tonkotsu Ramen, in 5 ideas
- The broth turns milky from a hard rolling boil, not from cream. Fat and water emulsify when the pot never stops bubbling.
- Trotters and neck bones give the gelatin. A chicken carcass rounds out the body without dulling the pork flavor.
- Chashu cooks in the broth's last hour and finishes in a sweet soy marinade. So one pot does double duty.
- Noodles cook separately in fiercely boiling water and go in unrinsed. Straight from pot to bowl.
- The eggs want exactly six and a half minutes and an ice bath. Set whites, flowing gold centers.
What you need
Ingredients
- 3 lb pork trotters, split
- 2 lb pork neck bones
- 1 whole chicken carcass
- 1 onion, halved
- 1 head garlic, halved crosswise
- 4 oz ginger, sliced
- 6 green onions
- 2 packs fresh ramen noodles (about 14 oz)
- 4 eggs
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 2 tbsp mirin
- Nori sheets and extra green onions, to serve
How to make it
Method
Cover the trotters, bones and carcass with water, boil hard for 10 minutes, then drain and scrub every piece clean under running water. This keeps the broth sweet, not funky.
Return the pork and chicken to a clean pot with the onion, garlic, ginger and green onions. Cover with water, bring to a rolling boil, and keep it bubbling hard for at least 4 hours and up to 12, topping up the water as it drops; the longer it goes, the richer and milkier the bowl.
In the last hour, simmer a rolled piece of pork belly in the broth if you like chashu; lift it out and rest it in the soy sauce and mirin while it cools.
Boil the eggs for 6 1/2 minutes, chill in iced water, peel, and halve just before serving.
Strain the broth, pressing the solids well. Season with salt a little at a time until it tastes round and savory. Keep at a bare simmer.
Cook the noodles in a separate large pot of boiling water until just springy, about 2 minutes for fresh noodles. Drain well.
Divide the noodles among warm bowls. Ladle over the broth, arrange the chashu or sliced pork, egg halves, nori and green onions, and serve immediately.
Freeze leftover broth flat in bags: tonkotsu night two is ten minutes of work and tastes even better.