The Wagamama favourite, interpreted and improved by me.
Ingredients
- A flavourless oil like groundnut
- Loads of fresh coriander – leaves removed from stalks and set aside, stalks chopped up finely
- 2 Chicken breasts – preferably with skin on!
- 1 red onion, one half finely diced, one half sliced
- 1 or 2 red chillies, half diced, the other half sliced – discard seeds unless you want it very hot
- 2 packs of Instant noodles with a chicken flavour pack
- Chicken stock cube, homemade chicken stock, or your favourite ramen broth (chicken and pork are great together!)
- 2 limes, one for juice for the marinade, the other cut into 4 wedges
- 2 spring onions, chunky slices on the diagonal
Method
- Score the skin of the chicken breast and some of the flesh. Brush with some oil, shake a bit of salt over it and squeeze the juice of 1 lime all over it. Cover and let marinate for at least 1 hour in the fridge. Let it out of the fridge and come back to room temperature ~20 minutes before cooking.
- Grill the chicken under high heat, turning once. Slice it without separating the slices so it “fans”, set aside.
- In a big pot, sauté the diced onion in a little oil over a medium heat. Put a lid on to keep the onions firm while they brown. After 5 min, add the chopped coriander stalks, the diced chilli. Keep sautéing for 2 more mins. This smells fucking amazing.
- Now pour in about 500-600ml of freshly boiled water with the stock cubes and the contents of the flavour packets dissolved, or your own prepared broth.
- Cook the noodles in the soup as per packet instructions, usually they only need 2-3 mins. Don’t break up the noodles from their dry “shape”
- To serve, first remove the cooked noodles from the soup and put in a bowl. Then put the fanned chicken breast on top of the “bed” of noodles. Divide the remaining soup and cooked onions between the 2 bowls.
- Top each dish with the chunks of spring onion, the remaining red chill, chopped coriander leaves (don’t go too fine or it turns to mulch!); Squeeze the juice of 1 lime wedge in each bowl. Put the other lime wedge on top of each bowl.
- Eat that shit like a ninja.
The story
At uni I lived with a guy who loved his Naruto, and I don’t mind admitting I was into it for a bit. The character eats a lot of ramen, and they love emphasising that it nourishes him well to be an effective ninja.
Around the same time Wagamama launched in the UK and we had a lovely branch right in Canterbury town centre so for a treat we all went there as housemates.
My eyes were drawn straight to the ingredients listed in their chilli chicken ramen – chili, lime, coriander – 3 of my favourite things!
Being myself I naturally needed to know how to make it at home, and already being a lover of instant noodles late at night, it wasn’t hard to “pimp” the standard preparation method into what you see above.
It became a staple in our house given the relatively cheap ingredients and is a good way to get your vitamins as a student. It also became a firm favourite in my family – they’ve got a set of the Wagamama ramen bowls and ladles just for occasions where we have this dish.
My actually Japanese friend loved to tell me that such a recipe is not at all traditional or customary in Japan. Their ramen dishes typically include seafood or pork, a hard boiled egg (a hard no from me), bak choi, beansprouts and other ingredients typical of the cuisine.
I might have posted different attempts at this up to 10 times on my Instagram so you can see how often I make it. My partner loves it in winter, it’s especially good made from leftover roast chicken – simmer the carcass in a big pot of water with some celery stalks and leaves, bay leaves and some peppercorns to make an amazing meaty broth.