What's the BEST method to make Chicken Stock for Ramen? (Experiment)

In the quest to level up my chintan soup stock for ramen, I tested out 3 popular methods to extract flavor from chicken bones. Most of these suggestions came from youtube and Instagram so thank you all so much for trying to help me fix that last terrible bowl of ramen I made.

Results were not what I expected, so more. research might need to be done in the future.

[catfish]

I’m deaf!!! Please please please either allow subtitles or caption this video. You have a huge following. Why would you disable subtitles?

[urouroniwa]

The scum in the pot is from albumins from the blood denaturing and coming out of solution as the stock boils. The reason that roasting the carcasses doesn't create scum is because you are cooking that blood. The reason to blanch carcasses when making stock is to pull out that blood. It's not really effective to blanch it for a short time. If you are good at managing the temperature of the stockpot (as you clearly are), it's not really a bit deal. You want it to be between 92-95 C (and adjust for altitude). This will denature the albumins so they come out of solution and rise to the top. If you get it up to boiling, then the albumin will break down and make your stock cloudy. If you don't bring it up high enough, it will similarly cause the stock to get cloudy. As far as I can tell, there is no difference in taste between having a cloudy and non-cloudy stock, so skimming/blanching is mostly about making a clear stock. You can also do the French consume trick of taking an eggwhite and getting it to drag all the albumin out of suspension. This will create a crystal clear stock, but again, as far as I know it has no impact on flavour whatsoever. This stuff is actually a *lot* more important with fish stocks from heads and gills because there is a *lot* of blood in there. If you want a clear stock, you almost certainly have to blanch it.

[Daily-Central]

Me: I wanna learn how to make ramen

Way of Ramen: I will Shoyu

[cyzhouhk]

Hi Ryan, coming here from Hong Kong, and I have a Chinese tip, just in case you're using frozen chickens, to remove the "frozen taste", to blanch it briefly using water with coarse salt, and throwing away that water as soon as it has boiled for a minute or so. Then carry on as usual.

[mastercharlesdiltardino]

The "ordinary sausage" of ramen. You go, man. Someday I'll make some decent ramen.

[lolyoutoobe]

Something about your quest to learn about ramen is really shonen manga main character, I love it.

[RetroRehabRepair]

If you want a pure and stronger chicken flavour soup as your base for ramen you need to make it in a greater quantity.
Working with small amounts of water and small pots will mean that the water evaporates to fast and you need to add additional water (which I think is not a good idea). In my experience, when it comes to stock the greater the amount you make and bones you use the deeper the flavour (even when using equal ratios of bones and water).
Your chicken bones look good so here is what I would do: Use the biggest amount/pot you can reasonably make (stock can be frozen for later use super easily), don't blanch the bones but try to wash away as much of the blood as you can from the bones under cold water and then start again using cold water and take away all the scum like you did before. I recommend adding chicken feet(blanch for 1 min before using). They add a lot of taste and gelatine. If you have a big enough pot you can use a whole chicken, chicken bones and feet all mixed. For a deeper flavour use slightly less water than 2:1. Add some onions and ginger during the last hour of cooking, this will add some color, a little flavour and mask some of the bad chicken taste/smell. Remove 100% of the fat on top of the soup since it has probably not a nice smell after 6 hours of cooking. Definitely leave the pot uncovered. Just some of my ideas and experiences from making ramen. cheers!

[sweetsacrifice]

Ramen Test Kitchen! I love experiments like this! Hope you guys are staying safe, heard about the hurricane watch back home (originally from Honolulu)

[chi]

Hey, just wanted to let you know the YT algo brought me to your channel and I honestly love the content. Currently baking my sodium bicarbonate to make noodles because of you, keep up the great work! 💙

[rontavakoli-JD-MBA]

i love how you've taken a singular deep dive into Ramen. food is a universe...one will never ever know enough. truly, you discover, the more you know, the less you know. thank you for helping me.

[glitchlife]

What I have ended up doing fro my ramen, I go to whole foods and buy a rotisserie. I usually eat half of it as tacos and then throw the other half and the bones from my meal into a pot, cover it up with water, toss in a few onions, diced carrot and celery, a few garlic cloves, with some spices and just let it slow simmer for 3-4 hours. I do it with the skin on, pull out the chicken parts and strip the meat to set aside. Strain the goop out of my soup and re-add the chicken and then toss the entire pot into the fridge to set overnight. Because of all the collagen and stuff in the skin it makes kinda like a shreded chicken jam that is packed with flavor and lasts about a week. When I am ready for ramen I will toss a few veggies into a saute pan on high to get some color, add a ladle of my chicken stock with shredded chicken and toss in some chili garlic oil with shoyu, add my noodles, few nori sheets and some furikake on top and I am in fucking heaven. I will also keep the same stock on hand for a quick alfredo, which is just tossing it into a saute pan adding noodles heavy cream and cheese and you have an ultra fast chicken alfredo on the go. I tend to repurposed all most all of my craps into something usable

[sigsaucer]

Hey, I found your channel by the 'Will it Ramen' kfc video and I'm loving the content! I suggest making more of those type of videos <3

[Silvertrifio]

This channel is great in its purity. Keep up the good work

[dominicyau]

Absolutely came here from that youtube push, my partner and I made tonkotsu ramen for the first time last week and it turned out really great! You definitely helped make everything more approachable and gave great advice about all parts of the process. Thanks so much!

[hunchedproductions]

Man, you've inspired this Texan to make his own ramen from almost scratch. Haven't and can't tackle noodles but everything else I've done on my own. In the middle of hashing out a miso tonkotsu!

[miktheblackdog]

love how you smack the table when a recipe turns out well! i totally feel you on that. thank you for doing this experiment! it was really concise and informative. will definitely reference for my future chicken stocks (:

[Mike-Eye]

thank you for conducting this experiment Ryan! 🤙🏾🤙🏾🤙🏾

[robthevegetable]

It's so good to see your experimentation and progression in ramen making to learn from past mistakes/balls ups. I'm learning loads from this channel and it really is one of best resources for ramen recipes, tips and hacks. It's properly valuable info. Keep it up and keep safe!

[BigStuffedRhino]

Good job on setting up a store with ingredients! I would also suggest for and equipment you use to put Amazon affiliate link in the description. Like the skimmer you have, instant pot, or anything else. Just another way viewers can support you

[TheSnufking]

I was interested on the shop, but it's US only. Great...