Chicken Ramen Noodle Soup

Japanese food and ramen noodle dishes in particular have become really popular in recent years. However, since they've become popular, supermarkets have been full of cheap 'fast food' ramen noodles - the type where you just add boiling water - and these are just so different to fresh, delicious ramen soup.

I won't pretend that this is a traditonal Japanese recipe at all; rather it uses ingredients readily available to me and tastes fairly similar to the ramen noodle soup you can buy in Japanese restaurants.

It's a beautiful, comfortingly savoury dish. It's ready in 30 minutes at most and this will serve 2-3.

Chicken Ramen Noodle Soup
For the stock:
1 litre chicken stock
2 tbsps soy sauce
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
4 cloves garlic
1 inch piece ginger
1 tsp Chinese five spice
1 tsp mild chilli powder

For the soup:
2 large chicken breasts
1 tbsp ground nut oil
1 pak choi
4 spring onions
300g straight-to-wok medium noodles (I couldn't find genuine ramen noodles - use them if you can get them though!)
10 pieces tinned bamboo shoots

1. For the stock, pour the chicken stock into a large saucepan and add the soy sauce and worcestershire sauce. Peel the garlic and ginger and chop into large chunks - add to the pan. Put the spices in too and stir. Simmer on a medium heat while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
2. Season the chicken breasts and put in a frying pan with the oil. Cook over a medium-high heat for approimately 5-6 minutes on each side, depending on the size of the breasts, until they are cooked through. Slice and leave to one side.
3. Slice the pak choi and spring onion finely.
4. Add the noodles to the stck and allow to cook.
5. To serve, lift a serving of noodles into each bowl. Top with a handful of pak choi and spring onions. Pile the chicken on top, then add the bamboo shoots. Finally, ladle a generous helping of the stock over the top.