Instant noodles or instant ramen is one of the most convenient comfort foods everybody loves. It’s so easy to cook; just boil some water, add the noodles and seasoning packet, and you’re done! But sometimes we just need some new ways to eat instant noodles. So, we came up with 3 easy Asian instant noodles recipe upgrades!
Here are the 3 ways to upgrade or zhng up your instant noodles Asian-style:
3 Easy Asian Instant Noodles Recipe Upgrades!
If you need any proof of how much we love our instant noodles in Singapore, the empty shelves at the supermarket after the waves of panic buying speaks the loudest!
But Covid 19 or not, we’re sure you will enjoy these 3 instant noodle recipes very much.
For a little bit of trivia, the empty shelves allowed us to identify is the two of the most popular instant noodle brands in Singapore. They are Nissin Foods and Myojo who are also doing a HUGE give away you'll want to win! Details are at the end of the article.
Now, without further ado, let’s move on to the recipes!
Classic Sesame Oil Noodle Bowl
This recipe pays homage to the classic instant noodes we grew up eating on lazy days.
Soupy instant noodles paired with slices of crispy luncheon meat, fried egg, and bok choy, it also reminds us of one of the more popular Hong Kong Xin Wang Café’s dishes!
Classic Sesame Oil Noodle Bowl
We’ll start by cooking our liao or ingredients first.
Heat up some oil in a pan and add the luncheon meat slices. You can dry fry the luncheon meat too if you like it less greasy. However, frying in oil helps to give luncheon meat an even colour and makes them crispier!
Fry for 2-3 minutes on each side until nicely browned, then set aside. Do not turn off the heat.
Fry the luncheon meat
Using the same oil, crack an egg into the pan and let it cook to your desired doneness.
For a runny yolk, cook for 2-3 minutes. For a fully cooked-through yolk, cook on a low heat for 5-7 minutes until the yolk no longer jiggles.
Fry the egg in the same oil
Now for the instant noodles. For this dish, we are using Nissin Chu Qian Yi Ding Sesame noodles because of its unique sesame oil taste.
The fragrance and flavour of the sesame oil soup is so different from your usual instant noodles, it is easy to forget you are eating instant noodles! Combined with the thinner and springier texture that is a classic feature of Nissin, this instant noodles feels a little more atas or premium than usual.
Nissin Chu Qian Yi Ding Sesame
Start with boiling 3 cups of water in a pot, as per the instructions on the packaging, before adding the noodles and bok choy.
Stir to break up the noodles so they will cook evenly.
Cook the noodles and bok choy together
Cook for 3-4 minutes until the noodles and bok choy have soften, then turn off the heat.
Add the seasoning packet and sesame oil packet to the pot and stir to mix well.
Add the seasoning to the noodles and stir
Transfer the noodles, soup, bok choy, luncheon meat, and egg to a serving bowl and garnish with some fried shallots.
There, your classic bowl of sesame oil instant noodles is done!
Enjoy your classic bowl of sesame oil instant noodles
Curry Instant Noodle Pancakes
We think this dish is a great way to get vegetable-haters to eat their vegetables. And trust us, they wouldn’t be able to resist!
Mixed with crunchy vegetables and pan-fried, these instant noodle pancakes are irresistibly crunchy. Combine that with the dusting of curry seasoning powder, you’ll be making another batch of these pancakes before you know it!
Curry Instant Noodle Pancakes
As this is Curry Instant Noodles Pancakes, we are, of course, using curry flavoured instant noodles. We chose Myojo’s Chicken Curry noodles as they are one of the first flavours to be completely sold out!
The curry seasoning is perfectly creamy, just the way we like our curries. Hence, it is also the key ingredient to the delicious flavour of this dish.
Myojo Chicken Curry instant noodles
Begin with cooking the instant noodles.
Break the noodles into quarters then put them into boiling water to cook for 3 minutes. Then, drain and place the cooked noodles into a large mixing bowl.
Break the instant noodles into quarters, cook them and transfer to a bowl
Add the shredded carrots, cabbage, flour, spring onions, salt and pepper to the instant noodles and mix well.
Once mixed, add the beaten eggs to the bowl and mix well again.
Mix the ingredients together
Now, you can begin frying your pancakes.
Heat up some oil in a pan and add the mixture to it. To make your pancakes and even size, use a 1/3 measuring cup to dole out the mixture.
But remember to flatten the mixture out so that the pancakes will be thin and cook evenly.
Let them cook for 2-3 minutes on each side until golden brown then remove them from the heat. Repeat this step until all the mixture has been used up.
Use a 1/3 measuring cup to scoop the batter and fry the pancakes
Arrange your pancake on a serving dish and sprinkle the curry seasoning all over them, Shillin Chicken style.
Liberally dust the pancakes with curry seasoning
The reason why we dust the seasoning over the pancakes is because this is the best way to retain that delicious curry flavour. Some instant noodle pancake recipes suggest adding the seasoning into the pancake mixture, but frying curry diminishes it’s flavour.
Hence, this way, you’ll get that aromatic and spicy kick of the curry!
Serve with some chilli sauce or ketchup on the side and your meal is ready!
Serve with chilli or ketchup on the side
Instant Noodles with Chicken Essence
For our last dish, we are taking things up a notch to make instant noodles look and taste expensive!
Adding chicken essence to your soups or sauces gives them a major health boost and adds a hint of herbal flavour to it. Hence, we gave this bowl of humble chicken instant noodles a major Chinese makeover while still retaining its savoury flavour.
Instant noodles with Chicken Essence
If you are interested in more recipes with Chicken Essence, you can check them out here:
- Steamed Pork with Mushrooms and Black-boned Chicken Essence
- Steamed Chicken with Black-boned Chicken Essence
- Eggs infused with Essence of Chicken Bento
- Steamed Frog Legs with Essence of Chicken
As we are going to be upgrading this dish with chicken essence, it is only right we use a well-beloved chicken flavoured instant noodle.
Myojo Chicken Tanmen is a fond flavour for us in Singapore as we have all eaten it growing up at home, in school camps, or during national service! We took great care to upgrade this iconic chicken noodles into such a beautiful dish and we hope you would enjoy this recipe as much as we did.
Myojo Chicken Tanmen
We start off with seasoning the chicken wings in salt and pepper.
Add the salt and pepper to the chicken wings in a bowl. Mix well them, and set it aside.
We are only using salt and pepper to marinate the chicken as we want to avoid strong flavouring that will overpower the iconic chicken flavour of the instant noodles. However, you may add more seasonings like soy sauce or sesame oil to the chicken wings if you like!
Season with salt and pepper then mix well
Next, cook the onsen egg.
Add an egg to a pot of boiling water, stir it in a clockwise direction to keep the egg yolk in the center of the egg, and let it cook for 5 minutes exactly. 5 minutes is the perfect timing for an onsen egg.
Once, 5 minutes is up, transfer the egg to an ice bath to stop the cooking process and set it aside.
Boil for 5 minutes then place it in an ice bath
Now, it’s time for the real cooking to start!
Add 675ml of water to a pot and bring it to a boil. We have calculated that this is the exact amount of water you will need so that you’ll have the perfect bowl of soup at the end of the recipe!
Once the water is boiling, add the black fungus, wolf berries, and chicken wings. Let it simmer for 15 minutes.
Simmer the chicken wings, wolfberries, and black fungus for 15 minutes
After 15 minutes, add the instant noodles to the water and cook for another 3 minutes until the noodles are soft.
Then turn off the flame and add the seasoning to the soup. Stir to mix well.
Cook the noodles until soft then add the seasoning
Transfer the ingredients and soup to a serving bowl and pour a bottle of chicken essence over the dish.
And you are done!
Plate and add the chicken essence
This dish looks like herbal chicken noodle soup and tastes so good too! The original chicken flavour remains but it is elevated by the hint of herbs from the chicken essence.
What’s more, you just made this in less than 30 minutes!
Enjoy your premium instant noodles!
We hope you have enjoyed these three instant noodles recipes as much as we did. Do let us know which is your favourite in the comments!
Share Your Own Recipe- Nissin $100 Grab Food Giveaway
And now for the exciting part, Nissin Foods is giving away $100 worth of Grab Food vouchers to FIVE lucky winners!
Nissin $100 GrabFood voucher giveawa
All you have to do is to share a photo of your creative instant noodle recipes with any flavour of Chu Qian YI Ding or NISSIN RAMEN series (makes sure the package is in the photo) with #nissinrecipes in the comments of their Facebook post right here.
The top 5 photos with the highest number of “Like” on the post wins so be sure to tag your friends!
*Campaign ends on May 31st 2020 23:59 Hours. T&C apply.
With our 3 easy asian instant noodles recipe upgrades, you can use our recipes too for some inspiration! Good luck!
Get the recipes here!
- 1 pkt Nissin Chu Qian Yi Ding Sesame
- 2 slices Luncheon meat
- 1 stalk bok choy
- 1 tbsp fried shallots
- 1 tbsp oil
- Cook and prepare the instant noodles and soup as per the packaging. Set aside in a serving bowl.
- Heat oil and pan fry the luncheon meat for 2-3 minutes on both sides over medium-high heat.
- Using the luncheon meat oil, carefully crack an egg into the pan. Fry for 3-4 minutes or until the whites have set while leaving the yolk runny. #Tip: to get a round shape, use an egg mould.
- Place the noodles onto a serving plate and arrange the luncheon meat, and egg on top of the noodles.
- Garnish with fried shallots.
- 1 pck Myojo Chicken Curry
- 2 large cabbage leaves shredded
- 1 medium carrot shredded
- 2 stalks scallions chopped
- 2 large eggs beaten
- 3 tbsp flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 2 tbsp oil
- Break up the noodles into quarters and keep the seasoning packet aside. Boil the noodles for 3 minutes or until cooked then drain them.
- In a mixing bowl, add the cooked noodles, cabbage, carrot, scallions, flour, salt, and pepper and stir well.
- Add the beaten eggs and mix well. If the batter is too dry, add some water as needed to dilute.
- Heat up some oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Add pancake batter to the pan and press it down with a spatula to hold its shape. #Tip: use a 1/3 measuring cup to dole out the batter and ensure that each pancake has an even shape.
- Fry for 2-3 minutes on each side or until it is golden brown. Repeat until the batter has finished.
- Place the pancakes on a plate and dust the curry instant noodle seasoning over them. Flip over and dust again.
- Serve with chilli sauce or ketchup on the side.
- 1 pkt Myojo Chicken Tanmen
- 3 mid joint wings
- 1 egg
- 3 pieces dried black fungus soaked and sliced
- 1 tsp wolfberries soaked and drained
- 675 ml water
- 1 bottle chicken essence
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- spring onion garnish
- Place the chicken in a bowl and add the salt and pepper. Mix well.
- In a pot, add the water, wolfberries, black fungus, and chicken. Bring to a boil then lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Add the instant noodles and cook until soft. Add the instant noodle seasoning and stir well before turning off the heat. #Tip: add more water if needed to cook the noodles.
- In a separate pot, boil some water and add the egg. Let it boil for exactly 7 minutes then place it in an ice bath to stop the cooking. Peel the egg and cut it in half.
- Ladle the soup and ingredients over the noodles in serving bowl. Pour a bottle of chicken essence over the soup and garnish with fresh spring onions. #Tip: wait for the soup to cool slightly before adding the chicken essence.
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