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This Birria Ramen Recipe mash up is loaded with flavor. Juicy, tender meat is slowly simmered in a rich, lightly spiced broth made of chiles and aromatics. Thanks to using bone in meat we have a nice thick bone broth loaded with flavorings. Serve this birria with ramen noodles and the birria consommé for a fun fusion meal!
All about this Birria Ramen Recipe..
- A great recipe option for leftover Birria de Res, which you can learn all about in the link. Or you can make a pot of birria just for this dish.
- This is a super popular street food experience! Have fun with it and dress it up or down however you want.
- Adjust the heat to your preference. The chiles used in the broth are mild and don’t give much heat. If you want more heat read below for some other chiles you can use instead.
Ingredients Needed:
Some notes on the ingredients:
- Short Ribs (Bone-in)– This can be substituted for any cut of meat, or simply beef bone. We need the bone for the broth. This is what is going to give us that nice thick texture to the broth/consomme.
- Guajillo Peppers: (2500-5000 SHU) Adjust the chile used if needed, these are very mild and give color and flavoring to the broth. If you want heat you can add in a Chile de Arbol if desired. My preference is to start with the guajillo peppers and then add in chili powder as needed for flavor and coloring as the soup cooks.
- Carrots: Adding the carrots give a bit of sweetness and color to the broth and just adds to the flavoring.
- Ramen Noodles: all we need is the noodles, if your ramen noodles come with a seasoning packet be sure to toss it.
How to make (step-by-step)
- Step 1: Simmer ingredients, prepare the birria ingredients and everything goes in one large pot to simmer for a couple hours. This creates a flavorful and rich broth
- Step 2: Blend Chile peppers, after the peppers have simmered in the broth for about 30 minutes they will be soft enough to blend. If you don’t have a high powered blender be sure to strain the pepper mixture to get any bits of skin out before adding back to the broth.
- Step 3: Chop the meat, remove the meat from the broth and chop into small pieces, this will make enjoying your noodles easier.
- Step 4: Prepare the noodles, cook the noodles in a separate pot, spoon the noodle into a bowl then top with the birria consommé and meat. Top with some fresh cabbage, radishes, cilantro and onion. A quick squeeze of lime will help cut through the richness of the broth.
Expert Tips:
- Grab a large pot! This recipe will easily fill a 7 quart pot.
- Strain the blended peppers for nice smooth broth. If you don’t have a super high powered blender, and sometimes even if you do, straining the peppers through a fine mesh strainer ensures a nice smooth broth.
- Make sure you are using meat with bone to give that rich bone broth that makes the birria consommé so bold.
FAQ’s
What is the best ramen noodle to use?
If you are able to find fresh noodles at your market that will be your best bet! If you can’t, since we’re not using the seasoning packet, it doesn’t really make much difference which noodles you use.
What about the Tapatio noodles?
You can absolutely make this dish using the Tapatio noodles, the spice packet that comes with those noodles has a nice kick, if you want to make your birria noodles extra spicy you can add some of the spice packet in, but start with a small amount and add according to taste.
Can I cook the noodles in the broth?
Your broth will need to be boiling hot to cook the noodles by pouring broth over the noodles in a bowl. That is why this recipe recommends cooking the noodles separately first.
More recipes to enjoy:
Birria Ramen
This bowl of Birria Ramen is loaded with flavor! Serve noodles with birria consomme and meat! The birria is slow simmered with beef, aromatics and bone to create a rich, flavorful broth spiced with chile peppers. This fun food mash up is the ultimate street food experience in your own home!
Ingredients
- 7-8 cups water
- 4 pounds chuck roast cut into 4 large pieces
- 2 pounds short ribs (bone-in) or back ribs bone in
- 1 large white onion dry skins removed, cut in half crosswise
- 1 garlic bulb cut the narrow top off, no need to peel
- 1 carrot cut in half crosswise, then cut in half (4 large pieces of carrot)
- 5 bay leaves dried
- 8 guajillo chiles stems cut off and seeds removed
- 3 tablespoons chicken bouillon
- 1-2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon mexican oregano
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon salt adjust to taste
- 4 (3 ounce packages) ramen noodles
Toppings
- radishes sliced
- cabbage shredded
- cilantro diced
- white onion diced
Instructions
- Add Ingredients to Pot: In large pot add meat, onion, garlic, carrots and dried peppers. Cover with water. (This uses my large 7 qt pot and it fills it to the top!)
- Add Seasonings & Boil: Add chicken bouillon, oregano, cumin and salt, stir to combine. Bring to a boil. Then reduce heat and continue to simmer.
- Skim: After 30 minutes, skim the top of the pot to remove impurities from the bone cooking out. (will look like little bits of foam on the top)
- Blend Chiles: Remove the peppers (should be softened) and place in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth, add up to 1/4 cup of broth if needed to help get a smooth consistency.
- Strain Peppers: Strain the peppers if needed to remove bits of skin (if using a high powered blender this step is not necessary).
- Add the blended peppers into the broth and stir to combine.
- Adjust Seasonings: Add in the chili powder as desired to get a nice deep red color to the broth.
- Cover and Simmer: Cover and continue to simmer for about 3 hours or until meat is tender and easily shredding on it’s own. (remove lid and give a stir every 40 minutes or so. Can also taste the broth once the meat is cooked through and adjust seasonings as needed).
- Skim: Skim the excess grease from the top of the broth.
- Remove Aromatics: Remove the onion, garlic, carrots and bay leaves from the broth.
- Shred Meat: Remove the meat from the broth and shred. Remove any bones.
Ramen
- Boil: Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
- Cook: Add the ramen noodles to the boiling water. Cook for 2-3 minutes, until soft, then divide the noodles into four bowls.
- Serve: Spoon the birria consommé with meat into the bowls with the ramen noodles, add enough to cover the noodles.
- Toppings: Top with sliced radishes, shredded cabbage, and diced onion and cilantro.
Notes
- Meat: bones are needed in this recipe to help create a rich and flavorful broth. You can use any cut of beef for this recipe needed, just ensure that you have some bones to add to the broth.
- Guajillo Peppers: (2,500-5,000 SHU) these are a mild pepper. You can adjust and use other chiles as desired. My preference is to start with the guajillo and I add Chili powder as needed as the broth simmers.
- Skimming the broth: boiling the bones releases impurities, after the first 30 minutes of boiling you can skim off the foam that appears on the top of the soup.
- Taste Adjustments: once the meat is cooked all the way through, towards the end, you can taste and adjust the broth as needed.
- Ramen Noodles: all we need is the noodles, if your ramen noodles come with a seasoning packet be sure to toss it.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 | Calories: 760kcal | Carbohydrates: 5g | Protein: 80g | Fat: 47g | Saturated Fat: 20g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 23g | Trans Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 274mg | Sodium: 779mg | Potassium: 1532mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 3082IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 80mg | Iron: 9mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Photography by the talented KJandCompany.co
This is a great base recipe for Birria Ramen! For this being my first time, the step by step instructions were easy to follow. I added one extra tablespoon of the chicken bouillon, 2 ancho chilies (in addition to the recipe) and more salt to my taste. Everything else was the same. Thanks for posting this, my family loved it!
Can I use a slow cooker for this? Any tips?
There is something wrong with this recipe. You are using 6 pounds of meat for 6 servings. That sounds too much.
Hi Tony, you’re right, it was supposed to be 8. Keep in mind that some of weight for the meat is bone and some fat that will be rendered out. Thank you!
I usually start with ten figuring it will reduce as it gets cooked leaving me with a nice 8 to plate!