Creamy Chicken Stock for Ramen | Tori Paitan | 鶏ガラパイタン

Creamy chicken stock for ramen is now my number two favorite after tonkotsu. Torikotsu uses the same technique but requires less time and effort to make it than tonkotsu — it is much easier to gelatinize chicken cartilage and connective tissues and extract flavors from less dense chicken bones. Most of the myoglobin is neutralized during the first step of soaking chicken in cold water. To make it efficient, chop chicken wings and legs into smaller, 1-2″ pieces to expose bones marrow. As a result, there is significantly less scum to skim during the second step. Like tonkotsu, it is essential to remove the foam that appears, but keep the chicken fat and emulsify it into the creamy stock later, during the rapid boiling. Pressure cookers are very helpful and streamline the last stage of making chicken paitan even more if you are working on just a few portions. For the recipe below, use a 10-quart stockpot. To make 4 quarts of chicken stock I used about 9 pounds of chicken parts. Originally, it was a combination of whole chicken, chicken wings, and chicken feet. In the U.S. chicken feet are only available in Asian markets, which are in my case far away. I was curious whether I can make a decent chicken paitan (see Recipe Notes to learn about this term) by replacing the feet with more wings. The answer is yes, absolutely — 3lb pounds of drumsticks and 6lb of wings do the trick. Tare (see Notes to learn about this term) is the ramen’s seasoning and defines the “type” of ramen. It can be simple or complex, combined or precooked, based on, but not limited to, one of three ingredients — shio (salt), shoyu (soy), or miso. I made a simple, mixed right-in-the-bowl tare based on miso, aiming for bold umami flavors without changing the color of the stock. My version of tare is one of many, feel free to experiment with your favorite flavors.

Good

% Daily Values based on a 2,000 calorie diet