Japanese

Ingredients 4 chicken thighs (or two breasts but thighs are better) Salt and pepper 1 tbsp butter 2 tsp vegetable oil 2 inches fresh ginger, minced 2 cloves garlic, minced 3 tbsp soy sauce 2 tbsp mirin 4 cups good chicken stock (kitchen basics) Salt to taste 2 packs dried ramen noodles (or equivalent in rice noodles) Veggies (at least 2-3 cups of following, your choice): spinach, green onions thinly chopped, jalapeño, peeled carrot (with a potato peeler), can sweet corn (this is really good in this), diced sweet peppers (the kind that don’t need to be cooked), thinly sliced red onion Instructions With butter in medium sized soup pot, cook chicken on both sides (few minutes each) until golden. Make sure to season generously with salt and pepper. Then transfer to sheet and cook in oven another 15 minutes or so until well cooked. Slice or shred and set aside In same pot on medium heat, heat oil and saute garlic and ginger for a few minutes until soft. Add soy sauce and mirin and cook 1 more minute. Add broth and simmer for 15 minutes Cook noodles separately according to package directions Veggies: If any of them need it, saute briefly with sesame seed oil and rice vinegar. This does add a nice flavor and definitely do this if making vegetarian Assemble bowls with mix of veggies, noodles, and chicken. Pour boiling broth on it all and serve. Top with jalapeño at table as desired Notes To make vegetarian, skip the chicken and use very good veggie broth instead of chicken. In this case make sure you saute briefly any veggies with the sesame seed oil and rice vinegar (not much of each and just enough to get the flavor). This adds a nice richness in flavor Cook the noodles separate and not in the broth to conserve water of broth and stretch this to two servings