Copycat Momofuku Noodle Bar Ramen (David Chang’s Shoyu Broth at Home)
Prep time: 45 min (plus 6 hr simmer) Cook time: 6 hr 30 min Servings: 4
David Chang opened Momofuku Noodle Bar in August 2004 at 163 First Avenue in New York’s East Village. The menu was built around ramen. Not the polished, reservation-required food that would come later — just ramen, served at a counter in a 600-square-foot room. Chang had trained in Japanese ramen shops and wanted to make ramen in New York with the ingredients he had: American chicken, American pork bones, and American bacon.
The pork buns came later, almost by accident. The ramen was the original vision.
Two decades on, the Momofuku empire spans multiple concepts and James Beard Awards, and David Chang is considered one of the most influential chefs in American food. The shoyu ramen that started it all is no longer the main focus at the Noodle Bar, which has evolved considerably. But the recipe — documented in the 2009 Momofuku cookbook with Peter Meehan — remains the foundational statement of what the restaurant was built on. A broth that takes the Japanese dashi technique seriously and then does one distinctly American thing to it.
That thing is bacon.
What the Cookbook Actually Says
The Momofuku cookbook ramen broth is a four-stage build. Stage one: kombu steeped in water just below a boil, then removed. Stage two: dried shiitakes simmered 30 minutes. Stage three: roasted pork neck bones, chicken leg quarters, and bacon added, simmered together — bacon pulled out at exactly 45 minutes. Stage four: everything simmers another five to six hours with scallions, a charred onion, and carrot.
The tare — the seasoning sauce — is made separately from the broth. It is not a secret ingredient inside the broth; it is added per bowl at service. Soy sauce, sake, mirin, and chicken fat, simmered briefly. Two to three tablespoons per bowl, stirred into the hot broth just before noodles go in.
The toppings are the salt-and-sugar-cured pork belly from the pork buns (same recipe, same technique), Momofuku soy-marinated eggs, bamboo shoots, nori, scallions, sesame oil.
That is the recipe. The technique behind each step is where most home attempts go wrong.
The Bacon Rule
Bacon is not a background flavor — it is a forward one, and it will take over the broth if left in too long. Chang’s 45-minute rule is not approximate. At 45 minutes, the bacon has donated smoke, pork fat, and saltiness to the broth without converting it into something that tastes primarily of cured pork. Past 90 minutes, the broth tastes of bacon specifically — that round, sweet, smoky note that is good in sandwiches and wrong in a bowl of ramen. At 3 hours, it tastes like condensed bacon soup.
Set a timer. Remove the bacon at 45 minutes. You will likely taste the broth and think it needs more — it doesn’t. The tare will season the broth at service, and the pork belly topping brings additional meatiness. The bacon has done its work.
In traditional Japanese shoyu ramen, the smoked note comes from katsuobushi, dried bonito shaved thin and steeped briefly in hot water. The flavor is lighter and more oceanic than bacon, with similar umami compounds but less sweetness and almost no pork fat. Chang’s substitution produces a bolder, richer, more American-tasting broth — more assertive but less delicate. This is the right trade given the rest of the dish’s character.
Tare: Why It’s Made Separately
Real ramen — at every serious ramen shop — is built in two parts: the soup (unseasoned broth) and the tare (seasoning concentrate). They are combined at service, per bowl, in the proportions that taste right that day. This separation exists for a practical reason: you can make a large batch of neutral broth and season each bowl to taste, adjusting the tare based on the specific bowl and the preference of the person eating it.
What it means at home: the broth you pull off the heat after six hours should taste clean and savory but underseasoned. That is correct. Season it when it goes in the bowl, not in the pot.
The Momofuku tare is soy sauce, sake, and mirin simmered with chicken fat. The fat is important — it coats the broth and gives it a slight richness that plain soy sauce doesn’t provide. The easiest way to get it: after the broth chills overnight, the chicken fat solidifies on the surface — skim a spoonful of that (schmaltz) and melt it into the tare. Store-bought schmaltz or plain neutral oil works as a substitute. Either works; the chicken fat version is better.
Use 2 tablespoons of tare per bowl as a starting point, stir it into the hot broth before adding noodles, and taste. Add more tare in small increments. Chang’s standard in the cookbook: the broth should be “at but just under too salty.” Season up to that point and stop.
The Kombu Extraction
Kombu is dried kelp, and it contains glutamates — the compounds responsible for umami — in high concentrations. It releases those glutamates at temperatures between 140°F and 180°F. At boiling temperature (212°F), it releases alginic acid and other compounds that taste bitter and produce a slimy texture.
The technique: start the kombu in cold water, heat to just below a simmer (you want small bubbles starting to form, not a rolling boil), let it steep 10 minutes, remove before raising heat. This is cold-start dashi, the foundational technique in Japanese cooking. Most home cooks skip it because it adds a step and requires watching the temperature — but it takes 15 minutes total and produces a clean, ocean-scented broth layer that carries through the whole six-hour simmer.
The Noodles
Sun Noodle, based in Pennsauken, New Jersey, is the noodle of record at Momofuku Noodle Bar and most serious ramen shops in North America. Sun Noodle makes alkaline noodles — the kansui (potassium carbonate and sodium carbonate solution) that goes into the dough is what gives ramen noodles their yellow color, springy-firm bite, and slightly mineral flavor. Sun Noodle sells direct and through select retailers; their dried varieties are widely available at Asian grocery stores.
What you’re looking for at the grocery store: refrigerated or frozen fresh ramen noodle packets, or dried ramen noodles specifically marketed for ramen (not instant ramen with flavor packets). The label may say “alkaline noodles,” “sun noodle,” or just “ramen noodles” — the indication is a yellow-golden color from kansui rather than eggs. Fresh noodles cook in 1 to 2 minutes and have a springier texture; dried noodles take 3 to 4 minutes and are slightly more uniform in texture.
Egg noodles look similar but cook softer and lack the alkaline chew. Regular pasta produces a wrong-textured bowl even in correct broth. The noodle is the structural backbone of ramen — it matters.
Building the Bowl
Assembly is fast when components are ready. Bring broth to a full boil before service — not a warm simmer, a boil. Preheat bowls (fill with boiling water, let sit 2 minutes, drain right before plating). Cook noodles per package directions; drain but do not rinse with cold water. Working quickly: tare in the prewarmed bowl first, then boiling broth poured over, then noodles. Taste and adjust. Then toppings — pork belly slices seared to caramelized, soy egg halved to show the jammy yolk, bamboo shoots, nori stood upright at the edge of the bowl, scallions, sesame oil.
The pork belly for the ramen is the same dry-cured belly from the Momofuku pork buns recipe — salt, sugar, roast, chill, slice, sear. That belly was already on the menu when ramen launched. Chang saw no reason to change it for the topping format.
Serve immediately. In a ramen shop, the gap between bowl hitting the pass and reaching the table is 90 seconds. At home, the gap between assembling and sitting down should be similarly brief. The noodles are absorbing broth from the moment the bowl is assembled. Ramen is a meal that rewards urgency.
