Lemon Pepper Chicken Ramen

Deep flavors from the tori paitan ramen broth combine with crispy lemon pepper karaage chicken in this amazing mash-up recipe! The twice fried karaage chicken gets so crispy and is perfect served alongside this chicken bone broth soup.
The inspiration for this recipe
There is a ramen pop up near me called Senpai’s Noodle Supply that has unique southern and soul food spins on classic ramen. Of course the lemon pepper chicken ramen caught my eye! I had to go try it immediately! I knew right away I had to make a version for you all to try at home if you can’t make it all the way to Atlanta.
Make the broth
I based my broth for this lemon pepper chicken ramen on a traditional paitan ramen broth. Typically you would use chicken feet but I had wings on hand and they work just as well. Get the chicken into a pan with some aromatics like onion, carrot, and ginger and let it boil for about 3 hours. Most chicken broth will tell you a light simmer is best but for this you want a hard boil for the whole 3 hours!

Now here is where things get a little weird. A trick to extract the most flavor from the chicken bones is to blend them up! After this boils for 3 hours the bones will be soft enough to break up easily. If you don’t want to fully blend them, smashing them up with a potato masher is good enough. But if you want to go all-in, get a hand blender or do it in a regular blender! Make sure you have a good blender though, I have heard sometimes the process can break a cheap one.

Don’t make a full on chicken bone smoothie, leave it a little chunky. Then boil it another 3 hours and strain it out with cheesecloth. I stored mine in the fridge overnight and it was a beautiful golden hue.

Make the lemon pepper karaage chicken
Marinate the chicken with some soy sauce, rice vinegar, and vodka. The vodka helps everything get super crispy! Then toss the chicken in a mixture of flour, corn starch, and lemon pepper.

Make sure to coat the chicken well in the cornstarch mixture.

Double fry the lemon pepper chicken karaage
Another secret to getting this super crispy is frying it twice. The first fry at 350 until it cooks through, and the second fry at 375 until it is very crispy and golden brown! Season the chicken with lemon pepper right when it comes out of the oil the second time.

Build the lemon pepper chicken ramen bowls
A little soy sauce, hot sauce, and lemon juice in the bowl first, then add the noodles and the nori sheet. Then pour on the broth and add the egg. Season with more lemon pepper. I added the chicken right on the bowl for the fun photo, but you may want to serve it on the side and dip it in the broth as you eat so it stays crispy.

Serve the lemon pepper chicken ramen
It takes a bit of effort to get to the final bowl of soup but it’s worth every step. The broth is easily one of the best chicken broths I have ever made. It’s so rich and flavorful and tastes like pure chicken in every spoonful! The bit of lemon, lemon pepper sprinkles, and hot sauce give it a nice lemon pepper wet flavor.

I was sick last week and this lemon pepper chicken ramen basically healed me.

Twists on this recipe
Yes you can make a shortcut version of this with store bought chicken broth and frozen chicken tenders.
For more info on making the broth, I used these recipes as a guide. When I was researching the chicken I used these recipes as a guide.
For more tasty twists on lemon pepper, check out my lemon pepper wet chicken sandwich, or this lemon pepper chicken parm.
Lemon Pepper Chicken Ramen
Equipment
Ingredients
Tori Paitan Broth
- 1 whole chicken about 2.5 pounds
- 4 full chicken wings including tip
- 20 chicken wing tips
- 1 onion peeled and quartered
- 1 head garlic peeled and cut in half
- 1 carrot
- 3 scallions trimmed
- 3 inches ginger sliced
- 1 tablespoon whole peppercorns
- .5 ounces kombu
- 1 teaspoon salt
Lemon Pepper Karaage
- 3 boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into bite sized pieces
- 2 tablesoons soy sauce
- pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon vodka
- 1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1 cup cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons lemon pepper seasoning
- 1 teaspoon gochugaru chili flakes
- peanut oil for frying
Soup
- 12 ounces ramen noodles
- 1 sheet nori sliced into squares
- 3 soft boiled eggs
- 2 lemons (juice of)
- soy sauce
- lemon pepper seasoning
- cayenne style hot sauce
Instructions
Make the broth
- Add all the broth ingredients to a large stock pot. Cover with water. Add enough water to cover by 3 inches or so.
- Bring to a full boil. Boil for 3 hours.
- Use a potato masher and smash up the chicken and all the ingredients in the pot. Optionally, you can go even further by pulsing the ingredients with a hand blender or using an actual blender on this step.
- Add more water if needed. Bring to a simmer and cover. Simmer for another 3 hours, stirring occasionally.
- Use a strainer and a cheesecloth to strain the broth. Store in the fridge until ready to use.
Make the chicken
- Add the cut chicken to a bowl and stir in the soy sauce, vodka, vinegar, and ginger. Stir to combine and store in the fridge for at least an hour or up to 4.
- Mix the flour, cornstarch, lemon pepper, and chili flakes on a wide pan or large shallow bowl.
- Transfer the chicken from the marinade to the flour mixture, letting any excess drip off. Toss the chicken in the flour, making sure to coat well.
- Bring the oil to 350. Cook the chicken in batches, about 5 minutes, until cooked through. Transfer to a wire rack.
- Bring the oil up to 375. Fry the chicken in batches again, just for about 2 minutes this time, until super crispy. Transfer back to the wire rack.
- Season with more lemon pepper right when it comes out of the fryer.
Build the lemon pepper chicken ramen bowls
- Bring the broth to a simmer.
- Boil the noodles according to the package instructions. Strain and shake out excess water. Transfer to bowls.
- Put a nori square into each bowl.
- Add a splash of soy sauce, hot sauce, and lemon juice to each bowl.
- Add the broth to the bowls. Top with the sliced eggs and some lemon pepper.
- Serve the chicken on the side to dip into the broth as you eat.
What kind/brand noodle did you use?