"Chicken" Paitan Ramen

There's a special kind of magic that happens when a restaurant dish becomes so deeply embedded in your regular routine that you start craving it between visits. For us, that dish is the creamy paitan ramen at Nori, one of our absolute favorite vegan restaurants right here in Austin, Texas. It's the kind of bowl that stops conversation at the table — rich, deeply savory, perfectly creamy, and layered with umami in a way that makes you want to order a second before you've finished your first. We've been obsessed with it since the first time we tried it.

The only problem? Life with a baby doesn't exactly lend itself to spontaneous restaurant outings. Between bedtime routines, nap schedules, and the general beautiful chaos that comes with parenthood, heading out for a bowl of ramen on a weeknight just isn't always in the cards. So we did what we always do — we went home, rolled up our sleeves, and got to work recreating it. After several rounds of testing and tweaking, we're genuinely proud to say we got pretty close. Close enough that this recipe has become one of the most-made dishes in our household, and close enough that we think you're going to love it just as much as we do.

What Is Chicken Paitan Ramen — And What Makes This Version Special?

For those unfamiliar with the style, Chicken Paitan is a Japanese ramen characterized by its rich, creamy, opaque broth — traditionally made by boiling chicken bones for an extended period of time until the collagen and fat emulsify into a thick, velvety liquid. It sits beautifully in the middle ground between a light, clear broth like shio or shoyu and a heavier, more intense broth like tonkotsu. The result is deeply satisfying without being overwhelming — creamy and complex but still clean and balanced.

Our version achieves that same rich, creamy, deeply umami quality without a single chicken bone in sight. No chickens were harmed in the making of this ramen, and honestly? We think it tastes just as incredible — if not better — than the traditional version. The plant-based approach also means it comes with meaningful nutritional advantages that the original simply can't offer, which we'll get into in a moment.

How This Recipe Comes Together

Despite how impressive the final bowl looks and tastes, the process of making this vegan chicken paitan is genuinely approachable, even on a weeknight. Here's the basic flow:

We start by browning onions, garlic, shiitake mushrooms, scallions, shallot, and ginger in the pot until deeply caramelized and fragrant — this is where the foundational flavor of the broth begins to develop. We then deglaze with a splash of rice vinegar to lift all those gorgeous browned bits from the bottom of the pot before adding one large piece of konbu and 10 cups of water. From there the broth simmers low and slow for one to one and a half hours, depending on how rich and concentrated you want the final result. The longer it goes, the deeper and more complex the flavor becomes.

Once the broth is done, we strain out the vegetables — though we save the shiitake mushrooms and onions to use as toppings, because they're absolutely delicious at that point — and build the creamy, umami-packed liquid that truly transforms this into a paitan-style broth. That mixture includes soy sauce, no-chicken or vegetable broth, white miso paste, sugar, ground pepper, tahini, nutritional yeast, and soy milk. Together these ingredients create that signature creamy, savory, slightly nutty quality that makes chicken paitan so distinctive and addictive.

To serve, cook 3 to 3.5 ounces of ramen noodles according to their package instructions, place them in a bowl, and ladle over 1.5 cups of the finished broth. Then comes the fun part — the toppings.

Toppings — Make It Your Own

We love loading our bowls with the reserved shiitake mushrooms and caramelized onions from the broth, along with our plant-based soft-boiled eggs (which look absolutely stunning in a ramen bowl), sweet corn, broccolini, crispy pan-seared tofu, a sheet of nori, and fresh spinach. But the beauty of this recipe is that the toppings are completely open to interpretation. Use whatever vegetables you have in your fridge, whatever protein you prefer, and whatever garnishes speak to you that day.

This ramen also lends itself beautifully to seasonal eating — think roasted butternut squash or kabocha in the fall and winter months, grilled eggplant and bell peppers in the summer, or tender asparagus and snap peas in the spring. The rich, creamy broth acts as a perfect backdrop for virtually any vegetable combination, making this a recipe you can genuinely enjoy and look forward to all year round.

The Nutrition Story — Better Than You'd Expect

Now let's talk about what's actually in this bowl nutritionally, because this is where this recipe really distinguishes itself from its traditional counterpart in some meaningful ways.

The broth itself carries a similar protein and fat profile to a traditional chicken paitan broth — but because it's built entirely from plant-based ingredients, it comes without the significant cholesterol burden that comes with an animal bone-based broth. The fats it does contain are predominantly healthy fats, delivering over 20% of your daily omega-3 and omega-6 requirements from the broth alone before a single topping hits the bowl.

Thanks to the combination of nutritional yeast, fortified soy milk, and plant-based powerhouses like tahini, the nutritional density of this broth is genuinely remarkable. A single serving of broth — before any toppings are added — contains:

Over 100% of your daily B vitamins (except B3 and B5) — supporting energy production, brain function, and cellular health at a level you simply wouldn't get from a traditional chicken paitan broth. It also delivers a considerable amount of virtually every essential mineral and notable levels of all other key vitamins — and again, this is all before you've added a single topping to the bowl. Load it up with tofu, corn, broccolini, and our plant-based soft-boiled eggs and the nutritional profile becomes even more impressive.

One important note — like most ramen recipes, this broth is naturally high in sodium, which is worth being aware of if you're monitoring your intake. If you'd like to reduce the sodium level, you can omit the MSG or scale back to one tablespoon of soy sauce instead of two. We wouldn't recommend removing the soy sauce entirely as it contributes significantly to the depth of flavor, but if you need to reduce or omit it for dietary reasons, the broth will still be delicious — just adjust the other seasonings to taste.

This is the ramen we make when we want something that feels truly special, deeply comforting, and genuinely nourishing all at the same time. We hope it brings the same joy to your table that it brings to ours.