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Making fried chicken at home can seem like an insurmountable task, what with all the oil and the prep, but it can be pretty easy if you know what you’re doing. You can follow some solid tips for fried chicken, such as buying a whole chicken and breaking it down yourself. And there are some simple fried chicken mistakes to avoid, like putting too much chicken in the oil. There are also a number of incredible ingredient swaps to elevate your fried chicken. But this one will give you incredible flavor with a tiny packet you probably already have in the pantry. Add ramen seasoning to your fried chicken for a huge boost of flavor that will make it taste just like restaurant-quality, maybe even better.
Part of why ramen seasoning offers a big boost of flavor is thanks to the MSG (monosodium glutamate), an amino acid that naturally exists in foods like tomatoes. While the MSG of ramen packets is lab created (from glutamic acid), your body metabolizes it the same way as it would from natural foods. So, although it has gotten a bad rap over the years, according to the FDA, it doesn’t appear to be detrimental to most people’s health. It’s really just a flavor enhancer — a big umami bomb that reacts with the tongue much like salt does.
The other benefit of ramen seasoning is the wide range of flavors to choose from. Chicken makes sense, of course, for fried chicken — like Maruchan Ramen Chicken Instant Noodles. But something a bit spicier, or even on the seafood spectrum, could work, if you want to broaden your fried chicken palate flavors. But what do you need to do to add ramen seasoning to your fried chicken?
How to use ramen flavor packets to season your fried chicken
Whether you use wheat flour, rice flour, or however many herbs and spices in your fried chicken dredge, you simply need to add a packet of ramen seasoning to the breading mix. Just mix it in as you would salt and pepper. You could even dust the chicken directly with the ramen packet ahead of time, so that the flavor is packed in below the crispy crust. It will give the chicken an incredible boost of umami goodness.
Once you’ve used up the ramen packet, if you still have the dry noodles leftover, they can even be crushed as the final dredge for your fried chicken. Just crush them in a bowl and use them as your final stop on the fried chicken dredge trail. Or make a quick and easy stir fry with the noodles, as a side dish for your delicious fried chicken. All it takes is a quick fry in oil with some garlic and soy sauce, or whatever else you’d like to add — sweet, spicy, you name it. Whenever your fried chicken needs an extra boost of flavor, check the pantry for your dried ramen. And this seasoning trick works just as well to give a kick to your barbecue rub, in salad dressings, on french fries, even on popcorn.
