One of the things I love about ordering noodles from Japan is seeing what limited-edition flavors Nissin comes out with every couple of months. This Cup Noodle Three Cheese Chicken Paitan caught my eye one of the last times I ordered from Japanese-snacks-republic.com, and I knew I had to have it. Since this is a limited-edition flavor, read on to see if I think this is something you should order ASAP.
Read more: Review: Nissin Cup Noodle Three Cheese Chicken PaitanLike all of Nissin’s other limited-time Cup Noodles, I can’t say how long Nissin plans on selling this one before it’s gone (sometimes for good, and sometimes it’ll come back). At the time of this writing, it is still available from Japanese-snacks-republic.com, and I imagine you can find it on eBay or any other stores that sell Cup Noodles from Japan. If you want these, it’s best to snatch them up as quickly as possible.
If you’re unfamiliar with the terminology here, the term “paitan” refers to a style of chicken ramen broth with a thick, creamy texture that ramen chefs achieve by boiling chicken on high heat. Its opposite is chintan, which is a clear, much more delicate broth. I’ve had paitan from Marutai before and it is absolutely delicious and a super satisfying texture. I know these noodles won’t compare to Marutai’s amazing air-dried straight noodles, but I’m betting this broth will be decent. Nissin has combined a thick chicken broth with a seasoning packet containing a blend of parmesan, emmental, and gouda cheeses.
The salt equivalent for this cup is 4.6g, making the sodium approximately 1811mg. Pretty salty, but unsurprising.
Inside the cup, you’ll see the standard block of noodles, some soup powder, and a mix of dried toppings. You can check out the ingredients list here on Nissin’s site (use your browser’s translate feature if you can’t read Japanese), but nothing in there is really a surprise for a cheesy chicken broth other than the presence of pork extract too. Those dried bits you see are green onion, carrot, egg, and minced chicken. Normally, the little packet on top of the cup is a seasoning oil that heats up as the cup steeps, but in this case that’s where the blend of cheeses is. There’s a warning on the packet to remove it before steeping, likely because the cheese might congeal into a gooey mess.
Noodles:
Typical Cup Noodle noodles. I don’t love them, but when the broth or sauce they come with is good, it’s all worth it.
- 5/10
Spiciness:
Nothing spicy about this one at all.
- 0/10
Overall:
As you can see from the images above, the broth comes out decently thick after steeping, and then the powdered cheese gets added as a garnish at the end. I’ll cut right to the good part: this is pretty tasty. The chicken broth is rich and thick and has a strong savory chicken flavor with a hefty amount of garlic and onion flavor behind it. The included minced chicken, carrot, and green onion pieces are flavorful and provide a nice texture. I don’t normally like or give a second thought to those dehydrated egg pieces, but I didn’t find them too offensive here; they mostly just absorbed the broth flavor and tasted like salty little sponges. The big negative here is the cheese, or rather the lack of cheese. For something called a “three cheese chicken paitan,” there is precious little cheese or cheese flavor actually in this. That little dusting of powdered cheese you see in the last photo above is all the cheese there is (unless there was some in the broth powder that got overpowered by the other flavors). It’s a very mild blend with a similar texture and flavor to those parmesan cheese canisters you might see at a supermarket, but with a less funky odor and taste. It’s actually quite a nice blend, but the problem is it’s completely imperceptible after the first couple bites. I made sure to taste the broth on its own before adding the cheese powder, and that initial flavor is mostly what this cup tasted like as I worked my way through it. I didn’t get any noticeable cheese flavor out of about 90% of this cup. I even stirred up the cheese powder after a couple bites hoping that the broth would get a little cheesier, but it was sadly not to be. A bigger cheese packet or having a more substantial amount of cheese already incorporated into the broth powder would’ve done a lot more to make this stand out. As is, it’s basically just a hearty chicken broth with a couple shakes of cheese powder in it, and from a cheese-lover’s aspect it was disappointing. It’s undoubtedly flavorful, but it’s not something I’d recommend buying if you’re expecting a really cheesy noodle cup. Check this out only if you’re in it for the rich chicken broth and other great toppings.
- 7.5/10
