Noodle Journey Episode 127: Sapporo Ichiban Chicken Ramen

In the bowl today: Sapporo Ichiban Chicken Ramen. I’m reviewing one of the most common ramen varieties you’re likely to see in the supermarket, and I’m doing it while I’m not feeling 100%, so a savory chicken soup sounds perfect right now. I had never tried Sapporo Ichiban noodles before launching the channel, but now that I have, I’m always happy with how good these noodles are for the price. I’d walked by them in grocery stores for years and never knew they were better than similarly priced noodles until I had my first bite of their original soy sauce flavor.

You might be asking, what’s the difference between this chicken flavor and the Shio flavor I reviewed before – isn’t shio basically chicken broth? Shio can be made from chicken stock, yes, but it can also come from beef or fish, and you usually find a lot more umami and spices in a good shio broth, like seaweed, mushrooms, vegetables, aromatics. Plain old chicken soup is chicken, salt, onion, maybe garlic. Shio tends to get much more complex, and some ramen chefs call it the ultimate challenge because of its basic aesthetics and high expectations. All of that is to say this is not the same recipe as the Sapporo Ichinab Shio I reviewed a while back; this is a nice, normal chicken soup, and that’s it.

I paid $1.39 at my local supermarket, and you can expect roughly $1 to $1.50 per pack unless you’re paying an online markup or ordering in bulk. Sodium clocks in at 1,810 mg, or 79% of your daily allowance. Inside the package you get a block of thin noodles and a soup powder packet. The powder is exactly what you expect from this style: chicken extract, salt, garlic, leeks, and some nondescript spices. This is not for vegetarians because there is real chicken extract. The packet smells like really good chicken bouillon and it turns into a fairly oniony chicken stock – comfort in a bowl.

Noodles:
For a cheap brand, Sapporo Ichiban’s noodles are hard to beat. They’re a medium thickness with a nice firm texture, hearty enough for a straightforward chicken noodle soup. They may look like the ones Nissin and Maruchan put in their pillow packs, but they stay firm longer and they taste better.
• 7/10

Spiciness:
There’s nothing spicy about this chicken soup.
• 0/10

Overall:
There’s really nothing surprising here about this broth, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t delicious. You get a salty chicken stock with excellent onion flavor and a hint of garlic. I even spotted a few specks of paprika floating around, although the profile is mostly salt and onion, which is exactly what you want when you buy chicken ramen, and exactly what I want when I’ve got a sore throat. There’s a slight oiliness on top, probably from the chicken extract and soup powder, and the broth isn’t super thick, but it’s still satisfying. A basic chicken flavor isn’t going to win any awards, but I would buy this before Top Ramen or Instant Lunch chicken soups. It’s the kind of thing that’s always good to have on hand for a cold day or a sick day. There aren’t any dried flakes beyond little bits of green onion, so this is a no-frills chicken broth, but it’s a better-than-average chicken ramen and it hits all the right notes for me today.
• 7/10