This Nissin Cup Noodles Protein Rich & Savory Chicken Flavor the first review (of three) of a small new product line from Nissin that just started popping up in July 2025. These are protein-enhanced Cup Noodles flavors, containing 16g of protein per serving, which is a 10g increase over the standard 6g included in the normal Chicken flavor. The announcement page on nissinfoods.com implies that this twofold increase in protein is due to the use of bone broth in the ingredients and not necessarily an overhaul of the noodle itself like so many other manufacturers do (with varying degrees of success).
Read more: Review: Nissin Cup Noodles Protein Rich & Savory Chicken FlavorEver since aspects of my job changed, I’ve had days where all I get for lunch is a protein bar, so if I can enjoy a decent cup of ramen instead as a protein supplement, I’m keen to do so. These should be popping up in grocery stores all across the USA for $1-$2 per cup, and you can also find them in 6-packs on Amazon for about $10 at the time of this writing.
Sodium for this cup is 1480mg, so not awful for Cup Noodles.
Aside from the bone broth, the ingredients here are fairly typical of a standard chicken ramen cup. That means chicken stock, onion, garlic, egg, and soy. The dried toppings in here include peas, carrots, corn, imitation chicken soy protein, and parsley. You’ll also notice the blue “NO ADDED MSG” label on the front of the cup. Sadly, Nissin continues the trend of purposefully omitting MSG from its American Cup Noodle products with this one, so once again the fear-mongering of MSG in American noodles continues.
Noodles:
Standard Cup Noodles texture. The added protein in this cup wasn’t a result of a change in the noodle recipes, so these are the same average noodles you’ll find in other Cup Noodles products. And as always, they get soggy quickly.
- 5/10
Spiciness:
No spice here at all. There is a spicy variant of this flavor I’ll be reviewing soon after this one.
- 0/10
Overall:
Let me just get this part out of the way first: not putting MSG in this is bullshit. MSG is harmless and delicious, and even a little sprinkle of it makes any MSG-free American noodle product taste better. Facts. And guess what? This could use some MSG. Not a lot, but it would help. Otherwise, this is a largely inoffensive but completely average chicken ramen cup, with the minor bonus that the broth has a slightly thicker, richer consistency compared to what you’d find in the basic Chicken Cup Noodles*. It’s savory, reasonably salty, and has a nice herbaceous note from the parsley flakes, but that’s about it. Like most chicken ramen cups, I find the flavor one-note and a little dull. The toppings too are just alright – the peas in these cups usually feel a bit mealy to me, the corn and carrots are inoffensive, and the “chicken” soy protein pieces are kind of weirdly spongy, but they do suck up the broth flavor and provide a little needed textural contrast. The star of the show here is the bone broth consistency and the fact that you (probably) don’t need an additional protein bar to supplement your lunch if this is what you brought to the office on any given day. And for the sake of completeness, I made sure this was the only thing I ate for lunch the day of this review, and it did indeed make me feel more full than if I had downed a low-protein alternative. Credit where credit is due. For the bone broth consistency and the added protein content, I’m bumping up the score a little bit more than I probably normally would’ve given.
- 6/10
*It’s funny, I just now realized that in all this time talking about noodles, I’ve never reviewed the original American Cup Noodles Chicken flavor. I mean, I had it plenty of times over the years, but never in the context of a review. Should I? Let me know.
