Tsukemen Recipe: 3 Tips for Making Tsukemen Ramen

Tsukemen, or dipping ramen noodles, is a popular offering at ramen shops all over the world. Instead of the customary noodles in hot soup, tsukemen features cold noodles served with a separate bowl of hot dipping broth; a few ramen noodles are plucked up with chopsticks, given a quick dunk in the sauce, and slurped up.

Both tsukemen broth and noodles are served with assorted condiments and garnishes, like shredded nori and thinly sliced scallions, slices of chashu, braised pork belly, kamaboko, pink and white fish cakes, and ramen eggs.

Tsukemen has a few different origin stories, but all of them grant its invention to Tokyo restaurateur Kazuo Yamagishi, who first put them on his ramen restaurant’s menu in 1961. At the time, the dish was called “special morisoba,” since the broth and noodles were served separately in the style of zaru soba—chilled buckwheat noodles served with a cold dipping sauce.

When it’s too hot for a bowlful of steaming soup, but you’ve got a major craving for stretchy, snappy ramen noodles, it’s time for tsukemen.

1. 1. Use fresh noodles. In tsukemen, the noodles are the main event. If you can, use chukamen, or fresh ramen noodles, for superior taste and texture. You can typically find packages of chukamen in the refrigerated section of Asian grocery stores.
2. 2. Choose bold flavors. Tsukemen broth is intentionally stronger and saltier than typical ramen broth since it’s intended for dipping rather than sipping. Go bold with your flavors since they will balance out when eaten with the noodles.
3. 3. Build the broth. To build your tsukemen broth, you can jazz up a store-bought meat or vegetable stock. You can also make your own stock with water and mentsuyu, a Japanese soup base consisting of kombu and katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) simmered in soy sauce, sake, mirin.