Gordon Ramsay Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe

Gordon Ramsay’s chicken noodle soup is an Asian-style broth made with chicken thighs, dried shiitake mushrooms, ginger, star anise, and Shaoxing rice wine, served over egg noodles with choi sum and a drizzle of sesame oil. It takes about 30 minutes from start to bowl.

This recipe appears as “Chicken and Shiitake Noodle Soup” in Gordon Ramsay’s Quick and Delicious, where he writes that “the broths for these soups are usually laboured over for many hours to give them an intense depth of flavour, but this soup uses dried shiitake mushrooms to shortcut the process.” He calls them “really rich in umami, bringing a wonderful savouriness and depth to the dish in no time at all.”

The technique that makes this work: he poaches the chicken thighs and dried shiitake mushrooms together in the same broth from the start. The mushrooms rehydrate directly into the stock, so every drop of their umami goes into the liquid instead of getting poured down the drain in a separate soaking bowl.

FAQs

Why does Ramsay use dried shiitake mushrooms instead of fresh?

Dried shiitake mushrooms have a far more concentrated flavour than fresh ones because the drying process breaks down proteins into glutamate, which is the compound responsible for umami. When they rehydrate in the hot broth, all of that concentrated savouriness goes directly into the liquid.

Fresh shiitakes would add texture but not nearly the same depth to the stock. Ramsay specifically calls dried shiitakes a “shortcut” that replaces the hours of simmering you’d normally need to build that kind of richness. Twelve mushrooms in 1.5 litres of stock is a generous ratio, and the mushrooms themselves become part of the finished bowl rather than being discarded.

Why poach with the skin on if he removes it later?

Ramsay poaches the chicken thighs skin-on during cooking, then removes the skin before shredding. The skin renders fat into the broth as it simmers, which adds body and richness to the liquid.

Removing it before serving keeps the texture clean because poached chicken skin turns flabby and unappetising. You get the flavour contribution without the soggy skin sitting in your bowl. Thighs also stay juicier than breasts during poaching because their higher fat content protects them from drying out in just 10 minutes of simmering.

Why cook the noodles in a separate pan?

Cooking noodles directly in the broth is the biggest mistake people make with noodle soups. The starch that leaches out of the noodles turns the clear broth cloudy and slightly gluey.

Ramsay cooks the egg noodles in a separate pan of salted boiling water, then rinses them under cold running water. This washes off the surface starch and stops the cooking so the noodles hold their texture in the hot broth instead of going mushy. The noodles sit in the bowl first, and the broth goes over them at the very end. If you enjoy Ramsay’s approach to Asian-style broths, his butternut squash soup uses a similar spice-infused stock method with cumin and ginger.

How is this different from his MasterClass version?

In Gordon Ramsay Teaches Cooking II, he takes a more restaurant-level approach using leftover Szechuan-roasted chicken and building the broth from the roasting juices. He swaps egg noodles for udon, uses rice wine vinegar for tannins, and adds soy sauce for “seasoning and colour” instead of salt.

The biggest difference is timing. The MasterClass version is designed to be made days ahead. Ramsay says he’ll “make this broth, leave all those ingredients in there, chill it, refrigerate it, and then bring it up to a boil slowly three or four days later, and those aromatics are breathtaking.” The Quick and Delicious version delivers everything in 30 minutes with no leftovers required.

Why does he add the choi sum stalks before the leaves?

The stalks and leaves of choi sum have completely different densities, so they cook at different speeds. Dropping everything in at once means either the stalks are crunchy and raw or the leaves are overcooked and slimy.

Ramsay adds the stalks first and gives them a 2-minute head start, then adds the leaves and immediately turns off the heat. The residual heat wilts the leaves gently while the stalks finish softening. His MasterClass teaching reinforces this: he advises cooking vegetables to “80% done” because “they’ll finish cooking in the hot broth.” This two-stage approach applies to any greens you might substitute, like bok choy or Chinese broccoli. For another of Ramsay’s soups where vegetable timing matters, his pumpkin soup uses a similar staged addition with aromatics.

Can the broth be made ahead of time?

Yes, and Ramsay actively recommends it. In his MasterClass he explains that the broth improves when stored in the fridge for up to four days with the aromatics left in, because the flavours continue to develop as it sits.

Make the broth through step 5, leave the ginger, star anise, and spring onions in, and refrigerate once cooled. When you’re ready to eat, slowly bring it back to a boil, strain out the aromatics, then cook the noodles and greens fresh. The chicken can be poached and shredded ahead too, stored separately in the fridge. Just don’t cook the noodles until serving because they absorb liquid and lose their texture overnight.