Kid Friendly Slow Cooker Pork Ramen
Originally Published April 15, 2016. Republished on November 26, 2018 with new photos and updated information. This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Looking for a chicken version? Try my slow cooker chicken ramen recipe!
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, I had a newborn who refused to sleep. Like, ever. And I watched a lot of TV very late at night. One night I happened to catch this movie called “The Ramen Girl” starring Brittany Murphy. Basically, this girl finds herself abandoned, dejected, and utterly hopeless in Tokyo, and has no where to go except this Ramen House, where she forces the chef to teach her his trade.
Now, if you know anything about Ramen beyond the microwaveable college staple, then you know that Ramen is more of a revered art form than it is “food” – and its ALL about the broth. Chefs actually spend years and years perfecting their broth making skills before they are even allowed to serve ramen to anyone. It’s like, a really big deal.
It might have been because I was delirious with utterly no sleep, or it might have been because its easy to feel kinship with hopeless wretches when you are rocking a screaming baby who refuses to sleep for more than 4 hours in an entire day, or maybe its because I love the thought of food as an art form – any way you look at it, I loved this ridiculous movie. And that is when I became obsessed with making and eating Ramen.
How to make this easy ramen recipe
Don’t fret, because you, too can totally achieve an amazing bowl of ramen, and it won’t take you years to master it, either. I’ve tested tons of recipes and perfected the BEST and EASIEST way for you to enjoy a delicious and healthy bowl that you can actually prepare at home with almost no work! And guess what? You make it in the crock pot!
This homemade ramen broth, while it hasn’t been graded by a Ramen Master (that’s a real thing), is pretty dang good – its complex, flavorful, and amazing.
- Place the pork in the slow cooker.
- Whisk together the broth ingredients and pour over the pork in the slow cooker.
- Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours.
- Remove the pork from the crockpot and lightly shred with two forks.
- Add the ramen noodles, cilantro and basil and cook for 5 minutes.
- Once the noodles are cooked, ladle the broth into bowls and top with all the things!
- Enjoy!
How to make pork ramen kid-friendly
- Serve all the toppings in small bowls on the table. Allowing them to choose between a variety of toppings gives them the feeling that they are more in charge of what they eat. Offer a variety of toppings in a rainbow of toppings and suggest that your child choose at least 3 things of a different color, etc.
- Have Kid-Friendly Chopsticks on hand. Not only will it make eating ramen seem more authentic, but its way more fun!
- Eating Ramen is FUN for kids! Did you know that when you eat ramen you are SUPPOSED to slurp your noodles? Make it loud, make it messy, make it ok! It is also ok to hold your bowl and sip the broth from it like you would hot chocolate.
Interested in adding more Asian flavors to your weeknight meals but not sure how to make it actually doable? Check out my Beginner’s Guide to Asian Cuisine for easy tips and recipes that are weeknight and kid-friendly and will help your weeknight meals be a win!
Ramen Toppings:
You can easily customize this dish by adding toppings based on what you like or have on hand. I totally suggest buying those little bags of pre-shredded cabbage and carrots,a s they make prep-work almost non-existent.
I love offering a variety of toppings for my homemade ramen in many colors for kids to choose from, and try to pick as many options in different colors that I can. Here are some great choices you can use:
- Red, Orange and Yellow Sweet Mini Peppers, sliced
- Shredded Carrots
- Shredded Purple Cabbage
- Sliced Mushrooms
- Soft or Hard Boiled Eggs (Remember – boil an egg for 5 minutes for a soft and runny yolk, 7 minutes for a soft but set yolk, and 10 minutes for a hard set yolk.)
- Fresh Cilantro
- Fresh Basil
- Green Onions
You can also use those cheap-o packets of ramen (and throw away the spice packet), or you can get the real thing and use these ramen noodles.
Try these other great slow cooker meals:
Food tastes better when its shared! If you try this recipe, let me know! Leave a comment and rate below! Love and links are always appreciated! If you’d like to share this post, please link to this post directly for the recipe, please do not copy and paste or screenshot. Thanks so much for supporting me! xoxo
Crock Pot Pork Ramen
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2-3 pounds pork shoulder or butt
- 4 cups low sodium chicken broth
- ¼ cup low sodium soy sauce
- ¼ cup rice vinegar
- 2 Tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 Tablespoon fresh ginger grated
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 Tablespoon chili paste
- Juice of 1 lime
- 1 Tablespoon sriracha
- 1 Tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
- 4 packs of Ramen Noodles seasoning packets discarded
Toppings
- ¼ cup fresh basil chopped
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro chopped
- 4 eggs soft boiled
- ½ cup shredded carrots
- ½ cup sliced mini sweet peppers
- ½ cup shredded red cabbage
- ½ cup sliced shiitake mushrooms
- fresh chopped cilantro basil and green onions
- toasted sesame seeds for serving
Instructions
- Add the pork to the crock pot.
- Whisk together the chicken broth, soy sauce, rice vinegar, fish sauce, ginger, garlic, cinnamon, chili paste, lime juice, sriracha, toasted sesame oil, pepper and brown sugar and pour over the pork in the slow cooker.
- Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours.
- Remove the pork from the crockpot and lightly shred with two forks.
- Add the ramen noodles, cilantro and basil and cook for 5 minutes.
- Once the noodles are cooked, ladle the broth into bowls and top with all the things!
- Enjoy!
I love ramen…it is something that you can have any time of the day.
Hi,
Visiting from abakinglegacy.com and just wanted you to know…I love this post. My grandsons love Ramen…that microwave stuff. We try to dress it up. I will have to make this for them. I like the idea of letting them pick their own toppings. Lovely blog.
Hi Jenni – Great post!! I've never heard of the Ramen Girl or a Ramen Master. Where I have been?? This looks so yummy! Definitely something my picky baby boy (he's 18!) would actually eat. Thanks so much.
This sounds amazing! I'm always looking for good crockpot recipes, and I had ramen for the first time this year and it was So Good. Pinning!! 🙂
What a tasty recipe, your ramen looks delicious & I love all the different spices you've used. Pinned for later 🙂
We love ramen. We eat it even in the warm summer months! I love that your recipe is customizable. And thanks for teaching me a new word today (or two words) – Ramen Master haha!
Wow, this sounds SO flavorful! Pork ramen is my fave – definitely going to try this one out.
I love how pretty this dish is.
Now I must have this!
This looks amazing! And simple-win-win!
I adore a good ramen bowl and this one looks like a must try!
Those seasonings sound good!
This looks delicious, can’t wait to try it myself!
So doing this! Thank you!
This looks incredibly good! Love all the flavours in here and I can’t wait to try 🙂 Hubby will love too!
I love the idea of starting kids on ramen young! Plus, this is obviously totally enjoyable for adults, too! What’s not to love??
That looks so delicious. I have saved the recipe and will be trying it. Love crock pot recipes. And we all love Ramen in our home.
That looks delicious!
My nephews would be nuts for this. They would eat Ramen every day, lol.
I love ramen. I ate it a lot when I was growing up. I had no idea, though, that it could be made in a crock pot. That’s fantastic!
This ramen sounds great! Will have to try to make soon.
Have you ever done this with Chicken? We don’t eat pork but LOVE ramen!
Hi Stefanie! I do this with chicken all the time! I have a special recipe just for chicken that is a little bit different. You can find it here: https://thegingeredwhisk.com/slow-cooker-chicken-ramen/
Love how colourful it is – sure to entice the kids.
My daughter’s boyfriend loves ramen! This is a perfect recipe for me to try out….
~m
I’ve never heard of that movie, but the ramen recipe looks absolutely delicious. Plus in a slow cooker that’s awesome!
Love ramen and this recipe looks simple but yet very tasty!
This recipe looks so delicious!
Yum, lots of ingredients I’m sure this recipe has amazing flavors
my sons is huge ramen fan
Not sure if this post posted but anyways I don’t know if my kids would have eaten that but I know I would!
Again leaving a comment! I don’t think my kids would have eaten that but I know I would!
I think I could use those “kid-friendly” chopsticks!
I’m trying this this week! Looks so yummy! Thanks for sharing 😀
On my list to try!
Looks yummy! Thanks for sharing this recipe.
My kids would love this!
I can’t wait to try this recipe! Looks delicious – thanks for sharing! !
I am so in love with pork ramen. I make a version in the instant pot, but haven’t tried making it in the slow cooker yet. I def have to give this a try. PS – that movie sounds awful LOL! But glad you watched it for the inspiration 🙂
I will try this recipe, it looks interesting and delicious. But will use chicken instead of pork.
this look so delicious!
My Hubby & son would love this recipe look simple to make . IT look so yummy yet healthy also
Looks delicious and healthy, and I like that it’s under 300 calories per serving.
Anything with noodles is big hit at our house. And this looks delicious without those salty little packets.
My family LOVED this recipe. Although, with only four cups of both it was really strong. So I added another 4 cups of broth and it was delicious. Also, I think more broth is needed for the noodles. We used the real ramen noodles which I highly recommend! They didn’t get completely soggy like the instant version. It took some work to find all of the ingredients, but now we have them and can use them again and again. It was super easy to make. Thanks for this recipe! Can’t wait to make it again.
Sheena! I am so glad to hear your family loved the ramen! The real ramen noodles totally make it better, so glad you went out and found those!
This sounds great! If I wanted to do sliced pork instead of shredded, how long should I cook it?
Hi Katie! You can totally do this ramen with sliced pork instead of shredded. Swap out the pork butt for a pork loin, and cook it the same length! Let me know how it goes!
I love the flavors! I sliced the 2 lbs of pork around 7 hours or so (medium-well), for a neat presentation. My husband doesn’t like yolks all in one place like hard boiled eggs, so I did an “omelette” and sliced it into smaller pieces for his. I also used maybe 1/2 to 1 tsp of ground cinnamon instead of a cinnamon stick. Very good!
The broth was VERY salty, even with low sodium soy sauce. I don’t usually have a problem with my chicken bouillon/broth but I would definitely either add more water or use less bouillion next time. Great spice though!
Big hit! My husband is a Ramen fanatic so I wanted to make some that our picky toddler would actually eat as well. Both loved it and it was so easy to make!
I think the only things I’d change are either only 2 packets of noodles, and/or doubling the broth components except the meat, because it was A LOT of noodles and they soaked up so much broth I didn’t have any actual broth for leftovers. Just meat and noodles. (Tho still very tasty!)
I made this, combined with another recipe. I enjoyed it, but I will leave out the brown sugar and cinnamon next time I make it.
Yes! I loved watching The Ramen Girl and immediately tried making my own. Thank you for the recipe, there are ingredients here that will take my ramen up a notch!! 😍
Really liked this ramen! I loved all the flavours. Thank you!