Buldak Carbonara Recipe

Buldak Carbonara is Samyang's instant ramen with a spicy chicken-flavour sauce and a cheese powder. By the package: boil the noodles five minutes in two and a half cups of water, keep half a cup, drain, and stir in both packets. For the creamy version here, add a quarter cup of milk, a slice of cheese and an egg yolk off the heat.

How to cook Buldak Carbonara by the package

Samyang's directions have three steps. Boil 2 1/2 cups (20 ounces) of water and cook the noodles for 5 minutes. Keep 1/2 cup of the water and drain the rest. Add the sauce and the cheese powder and stir well.

The half cup of water matters. It is what dissolves the powder into a sauce; drained dry, the noodles clump and the powder stays in streaks. The same page lists wheat, soy and milk as allergens.

По-русски: как готовить лапшу «Бульдак Карбонара». Вскипятите 600 мл воды и варите лапшу 5 минут. Слейте воду, оставив около 120 мл — примерно 8 столовых ложек. Добавьте жидкий соус и сырный порошок и хорошо перемешайте.

Recipe

Creamy Buldak Carbonara

Samyang Buldak Carbonara ramen cooked by the package directions and finished with milk, an egg yolk, a slice of cheese, bacon and green onion. One serving.

5.0 (1)Print

Prep

3 min

Cook

7 min

Total

10 min

Serves

1

Cuisine

Korean

Ingredients

• 2 slices cooked bacon
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 4.6 ounces Samyang Buldak Carbonara ramen (1 package)
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1 slice American cheese
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 green onion, thinly sliced

Instructions

1. Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan. Add the noodles and cook them for 5 minutes, as the package directs.
2. Scoop out 1/2 cup of the cooking water and set it aside. Drain the noodles and return them to the pan.
3. Set the pan over low heat. Add the liquid sauce and the cheese powder from the package, the milk and 2 tablespoons of the reserved water, and stir for 30 seconds, until the noodles are evenly coated.
4. Take the pan off the heat. Lay the cheese on the noodles, add the egg yolk and stir quickly until the cheese has melted and the sauce is glossy. Loosen it with another spoonful of the reserved water if it is stiff.
5. Crumble the bacon over the noodles, add the green onion and eat at once.

Nutrition

Calories:

885

Calculated from the ingredient quantities above using the USDA FoodData Central database, then divided by the number of servings. It is an estimate and will vary with the exact products you use.

What the milk, the egg yolk and the cheese do

The additions are Samyang's own suggestion for this ramen: milk or cream, an egg yolk, a slice of cheese, and bacon or ham.

• Milk thins the sauce and spreads the heat over more liquid. Heavy cream in the same amount makes it richer.
• The egg yolk thickens the sauce as it warms, the way it does in an Italian carbonara. It goes in off the heat; over a hot burner it scrambles.
• The cheese decides the texture. Processed American cheese melts smooth, mozzarella pulls into strings, and grated Parmesan seasons more than it melts, for the reasons in does Parmesan cheese melt.
• Bacon stands in for the cured pork of the Italian dish. Raw bacon takes 6 to 8 minutes in a skillet over medium heat; drain it on paper towel before crumbling it.

The yolk is warmed, not cooked through. Use a pasteurized egg if that is a concern, or leave it out and add a second slice of cheese.

How spicy Buldak Carbonara is, and how to turn it down

Samyang's blog describes the Carbonara as noticeably milder than its original Buldak. By the ingredient list, the chili is in the liquid sauce and the cheese is in the powder, so the heat can be set with the liquid packet alone:

• Half heat: all of the powder and half of the liquid sauce.
• Full heat: both packets, as in the card.
• More: a teaspoon of Korean chili flakes stirred in with the sauce.

Buldak carbonara sauce from scratch

For other noodles, the two packets can be imitated. Samyang's ingredient list names artificial chicken flavour, soy sauce, sugar, chili pepper, onion and garlic for the sauce, and milk, mozzarella and butter for the powder. Built from those, for one portion of noodles:

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 teaspoons Korean chili flakes (gochugaru)
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon chicken bouillon powder
• 1/4 teaspoon each garlic powder and onion powder
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella

Melt the butter over low heat and stir the chili flakes in it for 30 seconds. Add the soy sauce, sugar, bouillon, garlic and onion powder and the milk, and simmer for a minute. Add the cooked noodles and the mozzarella and toss until the cheese melts. It is a reconstruction from the label, not Samyang's formula; MakeFoodLovely is not connected with Samyang. A thinner soy and chili sauce on this site is the P.F. Chang's lettuce wrap sauce.

Buldak burrito

For the burrito, cook the noodles as in the card and lay them down the middle of a large flour tortilla with 1/4 cup of shredded mozzarella. Fold in the sides, roll it up and brown it, seam side down first, in a dry skillet for 2 minutes a side. The Taco Bell cheesy dipping burrito on this site is rolled and grilled the same way.