We really, really love ramen when it’s prepared properly, but we almost never find it in frozen form. Sure, you can buy the cheap stuff in dry packets just about anywhere, but we’re talking about the gourmet stuff. Thankfully, PF Chang’s Home Menu has recently added ramen to their list of Asian-style frozen meals. We’re extremely happy to be trying the PF Chang’s Home Menu Spicy Chicken Miso Ramen today!
First, it must be heated. This is incredibly easy to make — in fact, it might even be easier than those goofy little packets that you can buy for ten cents at your local grocery store. All you have to do is bring a cup and a half of water to a boil, then toss in the contents of the package and stir until it’s done. That’s all there is to it. It doesn’t even take that long, since all of the ingredients are pre-cooked. You won’t have to wait for the noodles to unstiffen or anything, as they soften up almost instantly when they hit the boiling water. Err on the side of caution when it comes to the chicken, though, as you’re going to want to make sure it’s cooked all the way through.
So how does this frozen ramen compare to the stuff you’d get at a fancy Japanese restaurant?
Well, it’s probably silly to compare something that comes frozen in a bag to something you’d order at a fancy restaurant. This just doesn’t have that level of quality. (If you’ve never had restaurant-quality ramen, you need to drive out to the nearest Japanese restaurant and order some, because it’s amazing.) Yet this is still a pretty competent bowl of ramen.
We were surprised by how spicy this is. We’ve reviewed a lot of frozen foods with the word spicy in the title that would barely register on anyone’s spice meter. However, this stuff is really spicy. This stuff burns the back of your tongue and warms your belly for a long while after you’re done eating it.
The chicken comes in clumps of ground meat, which is a little disappointing. Big cuts of stringy chicken would have been absolutely amazing here. To be perfectly honest, this stuff is a bit weak and bland, especially when compared to the incredibly spicy broth.
The best ingredient in this entire bowl, however, is the corn. This stuff is grilled to perfection and loaded with flavor. Every bite of corn is a joy to eat here.
According to the package, the contents here should be enough for three servings. If you take PF Chang’s recommendation, you’ll be consuming 200 calories and 690 mg of sodium. That’s not bad at all for a frozen meal. It gets real bad if you eat the full bag at once, but we don’t think you’ll do that; this is actually a pretty substantial bag of ramen. For reference, the image we show a few paragraphs above is about half a bag’s worth of ramen.
The PF Chang’s Home Menu Spicy Chicken Miso Ramen won’t beat a high-quality restaurant ramen, but it’s certainly better than anything you can buy in a packet. It’s also much, much more expensive, of course, but when it comes to ramen, you tend to get what you pay for.
To learn more about the cooking instructions, ingredients, or nutritional content in this PF Chang’s frozen ramen, check out our package scans below.