These homemade Ramen Eggs are flavoured with an extra punch of garlic for truly delicious jammy eggs that are fit to rival any noodle shop. You can even eat them on their own as a healthy and savoury snack, no ramen needed!
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What are Japanese Eggs?
This Japanese technique for curing soft-boiled eggs in soy sauce produces the yummiest seasoned eggs (known as Ajitsuke Tamago or Ajitama in Japanese). They’re one of the most popular toppings for ramen which is why they’re also known as Ramen Eggs.
No matter if you’re making fresh noodles from scratch or dressing up a bowl of instant ramen, you can’t go wrong with a sliced ajitama or two. We love to pair it with our Better Than Bouillon Ramen Recipe for a quick ramen dinner that we can feel good about.
Ingredient Notes
For these Garlicky Ramen Eggs, the marinade is so simple. Only five ingredients:
Rice Wine: Basically any type of rice wine works for these eggs. Sake or mirin would be best (or a mix of both), but I’ve even tried it with Chinese and Korean rice cooking wines and the eggs turned out great.
Soy Sauce: Known as shoyu in Japanese, soy sauce provides the main flavour for these ramen eggs. We like Kikkoman brand but any soy sauce will do. Use tamari or gluten-free soy sauce if you’re gluten-free. You can even use Maggi seasoning for a bit of a different flavour.
Water: Without a bit of water to dilute the soy sauce and wine, the egg whites quickly get too salty and pungent without giving enough time for the flavour to penetrate to the egg yolk.
Sugar: You can also use an alternative sweetener. We’ve tested granulated stevia with great results.
Garlic Powder: The concentrated flavour of garlic pairs well with shoyu to take these ramen eggs up a notch.
See recipe card for quantities.
Directions
How to Soft-Boil Eggs
Stovetop: Add eggs to a small pot along with cold water—just enough to cover them fully. Place the pot on the stove and turn on the heat to high. When the water starts simmering (as soon as you see the first bubble!) set a timer for 5 to 6 minutes (depending on whether you want a runny or jammy yolk). Once the timer goes off, immediately drain the eggs and transfer them to a bowl of ice-cold water.
Instant Pot: Add 1 cup cold water to the inner pot. Set the eggs on a trivet inside the pot. Set the Instant Pot to the Eggs or Pressure Cook setting on High Pressure for 0 minutes. Yep, 0 minutes. Once the Instant Pot beeps and turns off, start a timer for 2 to 3 minutes (depending on whether you want a runny or jammy yolk). Once the timer goes off, release the pressure and immediately transfer the eggs into a bowl of ice-cold water.
Note: If you live at high elevation (at least 3,000 feet or 915 meters above sea level), increase the cook time by 1 minute for each extra 1,000 feet or 305 meters. We live at 1,000 meters so we boil our eggs for 6 to 7 minutes, or Instant Pot them for 3 to 4 minutes.
How to Marinate the Eggs
Step 1. Mix together all the marinade ingredients (sake, soy, water, sugar, garlic) in a large ziploc bag.
Step 2. Once your soft-boiled eggs are cool to the touch, peel them and drop them into the marinade bag.
Step 3. Let the eggs marinate in the fridge for 24 hours (any longer and they will be too salty).
Tip: Seal the ziploc bag with a rubber band or bag clip just above the liquid so that the eggs remain fully submerged as they marinate. This ensures the eggs will be evenly seasoned all around.
Top Tip
You can reuse the marinade a couple more times to make more ramen eggs! Just don’t keep it for more than 4 days, and don’t reuse it if there are bits of egg that broke off into the marinade.
We prefer to make a small batch of marinade to avoid wasting rice wine and soy sauce. We only marinate 4 to 6 eggs at a time, but over a few days, we make over a dozen eggs with the same marinade.
Soy Cured Egg Yolks
A variation you can try: Use the same marinade recipe to cure raw egg yolks instead of hardboiled eggs!
How to do it: Simply separate raw egg yolks from the whites and gently drop them into the marinade.
Egg yolks will take less time than whole eggs. They are generally pretty flavourful at the 8-hour mark, but you can let them go all the way to 24 hours for a super salty umami bomb.
Garlicky soy cured egg yolks taste amazing on Steamed White Rice or Roasted Garlic Rice.
Storage Tips
Fridge: Marinated ramen eggs can be stored for up to four days in the fridge. Do not leave them in the marinade—they’ll get way too salty after the first day.
Freezer: We don’t recommend freezing ramen eggs. Hardboiled egg whites become rubbery and watery after freezing and thawing.
What to Serve with Garlicky Ramen Eggs
Here are four dishes that are totally boosted by adding a couple of ramen eggs:
More Recipes Using Egg
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
Did you make this recipe? Please leave a rating or comment below to give me feedback and help out other readers.
Recipe Card
Garlicky Ramen Eggs (Ajitama)
Ingredients
- 4 to 6 eggs
- ¼ cup sake or mirin you can even use Chinese rice cooking wine in a pinch
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- ¼ cup water
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
Instructions
- Soft-boil 4 to 6 eggs. See instructions above within this post for how to make soft-boiled eggs on the stove or in the Instant Pot.
- Mix together all the marinade ingredients (¼ cup sake or mirin, ¼ cup soy sauce, ¼ cup water, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 tablespoon garlic powder) in a large ziploc bag.
- Once eggs are cooled, peel them and drop them into the marinade bag.
- Optional: Seal the ziploc bag with a rubber band or bag clip just above the liquid so that the eggs remain fully submerged as they marinate. This ensures the eggs will be evenly seasoned all around.
- Let the eggs marinate in the fridge for 24 hours (any longer and they will be too salty).
Notes
- Marinade: You can reuse the marinade up to two times within four days (so in total you can season over a dozen eggs using the same marinade).
- Storage: Ramen eggs can be stored for up to four days in the fridge. Do not leave them in the marinade—they will get way too salty after the first day!
Angela says
Ok so I think I let the eggs go for too long... they were VERY salty. But I did let them marinate for a day and a half... they are very delicious and did not go to waste in my noodles. I will try a shorter marinate next time.
Kelly Zhang says
Yes, I find the ramen eggs do get overly salty after more than 24 hours. But I'm glad they were still tasty!