South Korea is the unofficial chicken capital of the world, so it makes perfect sense that Nongshim decided to create a cup of noodles based on one of the most delicious styles of chicken you can find here. Yangnyeom chicken is the flavor they rolled with for this cup of noodles. Typically found on fried chicken, the yangnyeom sauce is a sticky, sweet, and slightly spicy concoction that sticks like honey to the surface of any chicken smothered in this preparation. If you haven’t had a chance to give this type of chicken a try, I highly recommend it, as it is one of my all-time favorites. Nongshim’s Yangnyeom Chicken Instant Noodles are what I would describe as an attempt to capture and extract the essence of this South Korean soul food for the convenience of instant noodles.
Flavor:
Possibly the only good thing I can say about this cup of noodles is that the flavor does taste similar to yangnyeom (“sauced”) chicken you would get at a chicken restaurant in South Korea. I think that’s a significant win for this cup of noodles. Nongshim achieved exactly the kind of flavor they were shooting for. Things aren’t all that great though. I thought there would be other flavors that might come through because of the addition of the “after topping” packet. Nothing else comes through though! I was waiting for either a sesame or maybe a peanut flavored topping to come out from the flakes, but the flavor was squashed by the sauce and its slight spiciness.
Spiciness:
This cup of noodles isn’t known for being spicy, but it does have a little bit of a kick. For most people, these noodles won’t be spicy at all. The spice isn’t as mouth hot as some instant noodles, but the spice does build slowly. It also reminds me of the spice profile found in Buldalk Bokkeum Myeon, but much less intense.
Smell:
One would expect these noodles to smell like chicken. Unfortunately, these noodles only smell like ramen noodles with a hint of an unidentifiable sauce. None of the spice comes out in the odor either, which is very strange.
Noodles:
These noodles really should have came out al dente… However, they ended up mushy and didn’t hold up well. These are basically your typical thin instant ramen noodles.
Overall Impression:
This cup of ramen just didn’t do it for me. It’s actually not that great. If I had to give it a score, I would probably give it 3 out of 10. The sauce tastes similar to yangnyeom chicken, but it’s still not enough to win me over. This is an average ramen. I strongly believe there are much better cups of instant noodles out there to enjoy.
Have you ever had chance to give these instant noodles are try? Do you think it tastes similar to yangnyeom chicken found here in South Korea? Let me know down in the comments!
As I mentioned in my previous how-to guide, it seems that Nongshim doesn’t have these noodles listed on Amazon. So, you’ll have to ring up your South Korean friends and family to have them send you some ramen ASAP.
If you’re interested in hearing more about instant ramen, check out my on-going series, Noodle Story: An Exploration of Korean Instant Noodles, here on Medium.
Note: This article may contain affiliate links that support the author’s ramen purchases for these how-to guides and reviews.
