Most foreigners meet Samyang through Buldak, the fire-noodle challenge that took over TikTok. But the company behind Buldak has been around far longer than the meme. Samyang Ramen was Korea’s very first instant ramen, launched on September 15, 1963 — and it’s still on shelves today.

A packet of Samyang Ramen, Korea's first instant ramen since 1963

This is the bowl Korean parents and grandparents grew up on. So instead of cooking it the basic way, I made it the way a good Korean ramen joint (분식집, bunsikjip) does — with one small change that keeps the noodles chewy and stops the broth from going heavy.

The one trick: cook the noodles and the broth separately

The package tells you to boil everything together — noodles, soup base, flakes — for a few minutes and eat. That works. But it’s also why instant ramen at home often ends up soft and a little cloying: the noodles sit in the broth, keep soaking it up, keep shedding starch, and by the time you’re eating, both have gone past their best.

Restaurants get around this by treating the noodles and the broth as two separate jobs. Here’s the whole thing in under a minute, then step by step below.

Step by step

  1. Boil the noodles to about 70%. Drop the noodle block into boiling water and cook it only until it’s about 70% done — still a little firm in the middle. Then lift the noodles out and set them aside in your bowl. They’ll finish cooking on their own from the residual heat.

    Partially cooked Samyang ramen noodles lifted out of the pot into a bowl

  2. Finish the broth, and cook the egg in it. Add the soup base and dried flakes to the same pot, bring it to a proper boil, then crack the egg straight into the broth — not over the noodles. Let it set in the liquid. Cooking the egg in the broth alone keeps the noodles clean and gives the soup a softer, rounder finish.

    An egg cracked into the simmering Samyang ramen broth in the empty pot

  3. Pour the broth and egg over the noodles. Ladle the finished broth, egg and all, over the noodles waiting in the bowl. That’s it.

    Finished Samyang ramen — broth and egg poured over the chewy noodles in a bowl

Why it’s better

Two things change. The noodles stay 쫄깃 (jjolgit) — the bouncy, chewy texture Koreans prize — because they never overcook sitting in the soup. And the broth tastes lighter and less 텁텁 (teobteobhae), the word Koreans use for a heavy, thick, cloying mouthfeel, because the noodles aren’t dumping starch into it the whole time. Same packet, same few minutes of effort, a noticeably better bowl.

If you’re working your way through Korean instant noodles, Samyang Ramen is where the whole story starts — and the same company’s Buldak is where it went viral sixty years later. From here you can also see how Koreans cook Shin Ramyun, turn two packs into jjapaguri (ram-don), and eat cold Paldo bibim noodles in summer.