I’m all about quick stir fry dinners because they’re easy, you can work a LOT of vegetables into them, and they’re just plain delicious. My newest creation, Crunchy Chicken Ramen Stir Fry, is kind of a new twist on an old favorite Beef and Cabbage Stir fry. This time we’re using chicken instead of beef, using the same light and easy sauce, tons of shredded cabbage and carrots for inexpensive bulk, and some crushed up ramen noodles for crunch. Oh, and I added a drizzle of creamy sriracha mayo because I was feeling a bit #extra. ;)
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Can I Skip the Ramen?
Sure! If you’re not the ramen type, this is still a really killer (although slightly less crunchy) stir fry recipe! No hard feelings. You do you. We also have a classic chicken stir fry recipe you might want to try!
Same goes for the sriracha mayo topping. While *I* love the contrast of the creamy spicy with the fresh crunch, you don’t have to add it to your stir fry if you’re not into it.
How to Store Your Stir Fry
If you plan to eat some of your stir fry as leftovers, make sure to keep the crunchy crushed ramen noodles separate from the stir fry and just stir them in after the stir fry has been reheated. Same goes for the sriracha mayo topping. Add that after reheating. The cabbage and carrots do get slightly softer after refrigeration and reheating, but I still find it to be quite delicious.
Other Vegetables You Can Add:
The other awesome thing about stir fries is that you can add just about any vegetable that you might have leftover in your fridge. Some other good options would be spinach, broccoli, bell pepper, mushrooms, snow peas. Keep in mind that if you increase the amount of vegetables, you may also want to increase the sauce.
Crunchy Chicken Ramen Stir Fry
Servings 4 About 1.25 cups eachIngredients
Stir Fry Sauce
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce ($0.12)
- 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil ($0.30)
- 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar ($0.02)
Sriracha Mayo Drizzle (optional)
- 1 Tbsp mayonnaise ($0.09)
- 1 Tbsp sriracha ($0.11)
Stir Fry
- 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast (about 2/3 lb.) ($4.08)
- 2 Tbsp cooking oil ($0.08)
- 1 14oz. bag coleslaw mix (shredded cabbage and carrots) ($1.49)
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 1 tsp grated fresh ginger ($0.10)
- 3 green onions ($0.30)
- 1 3oz. block ramen noodles (seasoning packet discarded) ($0.25)
Instructions
- Prepare the sauces first so they're ready to use when needed. In a small bowl stir together the ingredients for the stir fry sauce (soy sauce, sesame oil, and brown sugar). In a separate small bowl stir together the sriracha and mayonnaise.
- Mince 2 cloves of garlic, grate about one teaspoon of fresh ginger, and slice three green onions.
- Without opening the package of ramen, use a rolling pin or mallet to crush the noodles into small pieces. Once crushed, open the package and discard the seasoning packet.
- Chop the chicken into small 1/2-inch pieces.
- Place a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the cooking oil and swirl to coat the surface of the skillet. Add the chicken pieces and sauté until they're cooked through (3-5 minutes). Add the garlic and ginger to the skillet about half way through cooking the chicken.
- Once the chicken is cooked through, add the coleslaw mix (shredded cabbage and carrots). Continue to sauté for about 2 minutes more, or just until the cabbage begins to soften slightly (do not overcook at this step).
- Add the stir fry sauce to the skillet and continue to sauté for 1-2 minutes more, or until the cabbage has softened to your liking (I prefer mine still slightly firm).
- Finally, turn off the heat, stir in the crushed ramen, and top with sliced green onions and a drizzle of sriracha mayo.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
- Color Cutting Boards
- Rolling Pin
- Garlic Press
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Crunchy Chicken Ramen Stir Fry – Step by Step Photos
This stir fry cooks SUPER fast, so it’s best to prepare all of the components before you begin cooking. Start with the stir fry sauce: stir together 2 Tbsp soy sauce, 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil, and ½ Tbsp brown sugar. The brown sugar might not dissolve all the way, but that’s okay.
For the sriracha mayo, simply stir together 1 Tbsp sriracha and 1 Tbsp mayonnaise.
Mince two cloves of garlic, grate about 1 tsp fresh ginger (I keep mine in the freezer for easier grating and longer storage), and slice three green onions.
Without opening the package of ramen, use a rolling pin or a mallet to crush the noodles into small pieces. After crushing the noodles you can open it and discard the seasoning packet (or use it for something else).
Chop one boneless, skinless chicken breast (about ⅔ lb.) into small 1/2-inch pieces.
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once hot, add 2 Tbsp cooking oil and swirl to coat the skillet. Add the chicken and sauté until the chicken is cooked through, adding the garlic and ginger about half way through cooking. Because the chicken pieces are so small and the pan is so hot, it should only take a few minutes for the chicken to cook through.
Add one 14oz. bag of coleslaw mix (shredded cabbage and carrots) to the skillet. Continue to sauté for only 2 minutes, or just until the cabbage begins to soften.
Add the prepared stir fry sauce, making sure to scrape any sugar that has settled to the bottom into the skillet. Continue to sauté for a couple minutes more, or until the cabbage is to your desired softness. I like mine still a bit firm, so I only sauté for about 2 minutes more.
Pour the crushed ramen into the skillet. Turn the heat off, and stir the crunchy noodles into the stir fry.
Sprinkle the sliced green onions on top and then drizzle the sriracha mayo over everything.
I’m intrigued by the frozen ginger idea. Do you peel it first and then freeze?
It’s really just your preference! As long as you wash the ginger, you can grate it from frozen with the skin on.
Five stars and then some! We’ve been making this just about every week for months and have yet to get tired of it.
Could i use frozen ramen instead of the crunchy packet ramen ?
Hi, Jan! I am unfamiliar with that product so I can’t be 100& sure that it will work in the recipe as it is written. However, I’m sure with some tweaking it will! I would just consult the package directions for a suggested cooking time and adjust our recipe instructions as needed to make sure they cook properly alongside the rest of the ingredients. ~Marion :)
I made this recipe once the last holiday season and have been doing it ever since, and every time it’s always so delicious and such a people pleaser. So happy this recipe exists!!!
This is one of the best recipes on this site! It is so easy yet delicious. I keep coming back to this one over and over and over again.
You had me at crunchy. This was very yummy, fast, and easy, which I am looking for after a long day of work.
I couldn’t find just a bag of coleslaw mix, only the kind with the dressing and I didn’t want to waste that, so I used broccoli slaw. I was in the check-out line when I realized I forgot to grab the fresh ginger and my feet were killing me so I thought oh well no ginger. But then when I got home I remembered that I had the little frozen ginger squares from Trader Joes so I was in luck. Then boom bam things went together so fast that I had dinner within half an hour. This worked great and was so good. I highly recommend.
Love this recipe! Sometimes I’ll sub a bag of frozen veggies for the cabbage. The ramen crunch and sauce on top are must-haves.
My family really enjoys your ground beef and cabbage recipe (although, we use ground turkey). I’m confident this one will be great and I can use my gluten free ramen noodles! So excited to try this! Thanks!
Have made this recipe several times and love it. I make extra sauce and use packaged slaw cabbage and shred carrots at home for color and flavor. Brown basmati rice for the carb. Future iterations will include red bell and finely sliced sweet onion.
So good! The recipe was very simple and easy to follow and it didn’t take long to prepare this meal. Even my picky husband loved it!
Really enjoyed this, easy to throw together and it’s tasty but still leaves room for other hot sauces if you desire. Ended up using a califlower-based coleslaw that my grocery store had in stock and really enjoyed it, my chicken was on the watery side so I just made sure to drain a bit of the liquid that cooked out once I was done to keep the dish crispy.
Yum!
This recipe is great as written if you are on a budget and can be easily modified to suit different tastes, dietary needs, or leftovers in the fridge depending on whether you can expand your budget. I personally like to up the meat ratio and add frozen peas and any slightly wilted veggies I need to use up. If I’m feeling fancy, sesame seeds in place of the ramen is also delicious and holds its crunch much better. My boyfriend eats it up happily and he isn’t a big veggie guy. I’ve added this to my recipe routine.
Awesome recipe! Wicked easy and fast. We have made this multiple times and always add some scrambled egg!
Not a good recipe. The noodles were soggy and overall, the dish does not go well together.
Are you sure that this wasn’t a cooking issue rather than a recipe issue?
This was really delicious! I made it exactly as written and it’s wonderful. I found that it wasn’t quite enough for a main dish for 3 people (one a preteen boy lol) so I served it with eggrolls.
This a great recipe. I’m not a big fan of cabbage but enjoy it prepared this way. Used bagged cabbage but shredded a couple of carrots at home and added because I like carrots and wanted their color, flavor and nutrition. It’s absolutely worth making the sauces and using the green onions for garnish as they add a lot to the flavor. Because I live alone and like to make things that can be eaten for more than one meal I prepared the chicken and the sauces in the morning and put in the frig. At dinner I used cooked brown basmati rice instead of ramen and added the cooked meat and uncooked cabbage carrot mixture. Drizzled the soy and sesame oil sauce over the top. Covered the bowl and microwaved for 2 minutes or so on full power. Steams the veg just enough and reheats the chicken. Topped with the onions with the sriracha mayo on the side. Will certainly make again.
5 Of 5 kids ate it and liked it! That makes it a winner! We didn’t use the sriracha sauce. I doubled the recipe for our family of seven. My coleslaw bags were a little bigger so I added two extra tbsp of soy sauce and 1/2 tbsp of brown sugar after already doubling. We will definitely have it again!
I’ll admit I was a little nervous about the flavor when I tasted it right out of the skillet… felt like it was missing something… but maaaann adding the sriracha mayo made it PERFECT! I added extra sriracha of course but the flavor was so so good and it was so easy!
This was one of the best things I have ever eaten in my life. I ate sooo much of it. I am GF, so I used rice noodles instead. I could eat this everyday!
Can leftovers be frozen in individual portions? If so, how should they be reheated? Thank you.
I don’t think I’d consider this one very freezer friendly because the noodles will get soft and the cabbage will further wilt and seep water.
This recipe is really delicious! I have made it three (3) times with ground chicken, ground pork and ground beef. I boil the ramen noodles and add them cooked because the kids don’t like the noodles crunchy!!
Love this. I’ve already made it three times since we first tried it! Definitely part of the rotation. What I like most is how quickly it comes together on a busy weeknight.
We loved this! I used herb slaw which had coriander in it, which was perfect with the other Asian flavours. It also works well with mushrooms in the stir fry and as we didn’t have mayo we used aioli. Also a great combination.
I never leave comments on anything, but this was so fast, easy and flavorful that I felt like I had to! The only modification I made was adding about half a bag of frozen unshelled edamame in right at the end of cooking the chicken. I used broccoli slaw because it was only $.83 at my grocery store (about to expire). so, so good and I recommend not leaving out the sriracha mayo if you like a little kick!
I made this yesterday and paired it with your simple sesame rice. The chicken breast I pulled from the freezer was a little small so I topped it with a poached egg (highly recommend!).
This was missing something for me, so I think when I eat the leftovers I’ll squeeze a little lime over it. A little brightness would really make it perfect for me.
I love the ease of this recipe though, especially with the bagged cole slaw. Highly recommend this if you want a quick dinner!
I also skipped the sriracha mayo (just lazy), but may try that on some of the leftovers.
Easy, delicious, and will definitely be part of our meal rotation in the future!
I replaced the chicken with tofu cubes, and – for lack of spring onions – fried one yellow onion with the tofu and added some chive to the final dish. The pantry only yielded one package of ramen (~45 gr, about half of the 3 ounces from the recipe), which resulted in a pleasantly filling dinner for 2 adults. For color, I added 1/3 sliced red bell pepper, and I extended the Sriracha majonnaise with 2 tablespoons of plain joghurt.
Thank you for this great recipe!
I loved this quick dinner that tastes like a meal in an Asian restaurant. My husband liked it also. I had 20 oz of chicken tenders thawed, so I just used them all (more than 2/3 pound of chicken). Also had two 9 oz packages of slaw mix (from Trader Joe’s) so used them both. I will definitely make this again for company and friends, maybe adding a bit more of the soy sauce mixture next time. Delicious!
Quick and easy meal! Made this last night and it was a hit with everyone except the pickiest of eaters. The mayo sauce helped with the less picky children, but for them I modified the sauce to be just mayo with a few drops of regular hot sauce. For the stir-fry sauce, I added a little more soy sauce to the pan, so in the future I’d probably use 3-4 tbsp of soy sauce and cut back the sesame oil to maybe 1/2 tbsp. Also the dish was pretty under-seasoned so a little salt and pepper helped out.
Oops and another comment: love the crunch of cabbage in this recipe. Also added more carrot and my Kuhn Rikon shredder makes lovely shreds. On my second shredder – loved the first one so much it got dull! More carrot adds color and nutrition. (I have zero connection with Kuhn Rikon or any other purveyor of kitchen stuff! The right tool can be a game changer and this one did it for me).
Love this recipe. Keeping refined carbs out of diet so skipped ramen noodles and used quinoa for a starch. The sriracha mayo is a great finish and only requires a small amount to make a difference. I grate all the ginger after buying and put extra in the freezer. Handy to have ready like roasted garlic and pesto.
So good. I added mushrooms to the stir fry and increased the sauce. The Sriracha Mayonnaise took the stir fry to a different level. Thank you so much for this awesome recipe, Beth!!! 😍😍
This was SO good, and SO easy! I used brown rice and millet ramen, since that’s what I had on hand. I’m just cooking for myself, so I transferred a portion to a smaller skillet before adding the ramen. The rest will go in the fridge, and I’ll get two more meals out of it.
I didn’t divide the green onions and Sriracha mayo, I just used it all. I’m sure that kicked the flavor up a notch, and it’s easy enough to make more. Someone in an earlier post mentioned doubling the stir fry sauce, and I think I’ll try that next time. In fact, maybe I’ll double the sesame oil and soy sauce, and leave the sugar alone.
Thanks, Beth! Awesome eats, as always!
I have leftover red cabbage (from making the cold peanut noodle salad last week!)… could I use that instead of the cole slaw mix? Or do the different cabbages have totally different flavors? I’m new to cabbage, haha!
You definitely could use that up, but I would suggest adding another cabbage too to balance out the flavor. Red cabbage can be a bit bitter sometimes.
This is so wonderful! I switched the ramen for crumbled tortilla chips, added more veggies and doubled the sauce. Delicious and will make again for sure!
I plan on making this and taking the leftovers to work – should I hold the ramen and only add when about to eat each serving? or does the crunch hold up in the fridge for a day or two?
Thanks!
I’d wait to add it if you want it really crunchy. It will hold somewhat but not like when it’s freshly crumbled.
Could use more sauce and flavor. We love cabbage and stir fry but will not be repeating this recipe.
You could have increased the sauce. Beth did mention that.
This was a great fast dinner. Thank you!! My husband hates mayo but he loved the orange sauce .
can you use those crispy chow mein (could be lo mein) noodles that come in a bag as opposed to ramen, or would it not taste as good? I just happen to have a bag of those in the cupboard but no ramen.
You can certainly give them a try!
Sounds awesome and like something my family would be willing to try. But…I would need twice that amount to feed 5 bottomless pits – would it work in a big hot stockpot instead of two batches in a skillet? And could I toss in chopped leftover chicken…maybe adding it with the stir fry sauce to the veggies? (P.S. We love!!! your Pork & Peanut Dragon Noodles…although I usually make it with chicken and almonds instead of pork and peanuts, and add a whole head of shredded cabbage with the noodles to up the veggie load).
Bottomless pits! HA! Yes you could give it a try in a stock pot but I would still cook the chicken in batches in the pot. Overcrowding the pan will make the chicken not as crispy on the edges and lead to uneven cooking. Let us know how it goes!
I made this tonight with tofu (easy swap to make it vegan) and it was so easy and delicious. I expected to have lots of leftovers for lunch, but ended up eating the whole thing. Oops!
This is so delicious and can be made gluten free with a soy sauce substitution. I am not a spicy fan, but loved the addition of the sriracha mayo. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!!
Do you have a suggestion for a non-spicy sriracha substitute that I could mix with mayo to give the dish extra flavor but without the spiciness for my young kid? Hoisin, maybe, or something else…?
I’ve never tried mixing hoisin with mayo, but if you try, let me know how it goes! I can’t really think of anything else that I would mix with mayo to top this. Personally, I’d just leave the mayo topping off and eat the stir fry as is. The stir fry sauce is enough to give it plenty of flavor on its own. :)
I make a Yum Yum sauce and keep it in the fridge in a squeeze bottle. I used it on this recipe and it was delish! This is the one I made: https://www.mamalovesfood.com/yum-yum-sauce/
Can’t wait to try this with some tofu! Sounds delish!
Delicious recipe! The spicy mayo was perfect on top. We will definitely be making this one again soon. Thank you!
DON’T TOSS THE SEASONING PACKETS FROM RAMEN!!!!! They can be used to flavor all sorts of stuff like rice, etc. Also, I’ve found that the BEST way to break up the block of ramen is to bash it a bunch of times with my jar of PB. I never use anyrhing else, and it’s done in about 30 seconds.
Packaged cole slaw mix is genius. You can probably get whole cabbage cheaper per oz, but why? This meal is all about fast, and it’s delicious. I know Beth is an Aldi shopper, and they sell large packages of chicken breasts frequently for $1.69 a lb ( regular price $1.99), making this one of the cheapest proteins available. A package has 5-6 breasts–I keep 2 for meals days 1 and 3, freeze the rest in 1 breast portions–they usually weigh between 10-15 oz, and that’s plenty to feed 4 at a total cost of closer to $1.50 than the $4.08 in this break-down. They never live in my freezer more than 3 weeks, so very little quality loss. Freezing ginger is brilliant–I’ve peeled mine and dumped in a jar of sherry, but it ends up too soggy to grate (although the flavor is terrific and ginger flavored sherry has lots of uses).