Quick Ramen Noodle Stir Fry
by Chungah
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This quick ramen noodle stir fry is so easy and budget-friendly using ramen noodles, ground beef and the most flavor-packed stir fry sauce!
Why you’ll love this quick ramen noodle stir fry
- Perfect for busy weeknights. Stir-fries are simply quick cooking meals. And this is the ultimate ultra-fast, weeknight-friendly dinner that requires no more than 30 minutes start to finish by using ground beef and instant ramen noodles.
- Highly customizable. This recipe can easily be adapted to mix in what you have on hand. For example, you can swap in ground turkey for the ground beef or use rice noodles in place of the ramen noodles to make it gluten-free. The possibilities are simply endless.
- Budget-friendly. You can essentially use up anything and everything in your fridge, transforming random veggies and proteins into the best clean-out-the-fridge meal.
How to make ramen noodle stir fry
- Cook the noodles. Cook the ramen noodles until al dente, rinsing with cold water to halt the cooking process.
- Prep the stir fry sauce. Combine the beef stock, oyster sauce, rice wine vinegar and Sriracha.
- Brown the meat. Crumble the ground beef with the onion in a large skillet over medium heat, draining off any excess fat and grease.
- Sauté the aromatics. Stir in the garlic and ginger until fragrant.
- Deglaze the pan. Add the stir fry sauce, lifting up the browned bits (fond) from the bottom of the pan.
- Add the noodles. Stir in the al dente ramen noodles, tossing until evenly coated.
- Serve. Sprinkle with green onions and sesame seeds, and serve warm.
Variations and substitutions
- Ramen noodles: substitute fresh lo mein, chow mein, Yaki-Soba or udon noodles
- Beef stock: substitute unsalted chicken stock
- Sriracha: omit for milder flavors
- Ground beef: substitute ground chicken, ground turkey or ground pork
Tools For This Recipe
Quick Ramen Noodle Stir Fry: Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! Cook the ramen noodles just until al dente, then rinse with cold water to prevent the noodles from clumping and becoming gummy.
The seasoning packet included with the ramen noodles should be discarded as the recipe builds a more balanced, authentic stir-fry sauce with a few pantry staples.
Yes! You can substitute ground chicken, ground turkey or ground pork. You can also try this recipe instead using boneless, skinless chicken.
Add quick-cooking vegetables such as broccoli, bell pepper, carrots, mushrooms and snap peas.
Always add the sauce towards the end of cooking time, allowing the sauce to thicken and create a glossy coat.
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Quick Ramen Noodle Stir Fry
Video
Ingredients
- 2 (3.5-ounce) packages instant ramen noodles, flavor packets discarded
- ⅓ cup beef stock
- ¼ cup oyster sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Sriracha, or more, to taste
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 cup diced sweet onion
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
- ½ teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
Instructions
- In a large pot of boiling water, cook ramen noodles until tender, about 3-4 minutes; rinse with cold water and drain well.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together beef stock, oyster sauce, rice wine vinegar and Sriracha.
- Heat sesame oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add ground beef and onion, and cook until beef has browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the beef as it cooks; drain excess fat.
- Stir in garlic and ginger until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Stir in beef stock mixture, scraping any browned bits from the bottom of the skillet.
- Stir in ramen noodles until heated through and evenly coated in sauce, about 1-2 minutes.
- Serve immediately, garnished with green onions and sesame seeds, if desired.
Equipment
Notes
- Prep beforehand. This stir fry recipe comes together quickly. Have all the ingredients and sauce ready to go prior to cooking.
- Cook until al dente. Cook the ramen noodles just until al dente as they will continue to cook when stir-fried.
- Rinse noodles with cold water. This will stop the cooking process to tighten the starches and keep the noodles from clumping.
- Use lean ground beef. Opt for 90% or higher, preventing the dish from being overly greasy or oily.
- Make it mild. Omit the Sriracha for milder flavors, perfect for little ones and toddlers.
Did you make this recipe?
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Very good. I made this as a side dish and swapped out the beef for broccoli. Yum!
This is a family friendly recipe that was easy execute and enjoyed by everyone at the table, which is hard to do! I would add some shredded carrots, cabbage, bokchoy or sprouts. We did double the recipe for everything except the beef. We also talked about using shredded steak for this recipe.
This recipe lives up to your site’s name! I’m was born and raised in Honolulu Hawaii, but now live in D.C. and miss yummy Island Style fried noodles. This recipe is the closest I’ve found so far, Thank you! I did cut the meat to 1/2 lbs and add a little cabbage, Kamaboko and Eomuk Bokkeum fish cake which made it next level stuff. Next time I’m adding some char sui too, Island style is kinda everything but the kitchen sink, but great starting point, thank you again.
Very good dish. I use cut up swiss steak and millet and brown rice ramen noodles, plus I added zucchini and mushrooms, otherwise made as directed. Delicious!
Everyone loved it. As suggested I used 4 packages of ramen and I sauteed some frozen Asian veggies in sesame oil then added them when I added the noodles.
We added broccoli and corn to this recipe, I’ve made this multiple times and it’s a family favorite! We triple this recipe (big family, bigger appetites) still turns out great!
We don’t eat beef so, I substituted ground turkey breast and chicken stock. I also added a third ramen package. I chose this recipe because my grown son was joining us for dinner and he won’t eat veggies (I did sneak in the sweet onion). Otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly and it was delish!! If my son hadn’t been here, I definitely would want to add some kind of veggies!!
Very tasty and hit all my taste buds. I’ve made this numerous times and hubby likes to take leftovers in his lunch. After reading some of the reviews I now add a third package of noodles and matchstick carrots. No need to increase sauce because there is plenty for the extra noodles.
This turned out amazing! I opted out the beef but it still was tasty.
Absolutely loved it! Awesome flavor.
I tried this recipe yesterday but the only thing is that i personally do not like beef so in place of that i used chicken and believe me the was great. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
I made a couple changes. I used a large Lions mane mushroom because i didn’t have beef, same process, chop it fine and brown. And I used thai beef better than bullion a little stronger than recommended. That said fantastic!
This is truly incredible. Thanks for sharing.
Midweek favourite in our house! I add carrots and green beans and double the noodle and sauce. Makes enough for lunches the next day too!
This one is a keeper. It’s become a family favorite because it’s easy AND delicious! Thanks so much!!
The recipe looks quite delicious, please add a video too it’ll help novice chefs like us. Thanks.
This dish looks so yummy!
Absolutely fabuloso, flavorful and so very easy. I’ve made this recipe several times and it freezes well (add ramen later)
This is very, very good as the recipe is written. So is the chicken ramen recipe. But our very favorite is to take all the veggies from the chicken ramen recipe and use them in this beef ramen recipe! Mmmmm…. Plus it’s such an incredibly quick and easy weeknight recipe! Thank you!
This was super delicious. My daughter picked it out online and I made it for dinner. I loved it! It is meat heavy, so I would halve the meat and double the noodles next time. I also added some veg that I had in the fridge from Hungry Root. This is definately a keeper–super quick and easy as well.
Really delicious meal. Kids even liked it. There was just enough for our family of four with a little left over, but we could have added a third packet of ramen noodles to stretch the recipe for six people.