Chinese Spare Rib Soup

This Chinese braised spare rib soup is not a traditional dish, but rather a variation on a dish that my fiance grew up with. His parents would make a simple braised rib dish that would be served over rice. It was his childhood comfort food. As he got older, he wanted to appreciate a greater depth of flavor and set out to improve the homestyle dish he grew up with.

When I first tasted it, I fell in love with the flavorful broth. Eating it over rice reminded me of a Thai dish I grew up with. But since the broth was so flavorful, I wanted to try this out as a noodle soup.

There really isn’t much to this recipe. You just add water and spices and simmer for a really long time. As for the hard boiled eggs, I wondered how you could hard boil an egg, simmer it for 50 minutes, and not overcook it. My fiance just said “I don’t know it just doesn’t.”

You will notice though that these hard boiled eggs are hard boiled. Not soft boiled like in ramen dishes. The eggs will have slits cut into them, through the white part and just until it hits the yolk. This way the egg absorbs the broth. The eggs must be hard boiled to ensure that the yolk won’t leak out.

As for the noodles, I love Lanzhou noodles. They are sold in the refrigerated section of Asian grocery stores. They are packed in little serving size bunches, so basically they’re already portioned out. Feel free to use any type of noodle you like.

I also blanch some vegetables and add them to the dish. Baby bok choy is my favorite.

If you want another Asian noodle soup, try my yellow curry noodle soup.

Looking for other soup recipes?

• Tomato basil bisque soup
• Chicken and wild rice soup
• Beef stew
• Ribollita