How to Make Tonkotsu Pork Ramen Broth from Scratch

This Tonkotsu Pork Ramen Broth Recipe will satisfy your ramen cravings from the comfort of your own kitchen. This is authentic, made-from-scratch broth simmered for many hours until the bones break down. When chilled, the broth should set into a jelly-like texture — a sure sign you’ve done it right — and it will have a silky, milky mouthfeel with deep porky flavor.

Use this rich broth as the base for a steaming bowl of Spicy Tonkotsu Miso Ramen.

Tonkotsu Pork Ramen Broth Recipe

Homemade tonkotsu ramen broth isn’t quick, but it is straightforward and economical. Using pork neck bones along with a chicken carcass yields a gelatinous, deeply flavored broth perfect for building one of the best bowls of ramen you’ll make at home.

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Restaurant ramen — My favorite spicy chicken ramen at Uncle Ramen in Denver, Colorado.

Why ramen? Why make it at home?

After my first bowl at Uncle Ramen, I was hooked. It was so memorable that I returned to Denver more than once just for that bowl. But since I can’t get there every time I crave spicy chicken ramen, making a homemade version became the next best option. If your local options don’t match what you love, making ramen at home lets you recreate those flavors and tweak them to your taste.

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Is tonkotsu broth difficult to make?

Tonkotsu takes time — often many hours or even a full day of simmering — but most of that is hands-off. Expect to tend to a pot for the bulk of a day and plan the process in stages if you’d like to spread the work out. If you’re comfortable making stock, you’ll find this familiar: the goal is a rich pork stock that firms up like a large gelatin when chilled.

Think of the tonkotsu broth as the foundation of your ramen; once you have that, the rest of the bowl is much easier to assemble.

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Common types of ramen broth

There are many ramen broth styles. The most familiar include:

Shio Ramen — a salt-based broth that’s usually light in color or clear.
Miso Ramen — flavored with fermented soybean paste, richly savory and deeply comforting.
Shoyu Ramen — soy sauce-based and one of the most common ramen broths.
Tonkotsu Ramen — the style we’re making here: pork-bone-based, creamy and silky in texture with deep pork flavor.

Try our Blackstone Yakisoba recipe too!

Can I use different pork bones?

Yes. Traditional tonkotsu often uses pork trotters, but other bones like neck bones work well, too. I used neck bones because they were available and affordable, and they produced an excellent, silky broth—no regrets.

Start this easy homemade tonkotsu broth now, and later this week you can use it to make a fantastic bowl of Spicy Tonkotsu Miso Ramen.

Tonkotsu Ramen Broth Shopping List

If you want to gather ingredients ahead of time, consider these items often used in ramen recipes:

White miso
Red miso
Doubanjiang (fermented chili bean paste)
Chili paste

You might curse me around hour six of simmering — but you’ll thank me when you taste the finished ramen.

Featured Reader Reviews

“10/10 — fully recommend this. It was a huge hit!”

– Casey

“After moving to rural Texas from London, we craved authentic Spicy Tonkotsu Ramen and had nowhere to go. So we turned to the kitchen and this recipe. You cannot fail to produce a DELICIOUS and authentic steaming bowl of ramen. Took us right back to our favorite ramen spots! Thank you!”

– Kathryn

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Yield: 10 servings

Tonkotsu Ramen Broth Recipe

This homemade pork ramen broth requires time but is straightforward. The result is deeply flavorful and well worth the effort.

Prep Time:
1 hour

Cook Time:
12 hours

Total Time:
13 hours

Ingredients

3 pounds pork neck bones
1 chicken carcass
1 large onion
2 inches ginger, peeled
2 whole shallots
8 whole cloves garlic
3 whole leeks, washed thoroughly and diced
2 bunches green onions, white parts only (save the greens for garnish)
6 dried shiitake mushrooms, rinsed and diced

Instructions

Place the pork bones into a large stockpot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes.
Skim the scum from the surface. Discard the water, keep the bones, and refill the pot with fresh water to clean the bones—this step produces a clearer, better-tasting stock.
Add the chicken carcass and the remaining ingredients to the pot. Cover and simmer gently for 8–10 hours, topping up with water as needed to keep everything submerged. By the end, many chicken bones should be broken down and pork neck bones easily pierced with a knife.
Allow the broth to cool slightly, then remove solids with tongs and a slotted spoon. Strain the broth through several layers of cheesecloth or a clean kitchen towel into a large bowl to remove any remaining sediment. Gathering the cloth edges and squeezing gently helps extract the broth while leaving solids behind.
This makes plenty of broth for many bowls of ramen. Portion and freeze any extra for easier soup-making next time.

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