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Fiery orange buldak noodles coated in a creamy cheese sauce, topped with scallions and sesame seeds
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Main Korean Asian

Creamy Buldak Cheese Ramen

The instant-packet branch of the viral Korean fire-noodle trend, Samyang Buldak noodles finished in a small amount of their cooking water with cream and melting cheese so the ferocious sauce packet turns into a glossy, stretchy coating instead of a straight chili burn. This is a saucy noodle bowl rather than a soup, and the dairy is doing real work, since the fat tames the heat enough that you can actually taste the roasted-chili flavour underneath it.

Prep5 min
Cook8 min
Servings1
Cook mode

Adapted from Samyang's own writeup of the creamy carbonara Buldak trend and the countless TikTok and Instagram versions that add cheese, cream and egg yolk to the packet.

Ingredients

Written for a 2 L pot

Units
Temperature
Servings
1

Noodles and sauce

  • 1 pack Samyang Buldak noodles, original or Carbonara flavour, not the 2x Spicy
  • 500 ml water, for boiling; almost all of it is drained off
  • 45 ml cream or whole milk

Cheese and enrichment

  • 1 slice of American or mild melting cheese
  • 20 g grated mozzarella
  • 1 egg yolk, optional; stirred in off the heat for extra silkiness (optional)

Toppings

  • 15 g scallion, thinly sliced
  • 3 g toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Method

  1. Cook the noodles. Boil the noodle block in the water for about 4 minutes, until just shy of tender. Drain, keeping back about 4 tablespoons of the cooking water in the pot.
  2. Build the sauce. Turn the heat to low. Add the sauce packet to taste, starting with half, then the cream. Stir until it comes together into a smooth orange sauce.
  3. Melt the cheese in. Add the cheese slice and the mozzarella and stir over low heat until the sauce is glossy, sticky and pulls in strands. If it tightens up, loosen it with a splash more water or milk.
  4. Enrich off the heat. Remove the pot from the heat. If using, stir in the egg yolk quickly so it thickens the sauce without scrambling.
  5. Serve. Tip into a bowl, top with scallion and sesame seeds, and eat while the cheese still pulls.

Notes

  • Start with half the sauce packet. Buldak is genuinely fierce, and the dairy tames it only so far. You can always stir in more; you cannot take it out. The 2x Spicy version is a mistake in this recipe.
  • The viral bowl-base variant works too. Instead of finishing in the pot, whisk the egg yolk, a spoonful of Kewpie mayo, the cheese and the sauce packet in the serving bowl and temper with hot noodle water, exactly as in Kewpie mayo ramen. Same destination, different vehicle.
  • A spoonful of cream cheese stirred in at the end makes the sauce noticeably rounder and slightly tangy.
  • This is the packet-hack member of the buldak family here. Korean fire noodles builds the same sauce from scratch, and Buldak-style cheesy spicy chicken noodles turns it into a proper dinner with seared chicken. Pick by how much time you have.
  • Buldak availability is no longer a problem. Most larger German and Canadian supermarkets stock it; failing that, any hot instant ramen plus 1 to 2 teaspoons of gochujang gets close.

Sources consulted

Good with

Sources consulted

From Christoph Mayer

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