If you’re a fan of hearty, flavorful noodle dishes, Nagasaki Champon is a must-try comfort food with a rich backstory. Born in the bustling port city of Nagasaki, this unique noodle soup is a delicious reflection of the city’s vibrant cultural melting pot—an intersection of Chinese, Japanese, and Western influences. Originally created as an affordable, nourishing meal for Chinese students in Japan, Champon has grown into a beloved regional specialty. With its creamy pork-based broth, thick ramen noodles, and generous toppings of seafood, vegetables, and meat, it offers a satisfying and soul-warming experience in every bowl.
There is a traditional route to making this soup, and also a quicker method. I decided to go with making the traditional broth for this, which takes a full day, but most of that is passive cooking time for the stock. If you don’t want to do this, you can doctor up some store bought broth. I have instructions for both methods in the recipe. I used pork and chicken bones for the broth. You can serve this dish with a mix of pork, seafood, and/or vegetables, along with the noodles. My version was very seafood forward. If this soup isn’t your thing, check out the rest of my many great soup recipes.
Nagasaki Champon
Ingredients
For the broth (traditional method):
- 3 lbs pork bones I used neck bones
- 2 lbs chicken wings
- 2 tsp dashi powder
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 onion halved and peeled
- 4 inch piece fresh ginger washed and sliced, any dirty areas peeled
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 leek cleaned and roughly chopped
- 1 4×4 sheet kombu optional
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 tbsp sake
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/8 tsp white pepper
- salt to taste
For the broth (quick):
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 1 tsp dashi powder
- 1 tbsp sake
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/8 tsp white pepper
- salt to taste
For the soup:
- 4 thick cut slices pork belly
- 12 shrimp or as many as you like, fresh or frozen
- 12 scallops defrosted if using frozen
- sliced squid rings defrosted if using frozen
- 1 cup sliced carrots
- 1 onion cut into wedges
- 2 cups snow peas trimmed and cut in half
- 2 cups bok choy cleaned and cut into 2 inch pieces
- sliced fish cake optional
- bean sprouts optional
- 4 servings champon noodles similar to ramen noodles but thicker and chewier – sub any asian wheat noodle
Instructions
To make the traditional broth:
- Place pork and chicken bones in a large pot, cover with cold water, and bring to boil over high heat. Boil for 5 minutes, then strain and rinse, discarding the liquid.
- Clean the pot and add the blanched bones, fish sauce, dashi, onion, ginger, garlic, leek, kombu and cover with water.
- Bring to a gentle boil, then reduce to a bare simmer. Cook for 6-8 hours, skimming off any foam and replacing some water and needed to keep items submerged.
- Strain the solids through a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth into a clean pot. You should have about 8-10 cups broth. Return the broth to the heat and add the sake, soy, sugar, milk, white pepper and salt to taste. Keep warm while you stir fry the other ingredients.
For the broth (quick):
- In a large pot, combine the chicken stock, fish sauce, dashi, soy, sake, milk, sugar, salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning. Simmer on low while you prepare the other ingredients.
For the soup:
- Cook noodles according to package in the stock when you are nearly ready to serve. Prepare the other ingredients ideally in a wok, or in a skillet. Combine the pork belly with 2 tsp of both sake and soy sauce, plus a tbsp brown sugar.
- Heat a wok or skillet over high heat with a tbsp of canola oil. Cook 1 ingredient at a time in the hot wok, adding more oil as needed. Cook the seafood until cooked through. Cook the vegetables just enough to get some char but retaining some crispiness. For the pork belly, put the pan on low and allow it to slowly crisp up.
- The fish cake and bean sprouts can be added to the broth without cooking in the wok first.
- After the noodles are cooked, dish some broth and noodles into bowls and top with your seafood, pork, vegetables and fish cake and serve.