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5 from 1 vote

French Onion Beef Noodle Soup

This super-savory dish draws its inspiration from Taiwanese beef noodle soup, then gilds the lily with a Dutch oven’s worth of sweet, slow-simmered onions—the best part of French onion soup, if you ask this recipe’s developer, Amiel Stanek. It takes some doing, but the effort is worth it. If you’re not planning on serving a crowd, the leftover soup base freezes beautifully, meaning you can have a big-flavor weeknight dinner in your back pocket.
Servings: 6
Author: Bon Appétit

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 3 pounds English-style bone-in beef short ribs cut into 2" segments
  • Kosher salt
  • 6 scallions white and dark green parts separated
  • 8 cloves garlic
  • 1 4"-piece ginger scrubbed, thinly sliced
  • 6 star anise pods
  • 2 3" cinnamon sticks
  • 8 whole cloves
  • 2 teaspoons black peppercorns
  • 2 teaspoons coriander seeds
  • 1 cup dry white wine
  • ½ cup low-sodium soy sauce or more
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 5 pounds onions about 10 medium, thinly sliced
  • 2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar or more
  • 30 ounces fresh ramen noodles or 18 ounces dried

Instructions

Brown the meat

  • Heat oil in a large Dutch oven or other heavy pot over medium-high.
  • Season short ribs with salt and, working in batches, cook, turning occasionally, until well browned on all sides, 12–14 minutes. Transfer to a platter as you go.
  • Carefully pour off the fat left behind in the pot until there is just enough to cover the bottom of the pot; discard the rest.

Braise the beef

  • Return pot to medium heat.
  • Cook whole white scallion parts, garlic, and ginger, stirring occasionally, until they are starting to brown, about 4 minutes.
  • Add star anise, cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns, and coriander seeds and cook, stirring often, until fragrant and oil is sizzling, about 1 minute.
  • Add wine, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon. Simmer until almost completely evaporated, about 10 minutes.
  • Return beef to pot and add soy sauce and 12 cups water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover partially with a lid.
  • Simmer until meat is not quite falling off the bone, about 1½ hours.

Simmer the onions

  • Meanwhile, heat butter in another large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high until foaming subsides.
  • Add onions, season with salt, and cook, stirring often, until they begin to take on some color, about 15 minutes. (If they don’t fit in your pot, add as much as you can, cover, and steam 5 minutes. Stir in remaining onions and continue cooking.)
  • Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are deep golden and softened but not mushy, 30–45 minutes.

Shred the meat and strain the broth

  • Using tongs, remove beef from broth and let cool until you can handle it.
  • Tear meat into bite-size pieces, discarding any bone and excess fat as you go.
  • Strain broth through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl; discard solids.

Bring it all together

  • Add meat and broth to the pot with the onions.
  • Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer until liquid is reduced a bit and the flavors have melded, about 30 minutes.
  • Add vinegar; taste and add more vinegar and/or soy sauce if needed.

Finish and serve

  • Thinly slice remaining scallion greens.
  • Cook noodles according to package directions.
  • Divide noodles among bowls. Ladle soup over noodles, making sure each bowl gets some meat and plenty of onions. Top with scallion greens and serve.

Notes

Mark's Notes

I found the soy sauce to be very overpowering and the beef flavor to be lacking. The wam spices were barely detectable and overwhelmed by the soy sauce. Also, the beef short ribs seemed wasted in this recipe, the meat was tough and difficult to separate from the gristle. I also used pre-packaged ramen and discarded the flavor packets, but any king of pasta would work here. The individual servings of ramen didn't go very far for a main meal and I cooked them individually to make it easy to portion them out into individual servings, but that created extra work. Changes I would consider:
  • Use low-sodium beef broth instead of water.
  • Use 1 or 2 tablespoons of soy sauce to start.
  • Use 1 or 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire to start.
  • Use beef chuck, cut into large chunks.
  • Use fresh udon, dried spaghetti, or any kind of pasta.