Quick Ramen Noodle Stir Fry
Fast, easy, and budget-friendly using ramen noodles and ground beef for an amazing, saucy stir fry the whole family will love!
You have no idea how much I love a good stir fry. It’s always so quick to whip up, and you can essentially use up anything and everything in your fridge – making it cheap and budget-friendly.
And that’s exactly what this is. It doesn’t require too many ingredients, and by using ground beef and instant ramen noodles, this dish can’t come together any quicker.
The noodles just need 3-4 minutes to get nice and tender while your ground beef gets that beautiful crumble before you stir in the sauciest of all sauces that require only a few pantry staples.
From there, you can stir in those softened ramen noodles to sop up all those saucy bits.
You’ll be amazed as to how quickly this really comes together – 30 minutes or less from start to finish. Not to mention how many requests you’ll get for seconds and thirds guaranteed!
Quick Ramen Noodle Stir Fry
Fast, easy and budget-friendly using ramen noodles and ground beef for an amazing, saucy stir fry the whole family will love!
Ingredients:
- 2 (3.5-ounce) packages instant ramen noodles, flavor packets discarded
- 1/3 cup beef stock
- 1/4 cup oyster sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Sriracha, or more, to taste
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 cup diced sweet onion
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
- 1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
Directions:
- In a large pot of boiling water, cook ramen noodles until tender, about 3-4 minutes; rinse with cold water and drain well.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together beef stock, oyster sauce, rice wine vinegar and Sriracha.
- Heat sesame oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add ground beef and onion, and cook until beef has browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the beef as it cooks; drain excess fat.
- Stir in garlic and ginger until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Stir in beef stock mixture, scraping any browned bits from the bottom of the skillet.
- Stir in ramen noodles until heated through and evenly coated in sauce, about 1-2 minutes.
- Serve immediately, garnished with green onions and sesame seeds, if desired.
Did you Make This Recipe?
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Picky eater approved—every person in my family (including 4 kids) asked for seconds! The 8-yr-old asked if I could make this every night!!
I was unable to use oyster sauce due to allergies, so I mixed soy sauce and coconut aminos and I felt that the flavor was a little bit lacking– I actually added a bit of sugar since the rice wine vinegar needed to be balanced. I would love to try with ground pork as well.
Is there a good substitute noodle you would suggest? While I love ramen noodles, I am trying to get away from things that aren’t good for me (ie fried, dried noodles).
Use Moroheiya noodles. They’re made from plants, so they are green color, and really yummy and healthy. You can get them on Amazon!
Is rice wine vinegar the same as rice vinegar? and/or is there a substition for rice wine vinegar? Thanks,
I ended up using white wine vinegar instead of the rice wine vinegar. Everything else the same. It was absolutely delicious. Thank you!
I made a few substitutes according to what was on hand. Added som broccoli and perfection
I made this for dinner the other night, and just inhaled the leftovers for lunch! I didn’t have any oyster sauce (I can’t eat any seafood/fish), so subbed soy sauce. I could’ve eaten the entire pot by myself. 🙂
I made it today but used chicken in place of beef, it was a fantastic. You can feel the texture of toasted sesame seeds.
Thanks for sharing such delicious recipes following mores recipe
This was delicious! Made it vegetarian by replacing the ground beef with meatless burgers crumbled. Added peppers + broccoli! This is going into regular meal rotation! Thanks!
Every recipe I made from this site is “damn delicious”, thank-you Chungah!❤
Very good. I made this as a side dish and swapped out the beef for broccoli. Yum!
This is a family friendly recipe that was easy execute and enjoyed by everyone at the table, which is hard to do! I would add some shredded carrots, cabbage, bokchoy or sprouts. We did double the recipe for everything except the beef. We also talked about using shredded steak for this recipe.
This recipe lives up to your site’s name! I’m was born and raised in Honolulu Hawaii, but now live in D.C. and miss yummy Island Style fried noodles. This recipe is the closest I’ve found so far, Thank you! I did cut the meat to 1/2 lbs and add a little cabbage, Kamaboko and Eomuk Bokkeum fish cake which made it next level stuff. Next time I’m adding some char sui too, Island style is kinda everything but the kitchen sink, but great starting point, thank you again.
Very good dish. I use cut up swiss steak and millet and brown rice ramen noodles, plus I added zucchini and mushrooms, otherwise made as directed. Delicious!
Everyone loved it. As suggested I used 4 packages of ramen and I sauteed some frozen Asian veggies in sesame oil then added them when I added the noodles.
We added broccoli and corn to this recipe, I’ve made this multiple times and it’s a family favorite! We triple this recipe (big family, bigger appetites) still turns out great!
We don’t eat beef so, I substituted ground turkey breast and chicken stock. I also added a third ramen package. I chose this recipe because my grown son was joining us for dinner and he won’t eat veggies (I did sneak in the sweet onion). Otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly and it was delish!! If my son hadn’t been here, I definitely would want to add some kind of veggies!!
Very tasty and hit all my taste buds. I’ve made this numerous times and hubby likes to take leftovers in his lunch. After reading some of the reviews I now add a third package of noodles and matchstick carrots. No need to increase sauce because there is plenty for the extra noodles.
This turned out amazing! I opted out the beef but it still was tasty.
Absolutely loved it! Awesome flavor.
I tried this recipe yesterday but the only thing is that i personally do not like beef so in place of that i used chicken and believe me the was great. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
I made a couple changes. I used a large Lions mane mushroom because i didn’t have beef, same process, chop it fine and brown. And I used thai beef better than bullion a little stronger than recommended. That said fantastic!
This is truly incredible. Thanks for sharing.
Midweek favourite in our house! I add carrots and green beans and double the noodle and sauce. Makes enough for lunches the next day too!
This one is a keeper. It’s become a family favorite because it’s easy AND delicious! Thanks so much!!
The recipe looks quite delicious, please add a video too it’ll help novice chefs like us. Thanks.
This dish looks so yummy!
Absolutely fabuloso, flavorful and so very easy. I’ve made this recipe several times and it freezes well (add ramen later)
This is very, very good as the recipe is written. So is the chicken ramen recipe. But our very favorite is to take all the veggies from the chicken ramen recipe and use them in this beef ramen recipe! Mmmmm…. Plus it’s such an incredibly quick and easy weeknight recipe! Thank you!
This was super delicious. My daughter picked it out online and I made it for dinner. I loved it! It is meat heavy, so I would halve the meat and double the noodles next time. I also added some veg that I had in the fridge from Hungry Root. This is definately a keeper–super quick and easy as well.
Really delicious meal. Kids even liked it. There was just enough for our family of four with a little left over, but we could have added a third packet of ramen noodles to stretch the recipe for six people.
Absolutely delicious! Wonderful flavor.
This was excellent! I will definitely make it again.
I make this once a month for my family. My husband would have it more often! Very tasty, easy to modify. Julienned carrot, diced bell pepper, really any extra veg works. My husband sometimes adds SE Asian flavor with crushed peanuts, lime juice and cilantro. I’m thinking a little gochujang would be a great variation, too. I agree with other comments that you could also increase the number of ramen packets to 3 or 4 for this amount of ground beef.
This was tasty and easy, but too meat heavy for me personally. I will make again and double everything but the meat. I served with steamed broccoli.
Love this! So so easy to make. I made it a second time yesterday and added some sauteed broccoli and tempeh, it was delicious!
Absolutely fabuloso, flavorful and so very easy. I’ve made this recipe several times and it freezes well (add ramen later)
Just made this – Absolutely delicious!
We really enjoyed this recipe. Family was not convinced that ground beef and ramen was a good idea – but they changed their
minds quickly! Can’t wait to make this again. I doubled the recipe so I cooked it in a big wok. One thing that worked for me was to cook the noodles at the same time I was cooking the beef. When the beef was ready I took the noodles from the water drained a bit and added right to the wok. It was a lot easier than trying to stir in noodles that had been drained in the colander and were already kind of clumped together. Thanks for a great and easy recipe!
I have made this for dinner but switched some of the ingredients as I didn’t have some of the listed items. It was still very tasty, and I usually end up adapting recipes based on what I have in. I have only recently started cooking noodle dishes, I generally cook more with rice. The kids are loving my noodle experiments. I can now add this dish to my noodle repertoire.
I made it yesterday but used chicken in place of beef, it was a great taste. You can feel the texture of toasted sesame seeds.
Thanks for sharing such delicious recipes
Cheers!!
We are a huge ramen fan here. This noodles looks just DELICIOUS. seems like our weekend is sorted.
I don’t have oyster sauce on me nor sesame oil. Is there some alternative I can use instead?
no alternative…how about this, go to the store and buy it.
Hysterical! I agreed
You can use soy sauce instead of oyster sauce, you can use vegetable oil instead of sesame but if you DO eventually get sesame it brings a certain flavor to the dish!
Really tasty! I would suggest rather than discarding the seasoning packets, just add to the ground beef. This was easy and will definitely make it again sometime!!!
It was great taste, I tried this noodle yesterday. I have replaced beef with grated chicken still it tastes delicious.
Thanks for sharing such new recipes.
Hi There! Just wondering if you could sub chicken and chicken stock for the beef and beef stock?
I used everything except green onion because I didn’t have any. But I did use a handful of frozen carrots and peas and this, was absolutely delicious. Damn delicious. I really enjoyed this recipe. The asian fusion was just great.
Loved this! Made it for the first time for my picky 11 year old and she took 2 bites and said “yes, you can add this to the weekly dinner list”. So thank you for another huge hit.
Side not, I have shellfish allergy so I subbed the oyster sauce with same portion teriyaki and it seemed to work! Ya!
With the current Stay at home order we are in I am missing fresh ginger. Is it possible to use ground ginger?
You can get grated ginger in a jar, similar to minced garlic in a jar. Much better than ginger powder but of course you can use ginger powder if that is all you have. I now keep jarred garlic and jarred ginger as staples in my refrig. Use them all the time!
Sooo Good! My whole family loved this. I added 1/2 red bell pepper diced the onions and beef and also some steamed broccoli at the end.
We added sauteed mushrooms and steamed broccoli and subbed soy sauce for the oyster sauce. Very good and quick. Will be added to my favorites!
WOW! What an easy recipe to follow especially if it’s your first time pulling together an Asian dish. Prep time was a little longer than I’d planned for, but that’s to be expected with a new/untried recipe. Doubled the amount of Sriracha sauce since I like my food extra spicy. The ‘hint of Ginger’ took this recipe over the top!! I’ll definitely be making this a regular dish going forward.
Fabulous, Easy, Filling, Quick….. My husband is super super picky about what he eats. He went back for seconds. This will be on our weekly rotation. I think the next time I might a just a bit of sliced carrots and celery to get a bit more veggies in.
Thank you for this recipe
Very tasty and easy! I used different noodles because I had extra in the fridge, worked just fine.
Super easy and tasty. Definitely will make it again.
Here’s what I did, sauteed mushrooms, red pepper,onion and added to the ground beef. Also simply softened the ramin with the beef flavour packet in a large measuring cup and did not rinse also added a splash (glug) of hoisin. M’mmmmm
I made it vegan and used Beyond ground meat, vegetable broth, miso and added broccoli with an extra noodle packet… amazing!
This is my first recipe review. I thought it was strange to have ground beef in this dish, so my expectations were “Meh, we’ll try it.” I’m so glad we did. It was outstanding. My teenager and husband enjoyed it as well. I served it with steamed broccoli. No leftovers! Awesomely easy without skipping on taste!
I doubled this recipe, served it with plain steamed broccoli on the side and it was a hit w/the whole family. Doubling the recipe comfortably served 4 of us (2 adults, 1 hungry teen, and a 10 yr old).
Can I use a wok vs a skillet?
Will do. Thanks much!
My family absolutely loved this and it wasn’t enough for a family of 4. Next time, I think I will try 3 noodle packets and adding chopped broccoli and baby corn. The sauce is so, so good. Can’t wait to try making it again next week!
Can I freeze this?
No, noodles don’t freeze well.
What substitutions do you recommend to make the sauce vegetarian?
Vegetable stock, genius.
ouch! @Mona ):
DeeDee: I don’t think Mona was putting you down, she was saying vegetable stock is a genius idea! <3
My family is obsessed with this. There are very few dishes that I can make that all three kids love (plus one of them is lactose-intolerant), but this one hit all the right notes, AND it’s so quick that I can throw it together before or after soccer/dance/rehearsals/basketball/horseback riding/all-the-activities. I even threw in chopped frozen broccoli a few times to feel better about myself as a parent and THEY STILL ATE IT. Once I served this to one of my kid’s friends, and the friend told his mom to ask me for the recipe (she did).
I have used this twice, it is quick and easy and can also be done with cut pieces of chicken thighs. I always add more ginger to bring out the flavor.
Fairly quick, but not as flavorful as I would have hoped. Mostly tasted like ground meat and noodles. Was okay with a little hoisin sauce and soy sauce added when serving. I probably would not make it again. Definitely not as good as some other recipes from this site.
Very good considering I had to substitute for the clam sauce (used soy sauce, worchestershire and a little sugar), rice wine vinegar (used white wine vinegar and a little sugar) and powdered ginger for the fresh ginger. I’m sure if I purchase the correct ingredients it will be “Damndelicious”. I also used 3 pkts of ramen because mine were 3.0 oz not 3.5oz.
This recipe is great for a more traditional spin on cheap ramen! Been looking for a new staple ramen recipe and THIS IS IT!
Made this last night for dinner – another hit! My kids loved it – especially the texture of the curly ramen. We served it with rice (my husband’s Filipino) and roasted broccoli, but I could see adding more veg to the stir fry even. Love all your recipes – easy to follow, easy ingredients we already have in the pantry and quick to come together. Keep ’em coming!
Another picky eater bites the dust on this one (granddaughter). We just finished dinner, and as I write this, I am craving just one more bite (maybe because I portioned it out into 6 servings instead of 4). Will go into regular rotation around here, though I think I’ll try it with chicken breasts & chicken stock next time, to be a little more WW friendly. (This was 9 freestyle points, per 1/6 recipe.) I was a little worried that there was no thickener for the sauce, but the Ramen noodles sucked it up nicely. I did throw in some carrots, sliced diagonally, & broccoli florets, and hubby said he thought some red bell peppers would have been good, too. (I also subbed chili-garlic sauce for the Sriracha, because it’s what I had, and it is so wicked good.) Very satisfying! Thanks for another darn-delicious recipe!
I now make this with shaved beef and it is even better. I wonder how a vegetarian version would be?
Delish! But it didn’t look like yours
My family loved this. I will make it again soon, but will only use 1/2 lb of ground beef next time and will add some veggies, possibly carrots and broccoli. Thank you for another wonderful recipe that I can actually make and that my whole family enjoys!
OMG! This looks so yummy!
Recipe looks great. Must you use ground meat for this? Can I sub chicken for the beef?
Yes, absolutely!
Yum Just made this for dinner tonight and loved it, even my husband liked it, and he doesn’t like much
That’s so amazing, Gwynne! 🙂
Looks so easy, tasty, and unlike anything I currently make. I’m going to give it a go!!
made this for dinner last night and it was a big hit – So yummy and easy to pull together!
So glad this was a win for you, Kathryn!
This looks sooo good! I’m looking forward to trying it.
I made this last night for my 2 year old twins and they loved it. I used fresh ramen noodles instead of instant, reduced the sriracha. I also added carrots and broccoli that I ground in my food processor with the onions, ginger, and garlic. I cooked the mixture with the beef.
We’re so glad the twins loved it, Nicole! 🙂
Made this last night! Excellent! Husband loved it as well.
We’re so glad you and your husband enjoyed it so much, Lisa! 🙂
This was very tasty and very easy. I made it for my husband and myself and the leftover was my lunch the next day.
This makes for great leftovers! Thanks for sharing, Winnie!
This was great and left my family smiling after dinner. My 2 year old really loves noodle dishes and this left her smiling and laughing, thanks for the great recipe.
Aw that’s great, Jacob! Thank you for sharing with us.
This is really damn delicious!
Look so yummy!!
Made this for dinner tonight and it was a total hit with my boys! Thank you for providing such great recipes that are easy to follow for my household 🙂
We love that, Amber! Thanks for sharing with us! 🙂
This was so delicious and easy to make!! I will definitely be making again!! I would probably serve with sautéed green beans tossed with red pepper flakes! It was yummy!!
That sounds amazing, Jackie!
Easy, yummy weeknight dinner. Made this for my family tonight. They loved it. Substituted ground pork for the beef. My husband said it was like a deconstructed potsticker.
So happy to hear that your family enjoyed it so much, Shannon! 🙂
Would other asian noodles work in this?
Sure!
I made this for dinner last night. We loved it! Sometimes dishes like this can be too salty but this one came out perfect. Instead of beef, I used ground pork and added some shrimp at the end. Also subbed chicken broth for the beef.
Added shiitake mushrooms, chopped spinach and broccoli. It was really tasty!
Thank you so much for sharing your version, Karen! 🙂
Thought I would mention an alternative to ramen I found when I had to give up glutton. I missed it so much! It’s called “Miracle Noodle Shirataki Konjac Pasta” if you want to check it out on Amazon. The angel hair variety is the closest thing I’ve found to ramen and it’s really good! Can’t wait to try it with this recipe!
Hello! Can you substitute the fresh ginger for powdered or paste?
Yes, absolutely! The ratio for dry to fresh spices/herbs is typically 1:3. Hope that helps!
I made this last night and everyone loved it! I did add mushrooms and wilted some baby bok choy. I also did a low sodium organic tamari substitute for the oyster sauce as some others mentioned. Will definitely make again!
Thanks for sharing your version of it, Dana!
This was just fabulous. Our son whipped it up for us while we cleaned out closets! Win Win!!!
This recipe was very easy and quick to make. My 3 kids loved it! My son said “mom you get an A+ for this dish!” Thank you for coming up with these recipes and sharing them. We live busy lives, and kids take up a LOT of time. These quick and easy recipes are MUCH appreciated!
We love that, Caroline! It’s so great to hear that you and your family are enjoying these recipes. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
I just love this recipe!! I grew up on Top Ramen and it became very boring and not very filling either. Something like this would be an easy to do, cheap meal for anyone!! Thanks so much!!!
How important is the oyster sauce? Would it taste alright without it?
Most people use reduced sodium soy sauce as an oyster sauce substitute. You can also add half a teaspoon of sugar to the soy sauce, if you wish. But as always, please use your best judgment when making substitutions and modifications.
Nobody liked it. More for me, though! Definitely a different flavor than we’re used to. (Maybe I did something wrong? Idk)
Very quick, easy and delicious. But use a low sodium soy.
I made this tonight for my family and it was so yummy, everyone came back for seconds!! I added fresh coriander with the green onions and sesame seeds at the end, Perfect!! I love your recipes and have been making them for a long time, everyone has been a winner, thank you Chungah 🙂
You are so welcome, Janet! We’re so glad your family enjoyed it so much!
I make a chow mein with similar ingredients (oyster sauce FTW) so I thought this looked good and it was! I added some chopped bok choy for a little veg content. Also I think next time I’ll break up the ramen so the noodles are shorter…with long noodles it’s hard to get it well combined.
Such a great and easy-to-make recipe. We substituted the regular ramen with millet and brown rice ramen and it turned out amazing.
Sounds amazing! Thanks for sharing, Ashley!
I have just discovered this recipe and can not wait to cook it. It sounds so yum abd easy to put togethet
This came through just on time – I unexpectedly ended up having two grandchild to feed last night and stir fried ramen popped into my mailbox. Thank you, they ate a full dinner and then asked to take home the rest. These are “Chicken nugget” and “Mac & Cheese” kids, so this is now a keeper.
Glad we came through just in time! 🙂
I made this around evening time for my family and it was so yummy, everybody returned for quite a long time!! I added new coriander with the green onions and sesame seeds toward the end, Perfect!! I love your plans and have been making them for quite a while, everybody has been a champ, thank you Chungah