This is how ramen stock is made, but it has become my go-to method at home. Once you understand the underlying process, you may never go back to the French method of boiling until its muddy brown. Japanese stock-making taught me something fundamental: chicken stock does not want to boil, and it does not like oxygen. The goal is coaxing, not forcing.
Heat below a rolling boil, no stirring, no skimming. You are extracting pure chicken essence in its cleanest form.
The beauty of this method is that it is actually two recipes in one. You make chintan first — a clear, golden, deeply chickeny stock. Then you decide: stop there, or push forward into paitan, the creamy emulsified broth that defines rich tonkotsu-style ramen. Same bones. Same pot. Two completely different stocks.
The Philosophy
Chintan (清湯) means “clear soup.” The Japanese borrowed the word from Chinese (qing tang), and both traditions share the same principle: yuán zhī yuán wèi original essence, original taste. No mirepoix, no herbs, nothing to hide behind. Just bones and water, which means both need to be exceptional.
Paitan (白湯) means “white soup.” Where chintan is about gentle extraction, paitan is about agitation rolling boils that emulsify fat and collagen into a creamy, opaque broth. The process is sequential. Chintan comes first. Paitan is what happens when you keep going.
