Will Japan’s Chicken Nugget French Fry Instant Ramen Satisfy All Cravings?

Japan's Cup Noodle maker Nissin continues to push the instant ramen envelope in delicious new ways.

And now they have waded into PotatoPro territory.

While noodles and broth are really all you need to make ramen, most aficionados would say that you need some sort of meat to really tie everything together. In restaurants, the standard is chashu, strips of thin-sliced pork, but unfortunately chashu is a little too delicate for use in instant ramen.

So instead, instant varieties usually use bits of ground pork. Cup Noodle maker Nissin, though, is always looking for new ways to innovate, like its hit “mystery meat”, and now it’s come up with yet another way to add meaty goodness to its beloved product line: Cup Noodle Potenage Big.

“Potenage” is a mash up of “potato” and “nagetsu,” the Japanese word for “nuggets.” In other words, this is ramen with chicken nuggets and sliced French fries, with the latter meant to evoke happy memories of French fries.

In a logical decision for something so decadent, it’s part of Cup Noodle’s extra-large “Big” sub-brand, which comes in 94-gram (3.3-ounce) packages as opposed to the 77 grams of a normal cup of Cup Noodles.

The Potenage’s marque ingredients are accompanied by scrambled egg and green onion, with the accompanying soy sauce-based broth heavily seasoned with black pepper.

The product went on sale mid February for 205 yen (US$1.80), it’s both and affordable and time-effective way to satisfy multiple cravings simultaneously, and if it’s somehow still not flavorful enough, you can always stir in a dollop of Japan’s new fried chicken-flavor rice spread.