I Made The Cheapest Noodle Dish Ever (8 Ways)

noodles are a staple of The Culinary world and unfortunately you have a million choices on which one to eat and if you go to a restaurant you might be paying $15 for a basic noodle dish even Panda Express is getting expensive these days the point is don't you feel like you should be able to enjoy this and stretch your dollar more that's why today I'm going to show you eight of the cheapest noodles you could possibly make at home easily to make the best bang for your buck starting with Buttered Noodles I do need to note this though every single noodle dish in this video will be under $4 a serving and of them are under $2 per survey we used items across Amazon Walmart and Target among plenty of other legit vendors to get the cheapest possible price per ingredient be aware price changes will depend on where you live but this is generally how things price out because we live in Texas first up butter noodles this recipe makes four servings at 58 each full price breakdown after the recipe first you need a large pot of water heated over high heat at a rolling boil since we're cooking pasta salt your water generously almost as salty as the ocean to that you're going to add half a pound or 225 g of butini boil according to package directions or until cooked to alente which for these took about 7 Minutes in a large saucepan or sauser if you have one add 1/4 cup or 60 G of unsalted butter and set over medium low heat once your butter is about halfway melted cut off the heat and wait for your pasta to finish boiling once it's done you're simply going to transfer your pasta from the boiling water directly to your melted butter pan it's okay if the pasta water's getting in the pan that's totally fine it's actually a good thing begin constantly tossing your pasta adding an additional 1/4 cup or 60 G of cubed cold unsalted butter toss toss toss adding a tablespoon of pasta water water at a time until you end up with a beautiful luxurious emulsified sauce coating the noodles season it taste with salt toss together once more and serve on a plate or Bowl as is optionally if you want to get fancy you can add a little bit of flaky salt and fresh cracked black pepper but that's not mandatory whatsoever onto our first cost breakdown here's how this works every single cost break done in this video will be in three different numbers the first one the total cost of all ingredients in bulk assuming you have to buy absolutely everything the next number is the cost of only the ingredients you actually used and then finally price per serving which is based off the last number so for this dish total cost should you have to buy everything is $448 now for the ingredients used in this recipe the total comes up to only $22.32 which totals your cost for four large side dish servings of 58 cents a serving and now let's taste this is like the childhood memory that we all have it's a school day you just got back you just want a little snack and maybe someone just whips you up a little pasta with butter and salt holy I made this a little more adult you know we use Tini you could use regular pasta and I made sure to emulsify with the pasta water you can obviously skip that but if you don't you don't get good coating remember that that's great it's butter it's noodles there's no false expectations of what this is it's exactly how you think it is going to taste it tastes like that it's a staple and it's so worth the price it's a classic I will never not love it I don't think there's anything that gives you bang for your buck and time and effort more than this period end of story it's literally three ingredients if you don't include pepper obviously not only is it something that we all probably already have its ingredients that already relatively inexpensive butter can be on the pricey side sometimes and the reward is significantly Beyond everything you put into this from money to time this is a perfect dish moving on moving on to Drunken Noodles this recipe makes four servings at $224 each full price breakdowns after the recipe first we're going to make the sauce into a Ramin add 1 tbsp or 15 G of dark soy sauce 1 tbsp or 15 G of fish sauce 1 tbsp or 15 G of light soy sauce 2 tbsps or 30 G of hoiston sauce and mix together until combined but listen if you want to save even more money you don't have to buy the light and the dark soy sauce you can just combine the two and use One Singular soy sauce to save even more money it won't hurt the final dish he a walk over medium high heat add 2 tbsps or 30 G of vegetable oil swirl to coat the walk add half a pound or 225 g of boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into half in cubes season to taste with salt and sear for 1 to 2 minutes then begin stir frying just until the chickens cook through another 2 to 4 minutes now from there you're going to add one thinly sliced shallot eight cloes of garlic finely chopped two tight chilies thinly sliced and one red Fresno chili or jalapeno finely chopped seasoning tastes with salt stir fry for about 30 seconds or just until fragrant and lightly soften then add 8 oz or 225 g of broad dried rice noodles that have been prepared according to package directions some will require rehydration and some will require cooking point is they need to be flastic toss to combine add your sauce and toss once more just to coat now right at the very end I want you to cut off the heat and add half an ounce or 14 G of holy basil or Thai basil leaves they can be torn finally chopped left hole it's totally up to you now fold that together transfer to a bowl and that is your drunken noodle your total ingredient cost should you have to buy absolutely everything is $23.85 now the total recipe cost of the ingredients that you actually used is $8.95 which totals your cost per serving for four at $224 a serving and now let's taste I mean they're Drunken Noodles so if you have maybe a long night if you know what I mean doing things that aren't good for your body put this in your body it will make you feel worse but it will taste good bad for the body good for the Mind spicy salty Umami little sweet chewy rice noodles chicken meat I love the flavor profile I don't know what's coming through the most maybe it's the basil that flavor is just so good mixed with the chili I'd love to see this with like chowman noodles I feel like that'd be really good I love the flavors of this Drunken Noodles an incredible dish but probably not my favorite I think we have better ones coming moving on moving on to pastina this is essentially the dish thata would serve you if you weren't feeling so good also how was that Italian accent that was pretty good come on this recipe is $155 a serving for four servings full price breakdown after the recipe in a two cord saucepan or slightly larger that's fine you're going to add 1 qu or 950 mL of chicken stock set that over medium high and bring that to a boil once it's boiling add 1 cup or 120 GS of pastina to the pot that's tiny little baby pastas look how cute they are let that cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until Al Dente and at this point pretty much all of the liquid should have either evaporated or been absorbed by the pasta so it's quite thick already it's kind of like a Rota you're going to cut off the heat and add 1/4 cup or 60 G of unsalted butter constantly stir that together until it's melted and emulsified and then finally add 3/4 of a cup or 60 G of grated pearo or parmesano regano cheese hell maybe even a mix the both it really depends on your taste I should also add if you want to add a cheaper cheese you can totally do that the whole point of this is you only need a small amount of a really nice Quality Cheese now vigorously s that to emulsify you're going to spoon that onto a plate as much as you like I flattened it out this is really meant to just be served as is that said if you decide to add anything on top of this such as more cheese and potentially black pepper that is not covered in the cost but it honestly would only add a marginal addition maybe a buck or two so here's our cost breakdown if you have to buy absolutely everything at $16.26 and just for the ingredients that you used for the recipe you're spending $619 which totals your cost per serving to be $155 for four servings not bad considering how luxurious it tastes it was hard to determine if this was a noodle dish or not I know we were thinking pasta isn't noodles it's pasta look it's close enough it's a very Savory dish there's a lot of good flavors coming from that chicken stock I mean it's not risotto but for the time you put in and the cost you get something very similar I also was pretty surprised by this it's super rich and there's a surprising depth of flavor for this being what like four things it's another example of like really basic and relatively cheap ingredients the cheese is on the expensive side I will say that and honestly that's where the majority of the price comes from but if you're making your own chicken stock you're not even buying it which by the way buying it these days I feel like is pretty cheap anyways but whatever stock you use is going to create the basis of this flavor so the better the stock the better the pastina and it doesn't require a lot of money money to make great stock so that said the amount of flavor you get out you're really ringing out every last dollar of flavor this is by far the most deep flavor the most anxious hearty dish we've had today I'm surprised this is actually like my second or third time I think ever making pastina and I think this might be the best iteration despite how simple it is moving on now we have chamain this recipe is a little more towards the Chinese American style it makes six servings at $1.31 each full price breakdown after the recipe so first in a small bowl we're going to make a little bit of a SWS So to that bowl you're going to add 2 TPO or 8 G of cornstarch 1 TPO or 4 G of toasted sesame oil 1 and 1/2 tbsp or 22 G of rice wine vinegar 2 12 tbsp or 40 G of light soy sauce 2 tsps or 30 G of oyster sauce with that till combined and now we cook now either in a large pan a large walk whatever you have in your house that is a large cooking surface you're going to heat that over medium high heat add 2 tspoons or 30 G of vegetable oil swirl to coat and once that's ripping hot you're going to add half a pound or 225 g of boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into halfin cubes make sure that goes on into one layer okay I don't want your chicken boiling on top of each other not getting that good color we want the myard reaction so while that's searing season it lightly with salt sear for about 2 minutes stir fry add a little bit extra salt to taste then add a/4 head of Nappa cabbage thinly sliced one carrot juli end two ribs of celery small diced two green onions cut into 1in segments season lightly with salt stir fry for about 2 minutes or just until the veg is softened then add 12 ounces or 340 G of Cham noodles you're going to add these according to package directions the reason I say that is some chamain noodles come fresh from the store that you have to par boil and some come parboiled so it really depends on the brand and the store you buy them from just be aware of that now toss that two combin and optionally I do hate bean sprouts but somehow I like them in chag do I have an explanation why no I do not so add 1 cup or 85 G of bean sprouts Follow by your sauce toss that over and over until completely Incorporated with the sauce then cut off your heat add seven cloves of garlic finally chopped yes seven cloves sure that to combine let it get nice and garlicky and fragrant divide among six side dish plates and garnish with thinly sliced green onion your total ingredient cost should you to buy absolutely everything is $30.7 now again you're buying whole ingredients you won't use the whole thing in this recipe things like soy sauce oil so on and so forth for the ingredients that are actually used fully in this recipe you're at $787 which totals your customer serving for six side dish portions at $1.31 per serving and now let's taste Chia main the quintessential Chinese takeout noodle I love the Simplicity of this dish let's eat it the beauty of this dish is whatever that vegetables you put in here become the dish so as long as you keep it relatively simple some sort of nice greens or a cabbage maybe a little bit of onion or shallot or whatever you got it's going to perfume this whole dish and you got this nice vegetable dish it's fresh it still feels like a good part of the meal and the meal still feels light but you can have the whole thing but it also has anxiousness it has richness but not too much I like this moving on next up a dish not talked about enough San Francisco style Vietnamese garlic noodles I adapted this recipe from my homie Kenji Lopez alt in his book The Walk I normally don't do that but I loved his recipe because it was so cost efficient thank you Kenji coming with six servings at $112 a serving and a 5 quart sauté pin you're going to add about 2 quarts roughly of water you need this thing to be big a pot would probably do even better but surface area is helpful for the style of recipe so add your 2 quarts of water and bring to a boil now separately in a 5 quart saucepan over medium heat add 1/4 cup or 60 G of unsalted butter once that's melted you're going to add 20 cloves of thinly sliced garlic and you might be thinking Josh that's a a lot oh yeah you know what it 25 clothes that's what you get for complaining and let that cook gently stirring often just until fragrant and the garlic becomes translucent then cut off the heat once your water in your other pan is boiling add 1 pound or 450 G of spaghetti and cook for about 8 to 10 minutes or until alente now while that's cooking to your butter garlic mixture you're going to add 1 tbsp or 15 G of fish sauce 1 tbsp or 15 G of soy sauce 1 tbsp or 15 G of oyster sauce mixed together now add your garlicky butter sauce to your noodles and toss constantly to emulsify then add 1 oz or 20 G of parmesan Rano toss constantly until beautifully emulsified and almost creamy like and then toss in two green onions thinly sliced mix to combine transfer to your plates and garnish with remaining green onion now your total cost should you have to buy absolutely everything is $25.7 but just for the ingredients that are used only in this recipe you're at $6.7 which total your cusper serving for six side dish portions at $112 a serving and now let's taste San Francisco style garlic noodles although there's an Italian ingredient in sort of an Italian process here you'll also notice some Asian inspiration with soy sauce fish sauce garlic two great regions coming together into one beautiful plate of food there's something special about this I feel like I could eat this whole plate I don't think I could say that for every single thing on this list it's Umami it's Rich it's salty it's got some fattiness from the butter and the cheese but there's not so much that it stops you from eating this I think all the flavors in this are really delicate everything's hitting you in just the right way that you're like this has a somewhat add quality to it I was expecting a clash here I thought the Italian noodles wouldn't fit with the Asian ingredients that we're putting in but instead it's a really good Harmony of flavor I was very surprised by it moving on next up Yaki Udan this is sort of like an everything but the kitchen sink you can kind of add whatever you want to Yaki Udan my recipe is what I like to add it's simple but it's tasty and contains a lot of ingredients that you may actually have this recipe makes four servings at $236 each full price breakdowns after the recipe starting with our yaki udon sauce into a bowl add 2 tbsps or 30 G of dark soy sauce 1 tbsp or 15 G of mirin 1 tbsp or 15 G of rice wine vinegar 1 TPO or 4 G of granulated sugar 1 tbsp or 15 G of light soy sauce 2 tpoon or 30 G of oyster sauce whis that together until thoroughly combined and that is your Yaki mamy sauce I don't know what I'm saying the cooking process for this is probably the easiest out of all of them heat a walk over high heat add 2 tbsp or 30 G of vegetable oil swirl that to coat around that little walk add half a sweet onion jeul the end 1/4 head of Nappa cabbage rough chopped three green onions cut into 1in segments and 1/4 lb or 112 G of button mushrooms get that little toss to coat with with the oil season to taste with salt and stir fry for 3 to 4 minutes or till soft and starting to pick up a little bit of color now pour that out of the Walk add 1 tbsp or 15 G of vegetable oil let that get nice and hot crack two eggs in your walk don't get a season to taste with salt and scramble them as they cook add your vegetables back into the walk along with one pound or 450 G of udon noodles half a teaspoon to 2 gam of ground white pepper half a teaspoon to 2 G of mg add your yaki udon sauce toss to combined and then once that's hot throughout and thoroughly coated in your sauce and MSG completely cut off the add three cloves of finely chopped garlic and toss thoroughly the whole goal of adding the raw garlic at the end is you're perfuming it with this fresh spicy pungent garlicky flavor it's a good thing now split that amongst four bowls or into one giant Bowl I'm not judging garnish with toasted sesame seeds thinly sliced green onion and totally optionally Bonito flakes I will say Bonito flakes can get really really expensive so if this takes the price too high for you or you can't find the cheap brand that we used then you can totally eliminate it I personally like it on there but it doesn't break the recipe if you don't have it your total ingredient costume should you have to buy absolutely everything is $39.98 and just for the ingredients that are used in this specific recipe you're at $943 which toles your cost per serving at $236 for four nicely sized servings time to taste yaki udon not loved on enough not talked about enough I would argue potentially one of the coolest and easiest to make put in what you got type noodle dishes the Bonito flakes are optional but they shouldn't be cuz they are insane how good they are but even without the Bonito flakes there's a very distinct taste and experience with this dish these are the thickest noodles in this video and honestly it gives it a lot more texture it's just a bigger bite it's a bigger experience but it's also easy to eat a lot of this like the vegetable flavor really comes through on this but it's not overpowering the whole dish you get that nice soy flavor that deep Umami this is extremely Savory it reminds me of a pad tie with how things are mixed together in this but it has a really good flavor to it and I love the thickness of the noodles I think it compliments it really well this is my favorite one of the day I love the eggs I love the mushrooms everything within it is combined really well and if there's one I'm going to be making a lot of it's this one many of long nights in Japan were finished with a bowl of yaki udon for me when I lived there it's a classic that's slept on and I hope you make this here's what I will say out of everything that we've eaten today somehow this is both the most straightforward flavor yet simultanously one of the more luxurious tasting noodle dishes to me and for not that much more money than any of the other Nole dishes it's one of my favorites but I don't know that it is my favorite but hopefully we'll find that by moving on moving on to jce one of my favorite Korean noodle dishes this recipe makes two generous servings at $3.3 per serving first we're going to make our egg garnish also called Jon now you're going to need two egg yolks season lightly with salt and mix together heat a small non-stick pan over medium Heat spray with cooking oil and add your egg yolks cook for 45 seconds to 1 minute or just until about 75% of the way cook through flip cut the heat let sit in the pan for another 30 seconds take it out of the pan and roll it up and cut it into thin threads kind of a chiod essentially these are a little under a/4 inch thick in a large pot filled with water bring to a boil over medium high heat add 6 oz or 170 G of sweet potato noodles and cook that according to package directions this is probably one of the more expensive noodles to buy but they are worth it he a walk over medium low heat add 4 oz or 115 G of baby spinach cook that down stirring frequently until fully wilted about 1 to 2 minutes now look typically you would see the spinach boiled in a traditional recipe instead of sauteed like this do either or I personally don't boil it because some times it saps the nutrients head of your food and look I'm tra be a little healthier Here season that spinach with 1 tbsp or 15 G of soy sauce and 2 tasps or 8 G of sesame oil remove the spinach from the walk and set to the side now let's cook our aliums heat that same walk over medium high heat add 1 tbsp or 15 G of vegetable oil then add three green onions cut it into 2 in segments and half a sweet onion thinly sliced season The Taste with salt stir fry for 1 to 2 minutes or until soften and beginning to develop color remove and set to the side turn the walk back to medium heat coat with the same amount of oil add five button mushrooms thinly sliced season to taste with salt and stir fry for 2 to 3 minutes or till cook through and beginning develop color I know you're thinking Josh why don't you just cook all these together well you could totally do that and frankly I probably would in most cases but for the sake of old school traditionality these things are meant to be cooked separately and then combined in the end once your mushrooms are cooked set them to the side heat the walk again the same amount of oil add one carrot Julien season The Taste with salt stir fry one in 2 minutes till just soften set to the side again heat the walk oil half a red bell pepper Julien stir fry for 1 to 2 minutes set to the side and now we assemble now grab a large mixing bowl and add your cooked noodles your mushrooms your green onion and sweet onion your carrot your red bell pepper follow that with one clove of finely chopped garlic 1 tbspoon or 15 G of soy sauce 1 tbsp or 15 G of sweet soy sauce or just a pinch of sugar if you don't have that toss sauce toss and then just season with additional soy sauce to taste if you desire and optionally you can also add some toasted sesame oil to taste if you wish transfer your noodles to a plate and garnish with cooked spinach your Jon which is the cooked egg yolk sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and thinly sliced green onion that is your job now to our cost breakdown your total ingredient cost should you buy everything is $26.7 but just for the cost of the ingredients used only in the recipe you're spending about $625 which totals your cost per serving to $3.3 of course you'll be left over with soy sauces maybe even more noodles vegetables so on and so forth use those for another recipe because guess what the total amount that you spent if you bought everything isn't all used in the singular recipe and now we taste this is the more unique noodle that we have today and probably one of the more expensive noodles but does that mean that it's as good as as the price might suggest they're very chewy and it's surprisingly smooth in your mouth this is the lightest bite we've had all day if you like noodle dishes or really any food for that matter to have lots and lots of flavor but really sit on you light this is kind of that dish you can fit a ton of vegetables in it the diversity of the texture in this somehow feels Ultra unique because of the glass noodles they're a little more chewy than you would typically expect almost like a Mochi like chebe I like it they're great it's definitely light it does feel more like a side than a main I think it stands on its own really well and I love all the different components of it I think it comes together to make a really good bite I like that it calls itself out as a side though you don't need to change anything about it that said moving on moving on to what I'm calling the budget chili garlic noodle what does that mean well chili garlic noodles can sometimes get a little expensive with all the different spices that I like to put in mind so how do we make that cheaper this recipe makes two servings at $1.9 each so in a two qu saucepan over medium high heat a/ cup or 120 M of vegetable oil to 350 F or 175° c I'm using this specific Ramen brand but you can use any Ramen brand you want and you're going to need a total of two of these bad boys now first take out whatever is inside your Ramen packet whether it's dry ingredients or dry ingredients with wet ingredients point is pour your spice packets sauce packets whatever you got into that bowl and on top of that you're going to add 1 and 1/2 tbsp or 22 G of goou garu or any chili flake you want mix that together then you're going to pour your hot oil which again has been heated 350 F or 175 C Bing Bong whis it together till fully combined and you have your chili oil now cook remains in your Ramen packages which should be two noodle discs noodle squares they're different depending on the brand cook according to package directions in boiling water then straight in trans your noodles into the chili oil toss it combine transfer to a plate and garnish with finely chopped green onion and finely chopped garlic now for the cost breakdown your total ingredient cost should you have to buy absolutely everything is $13.95 I should add $7 of that total cost by the way is spent on a five pack of bulldock noodles which is kind of the small size that we found so if you were to buy let's say Top Ramen for A1 each or $2 each it would be significantly less cuz you wouldn't have to buy all five blah blah blah blah blah now just for the cost of the ingredients that we used in this recipe is $383 which puts your total cost per serving at $1.9 per serving for some luxurious um mamy Rich spicy noodles and now let's taste we have a spicy chili noodle I feel like if I got this in front of me I would not go oh this someone just like rehash an instant Ramen pack and added oil to it it makes me concerned that it's happened to me in the past so I'll give it a little mix again fellas that's insane that is dangerous it's literally just one additional step which is instead of putting everything into one pot you just boil the ramen in that pot and then the second step is pouring the hot oil with your mixins that you normally put in that's it out of all the chili oil noodles that I've made effort for those is three times as much I might even say this is better than some of them like I would put this in my top five the fact that this is just a packet of ramen plus oil and then optionally garlic and green onions it's insane how much this is leveled up took Josh 5 minutes to make it tastes like this is something he took all day this is low cost and low effort this video is even about being low effort but it's funny how those go hand in hand so what is the best cheap noodle dish out of all of these if you're going to make one I was surprised to say it was the spicy chili oil noodles a lot of the ramen these days have the flavors so dialed in it's got MSG in it packed full of flavor it's minimal effort but the best part about it is it's guaranteed to be good every single time you make it you're not going to accidentally under season it Etc so if you're going to make one of these make that but also don't forget to subscribe I love you so much goodbye

Channel: Joshua Weissman

Views: 818,515

Keywords: sat bawl pro, joshua weissman, noodles, instant noodles, noodles recipe, ramen noodles, how to make noodles, spicy noodles, chinese noodles, cup noodles, ultra cheap instant noodles, chinese noodles recipe, best instant noodles, cheap noodles, chow mein, panda express, buttered noodles, simple noodles, noodle recipes, easy noodle recipes, noodle sauces, stir fry noodles, japchae, yaki udon, spicy ramen, garlic noodles, kenji alt lopez, easy noodles, easy noodle dishes

Id: QovocBPyQac

Length: 22min 47sec (1367 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 21 2024