The Noodle Seasoning You Should Add To Focaccia

Perfectly crusty on the outside with a soft, chewy, easy-to-pull-apart middle, there's nothing quite like freshly baked focaccia. This easy-to-make bread is also incredibly versatile. You can enjoy it as a comforting side dish, cut it up and use it for sandwiches, or even put your leftover focaccia in the air fryer to make garlic bread fries. The internet is full of interesting hacks for spicing up this Italian favorite, from topping your focaccia with tomatoes and olives like your nonna used to make to adding spicy ramen seasoning right into the batter.

In a recent Instagram post, Jenny of @bakedbystress showed how she added the seasoning packet from Buldak spicy chicken ramen right into her focaccia batter. Korean brand Buldak is one of the 13 spiciest ramen brands on the market, and adding its signature seasoning to the batter creates a spicy, savory version of the Italian classic that Jenny described as "crispy and squishy and amazingly flavored."

Her process is simple. She added hot water to the seasoning before sifting in her other ingredients. Before baking the focaccia, she topped it with thinly sliced green onions and the extra pack of sesame seeds and seaweed seasoning that comes with Buldak ramen.

The Buldak ramen brand is named after the traditional Korean dish of the same name, which involves fire-grilling chicken and dousing it in a blend of Korean red pepper powder and gochujang, the fermented red pepper paste. The ramen takes inspiration from these flavors, pairing typical ingredients in a ramen seasoning packet like artificial chicken flavor, onion, and garlic with fiery chili pepper and chili pepper seed oil, giving it a taste that's exceptionally spicy, slightly sweet, and just a bit smoky. In addition to adding some intense spice to your focaccia, the pairing of salty, sweet, and meaty flavors creates an intense umami experience. The smokiness of the seasoning also enhances the "just-pulled-from-the-oven" taste of the focaccia.

If you want to take your ramen focaccia to the next level, Dan Dumbrell (@dandumbrell) shared an additional fun hack in an Instagram post. After adding the seasoning to the focaccia batter, he took the leftover ramen noodles, broke them apart, and added them to the batter. He said that doubling the carbs made the focaccia taste delicious while "the crunchy noodle topping reminded me of eating instant noodles straight from the packet at school." It's a great trick for adding texture to the dish while also combating food waste.

Whichever option you choose, just beware that Buldak spicy chicken ramen truly lives up to its name. While delicious, the ramen seasoning packs some serious heat. If you or your guests don't enjoy eating spicy food, this is one focaccia hack you might want to skip.