Iced Chai Tea Latte

This quick and refreshing iced chai tea latte can be made with just 4 ingredients in about 5 minutes.

Heya, friends, it’s almost spring, the weather (at least here in Southern California) is warming up, and that means it’s time to start thinking about warm-weather recipes.

Top of my list is anything iced, iced mochas , iced caramel macchiatos , iced white chocolate mochas , and today I have a new iced recipe for you, an iced chai tea latte.

It’s actually really simple to make an iced chai latte (or hot chai latte ) at home exactly the way they do at coffee shops. You just need chai concentrate, milk, and ice.

But if you’re here, I’m guessing you don’t have chai concentrate, so I’m going to show you how to make a super quick and simple shortcut chai concentrate so you can be sipping an iced chai latte in about 5 minutes.

Ingredients

Chai tea bags: Use your favorite chai brand, caffeinated or decaf.
Sugar: I typically use granulated sugar here, but many chai concentrate recipes use brown sugar. Feel free to use whichever you prefer. If you have it, superfine sugar works particularly well because it will dissolve more quickly when you’re making the concentrate.
Milk: Starbucks uses 2% milk in their coffee drinks, but you can use any milk you’d like including non-dairy milks. The higher fat your milk, the creamier your drink will be.

How to Make an Iced Chai Latte at Home

Collage photo of iced chai latte being made. - 3

Collage photo of iced chai latte being made. - 4

Make chai concentrate: In a small pot or microwave-safe cup, bring ¼ cup of water to a boil. Add tea bags and steep tea for 5 minutes. Remove and discard tea bags. Stir in sugar until completely dissolved and add another ¼ cup of cold or room-temperature water (this will help bring down the temperature of the concentrate so it’s not too warm when you add it to the milk).
Assemble your drink: Fill a 16-ounce cup with about 1½ cup of ice and add milk before pouring the chai mixture over the milk and stirring to combine. Top with optional whipped cream if desired, and enjoy!

Chai concentrate being poured into milk for a chai latte. - 5

Chai concentrate being poured into milk for a chai latte. - 6

What is a chai tea latte made of?

Starbucks and other coffee houses use a mix of chai concentrate and milk. Chai concentrate is made by combining black tea with spices, usually ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, and peppercorns, along with some form of sweetener.

If you want to give this a try and make an authentic cup of Indian Masala Chai, go check out this recipe .

Does an iced chai latte have coffee?

Iced chai lattes do not usually include coffee. They are made with just chai concentrate and milk served over ice. However, if you would like to add coffee, you can add a shot or two of espresso and make a dirty chai latte (it’s quite good).

Close photo of iced chai latte with whipped cream on top. - 7

Close photo of iced chai latte with whipped cream on top. - 8

What does an iced chai latte taste like?

If you’ve never had one, chai lattes taste just like what they are, sweet chai tea and milk. It’s a refreshing, lightly spicy sweet flavor that is perfect on a warm day.

Is there caffeine in an iced chai latte?

It depends on the tea you use. Chai tea does have caffeine, so if you buy one from a coffee house your latte will almost certainly be caffeinated, but when making your chai latte at home, you can choose to use decaf chai for a caffeine-free chai latte.

Treats to Go With Your Latte

Cream Scones
Small-batch Chocolate Chip Cookies
Small-batch Cinnamon Rolls

More Coffee-house Favorites

Homemade Mocha
White Chocolate Mocha
Salted Caramel Mocha
White Hot Chocolate

Ingredients

▢ ½ cup filtered water divided
▢ 2 chai tea bags
▢ 2 teaspoons ( 8g ) granulated sugar *
▢ 1 ½ cup ice
▢ ¾ cup milk any percentage
▢ Whipped cream optional for topping

Instructions

In a small pot or microwave-safe cup, bring ¼ cup of the water to a boil on the stove or in the microwave. Add tea bags and steep for 5 minutes. Remove and discard tea bags.
Stir in sugar until completely dissolved and add remaining ¼ cup of cold or room-temperature water. Set aside.
Fill 1 16-ounce cup with 1½ cup of ice. Add milk.
Pour chai mixture over the milk and stir to combine. Top with optional whipped cream if desired, and enjoy!

Notes

15+ shredded chicken recipes to make with pre-cooked shredded chicken. Plus the very best method for cooking shredded chicken.

You all know that I’m a big fan of prepping ingredients in advance to save time and effort later. And one of the absolute best things you can make ahead of time is shredded chicken .

Having cooked shredded chicken in your fridge or freezer will shave 20 to 30 minutes of cooking time off a huge number of chicken dishes so you can have dinner on the table in around 20 minutes.

Whether you have extra rotisserie chicken that you need to pull off the bones before you make stock (or chicken carcass soup !) or a few chicken breasts you want to get out of your fridge, turning them into cooked shredded chicken will save you a whole lot of time down the road.

Shredded chicken for recipes in a white bowl. - 10

Shredded chicken for recipes in a white bowl. - 11

What’s the easiest way to cook shredded chicken?

If you’re starting with raw chicken breasts, the easiest (and best) way to cooked shredded chicken is a cross between pan-frying and something similar to poaching.

I wrote a whole post on How to Cook Shredded Chicken a while back, but you really don’t need a recipe to make it. Once you learn the method, you’ll never need the recipe again.

Season boneless skinless chicken breasts on both sides with salt and pepper and if you’d like, spices. Taco seasoning and Italian seasoning blends work great depending on what you’re making with the chicken.
In a hot pan with a lid, drizzle a little oil or a spray of cooking spray and sear the chicken breasts on both sides until golden.
Then add enough water to the pan to come halfway up the sides of the chicken breasts.
Bring the water to a simmer, cover the pan, and cook until the chicken breasts reach 165°F using an instant-read thermometer . If the water evaporates completely, add a little more, but otherwise the chicken cooks without you having to touch it.

How to shred cooked chicken?

The simplest way to shred cooked chicken is with two forks. Just use one fork to anchor the meat and the other to shred it by pulling off small pieces of meat.

If you need to shred large quantities of chicken, the fastest way is (weirdly enough) to use a stand mixer with the beater attachment. If you want to see how that works, go check out my shredded chicken post where I cover it in way more detail.

How do I make shredded chicken from a rotisserie chicken?

To get shredded chicken from a rotisserie chicken, use the two-forks method. Simply pull large chunks of meat off the bones and then use two forks to shred.

Since rotisserie chicken is so tender, you can also just pull it apart with your hands if you prefer.

Shredded Chicken Recipes

Below are some of my favorite recipes where you can use shredded chicken. Most call for two cups of chicken, but there are a couple single-serve recipes in there that require less.

Close photo of chicken enchiladas with sour cream on a plate. - 12

Easy Chicken Enchiladas

10 to 25-Minute Chicken Recipes

BBQ Chicken Pizza slice being picked up. - 16

Chicken and orzo with broccoli in a skillet. - 17

30-Minute or More Chicken Recipes

This Naan Chicken Alfredo Pizza is super easy, so good, and just a bit classier than your usual delivery pizza. | Homemade Pizza | Recipe for Two | Dinner for Two | - 18

Creamy chicken tortellini soup in a white bowl. - 19

Close up photo of freezer burritos stacked on a plate. - 21

Close photo of chicken enchiladas with sour cream on a plate. - 22

Square photo of Keto Chicken Soup in blue bowl. - 24

Slice of chicken bacon ranch pizza being picked up. - 25

More Recipes to Make With Shredded Chicken

The following recipes do not specifically call for cooked shredded chicken but you can substitute shredded chicken or add it to the final recipe.

Overhead photo of buttered noodles in a white bowl. - 26

Fettuccine alfredo for one on a plate with broccoli and garlic bread. - 28

These beef ramen noodles cook up fast and easy with tender slices of beef and broccoli florets in a quick garlic and ginger sauce.

I have another comfort food recipe for you today, one of my personal favorites, beef ramen noodles.

There’s just something about sitting down with a giant bowl of ramen noodles and beef that is so cozy and satisfying.

Best of all, this dish is super easy, and once you have your ingredients assembled, it comes together FAST.

Ingredient Notes & Substitutions

Cornstarch: Cornstarch helps protect the meat while cooking, ensuring that it stays tender, and helps the sauce stick to the meat. If you don’t have cornstarch, you can skip it and just marinate the meat with soy sauce alone, but I recommend picking some up the next time you’re at the store. It’s a good ingredient to keep on hand.
Top sirloin: I like top sirloin for this recipe because it cooks up nice and tender and has a fantastic beefy flavor. You could also use flap meat or flank steak.
Instant ramen: Cheap ramen packets work perfectly in this recipe. Any flavor will do since you’ll be discarding the flavor packets.
Low-sodium soy sauce and beef broth: I recommend using low-sodium soy sauce and beef broth in this dish or it comes out quite salty. I have made it with regular soy sauce and broth, but with full-salt ingredients, it will definitely be too salty for some people.
Sesame oil: I love the flavor boost toasted sesame oil gives this dish, but untoasted sesame oil works fine. You can also use olive oil.
Rice vinegar: Rice vinegar (AKA rice wine vinegar) adds a little acidic kick to the ramen. If you don’t have rice vinegar, you can replace it with the same amount of apple cider vinegar or half the amount of white distilled vinegar (white distilled vinegar has a much stronger flavor so you don’t need as much).
Fresh ginger: The flavor of fresh ginger is so good in this dish, use it if you can, but there are measurements in the recipe card for using ground ginger instead.

Some Quick Ginger Tips & Tricks

Don’t feel like peeling your ginger? Skip it. You really don’t need to peel ginger for most dishes. Just grate away, peel and all.
Store extra ginger in your freezer. Ginger freezes extremely well. Pop it in a freezer bag and toss it in your freezer. When you need more ginger, you can grate it right from frozen. No need to defrost.
Not sure how to grate ginger? It’s really simple, you just need a microplane or the small holes of a box grater or hand-held grater . Check out this video to watch it being done.

How To Make Beef Ramen Noodles

Collage photo of beef for beef ramen being prepared. - 33

Collage photo of beef for beef ramen being prepared. - 34

Prep the meat: Before you prep any of the rest of your ingredients, slice your meat across the grain into 1/4-inch strips. (Don’t know how or why to slice meat across the grain? Check out this article. ) Toss them with a combination of soy sauce and cornstarch, and set aside for a short marinade.
Prep the rest of your ingredients: It’s always smart to prep your ingredients in advance when cooking, but especially when making quick-cooking stir frys like this. You won’t have time to run around assembling ingredients once the cooking starts, so pull out and prepare all the rest of your ingredients and line them up in order of use before you start cooking. It will make the whole process go much more smoothly.
Cook the beef: Once your ingredients are assembled, cook the beef in hot oil. This is all the cooking the beef will get, so make sure it’s cooked to your preferred level of doneness and then transfer it to a large bowl or plate.

Collage photo of beef ramen being cooked. - 35

Collage photo of beef ramen being cooked. - 36

Make the sauce: Give the pan just a minute to cool and then add sesame oil and heat over medium heat. Cook garlic and ginger until they just begin to turn golden and then add red pepper flakes. Add the rest of your sauce ingredients and bring to a simmer. Cook until the sauce is reduced by about a third.
Cook broccoli: Add broccoli to the sauce, cover, and cook for 2 minutes. Give the broccoli a stir, replace the cover, and continue to cook until the broccoli is fork-tender. Add beef and toss to coat.
Cook the ramen: While the broccoli cooks, cook ramen according to package instructions. Drain and add ramen to the pan with the broccoli and beef. Toss until the noodles are well-coated with sauce.
Serve and enjoy: Serve topped with sliced green onions if desired, and enjoy!

Tongs picking up beef ramen noodles from a skillet. - 37

Tongs picking up beef ramen noodles from a skillet. - 38

Where can I buy beef ramen noodles?

You should be able to find instant ramen noodles in the soup aisle at your grocery store. If you’ve never bought packaged ramen before, they usually come in brightly colored rectangular plastic packages.

Is this authentic ramen?

Not even slightly. Japanese ramen is a soup and completely different dish. This recipe just uses ramen noodles as an ingredient.

Beef ramen noodles in a white bowl. - 39

Beef ramen noodles in a white bowl. - 40

Can I freeze beef ramen noodles?

I don’t recommend it. Broccoli and ramen don’t freeze well and become mushy when defrosted and reheated.

If you really want to make this dish for the freezer, just cook the beef and the sauce and freeze them together. When you’re ready to serve the ramen, reheat and then toss the beef and sauce with steamed broccoli and freshly made ramen noodles.

More Asian-inspired Recipes

Thick and Sweet Teriyaki Sauce
Beef Teriyaki
Easy Baked Chicken Katsu with Pineapple Katsu Sauce

More Comfort Food Faves

Bacon Potato Soup
Creamy Chicken Pasta
Homemade Carnitas
Easy Lasagna

Ingredients

▢ ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
▢ 1 tablespoon cornstarch
▢ 1 pound top sirloin steak sliced ¼-inch across the grain
▢ 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
▢ 1 tablespoon sesame oil preferably toasted*
▢ 3 garlic cloves crushed or minced
▢ 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger or ½ teaspoon ground ginger
▢ Pinch of red pepper flakes
▢ 1 cup low-sodium beef broth *
▢ 2 tablespoons ( 25g ) brown sugar
▢ 2 tablespoons rice vinegar optional*
▢ 12 ounces broccoli cut into florets
▢ 3 3-ounce packages instant ramen noodles discard flavoring packet
▢ 2 green onions sliced, optional for topping

Instructions

Whisk together 2 tablespoons of the soy sauce and the cornstarch. Pour over sliced beef and toss to coat. Set aside.
Prepare and assemble the rest of your ingredients before you begin cooking.
Set a medium pot of water on to boil for the ramen.
While the ramen water heats up, in a large skillet with a lid, heat vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Add the sirloin and let it cook undisturbed until the first side is well browned, about 1 to 2 minutes. Stir and continue to cook until the steak reaches your desired level of doneness, about 1 to 2 minutes (this is all the cooking it will get).
Transfer meat and any drippings to a bowl and set aside.
Allow the pan to cool for just a minute and then add the sesame oil. Heat over medium heat and add garlic and ginger. Cook until the garlic is just beginning to turn golden and aromatic. Add red pepper flakes and cook for 30 more seconds.
Add the broth, remaining ¼ cup of soy sauce, brown sugar, and vinegar, and use a spatula to scrape any cooked-on bits from the bottom of the pan. Bring to a simmer and cook until the sauce is reduced by about a third, around 3 to 6 minutes.
Add broccoli, place lid on the skillet, and cook for two minutes. Give the broccoli a stir, replace the lid, and continue to cook until it reaches your preferred level of doneness, 1 to 3 minutes more.
While the broccoli cooks, add ramen to the boiling water and cook according to package instructions.
Stir cooked beef and any juices in the bowl into the broccoli and sauce. Add cooked and drained ramen noodles and toss until the noodles are well-coated with sauce.
Serve topped with sliced green onions if desired, and enjoy!

Notes

This quick and refreshing iced chai tea latte can be made with just 4 ingredients in about 5 minutes.

Heya, friends, it’s almost spring, the weather (at least here in Southern California) is warming up, and that means it’s time to start thinking about warm-weather recipes.

Top of my list is anything iced, iced mochas , iced caramel macchiatos , iced white chocolate mochas , and today I have a new iced recipe for you, an iced chai tea latte.

Iced chai tea latte in a glass cup. - 42

It’s actually really simple to make an iced chai latte (or hot chai latte ) at home exactly the way they do at coffee shops. You just need chai concentrate, milk, and ice.

Ingredients

Chai tea bags: Use your favorite chai brand, caffeinated or decaf.
Sugar: I typically use granulated sugar here, but many chai concentrate recipes use brown sugar. Feel free to use whichever you prefer. If you have it, superfine sugar works particularly well because it will dissolve more quickly when you’re making the concentrate.
Milk: Starbucks uses 2% milk in their coffee drinks, but you can use any milk you’d like including non-dairy milks. The higher fat your milk, the creamier your drink will be.