Yaki Udon
Published Dec. 7, 2023
- Total Time
- 40 minutes
- Prep Time
- 10 minutes
- Cook Time
- 30 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 2tablespoons dark soy sauce
- 2tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
- 2tablespoons oyster sauce
- 1tablespoon mirin
- 1tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1pound frozen udon noodles
- Toasted sesame oil, for drizzling
- 2tablespoons vegetable oil
- ½pound ground pork, or beef, chicken or turkey
- 1small yellow onion, thinly sliced
- 4ounces white or cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced (about 1 cup)
- 1large carrot, scrubbed or peeled, cut into thin 3-inch-long sticks
- 1medium bok choy, sliced into ½-inch pieces
- 3large garlic cloves, chopped
- 3scallions, sliced into 2-inch pieces, plus more for serving
- Crushed red pepper, to taste
- Sesame seeds, furikake or chile oil, for serving (optional)
Preparation
- Step 1
In a medium bowl, combine the dark soy sauce, low-sodium soy sauce, oyster sauce, mirin, rice vinegar and sugar. Taste a little and balance salty, acidic and sweet flavors, if needed.
- Step 2
Bring a medium pot of water to boil over medium-high. Add the frozen noodles and cook, gently nudging them apart, until they separate and are pleasantly chewy, about 2 minutes. Drain, quickly rinse with cold water to stop the cooking, transfer to a medium bowl and drizzle with a little sesame oil (about 1 teaspoon) so they don’t stick to each other.
- Step 3
In a wok or a large pan, heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium-high. Add the pork and cook, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, until cooked through, about 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the meat to a small bowl.
- Step 4
Pour the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil into the wok. Add the onion and mushrooms, and stir-fry, tossing frequently, until fragrant and the vegetables take on a little color, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the carrot, bok choy and garlic; constantly stir until the vegetables cook but still have a crunch, about 3 minutes. Stir in the scallions and cooked pork; stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the noodles and sauce, tossing until the noodles are coated and glossy. Taste and adjust any seasonings, if needed.
- Step 5
Transfer yaki udon to bowls, and top each serving with chopped scallion and crushed red pepper, to taste. Serve with sesame seeds, furikake and chile oil, if you like.
- Dark soy sauce can be found at Asian markets, online and some grocery stores. If you can’t find it, you can use regular soy sauce and adjust sugar amounts, but the sauce won’t be as thick and glossy.
Private Notes
Comments
as a japanese person who’s comfort food is yaki udon, this recipe is way too much. Just looking at it, it’s going to be too salty. All my family did was use the soy soup base, the same you would use to make udon soup or somen base soup. that’s all you need. and it is the best.
I didn't have frozen udon on hand so made it without as a stir fry and ate it over rice.. lol it was GOOD! I'm Japanese and I also think as written it's too salty. I would use a 1:1 ratio of soy sauce and mirin plus whatever amount of oyster/hoisin sauce you desire.
Really loved it as directed - using trader joe's vacuum packed udon noodles, which didn't need to be precooked. Don't have Asian grocery nearby. Next time I'd add pepper flakes early and maybe peanuts. I'd leave out the sugar. Too sweet.
what's the best way to store this if it's a meal prep?
This was great, with a few tweaks to avoid the overly-salty verdict from some commenters. (I also swapped about a quarter of a cabbage, roughly sliced, in for the bok choy since that’s what I had on hand.) For the sauce, I reduced each of the two soy sauces and the oyster sauce to just one tablespoon each, I omitted the sugar and I added a tablespoon of okonomi sauce. Flavor-wise, the result was spot on, but it still was quite liquidy once sauced. I was wary of continuing to cook it too much at that point lest the sugars burn and things start to stick (my pan was very full), so I just served it slightly saucier than I would have liked. It was fine — the noodles soaked up the extra liquid fairly quickly — but I might reduce the sauce even more next time. My partner raved about it, the flavors and the texture, and he doesn’t usually like udon. I’ll keep this in rotation, with the sauce tweaks, as a crisper-drawer cleanout and weeknight dinner.
SO good!!! Based on the comments and inability to find one ingredient I made the following changes: - couldn’t find dark soy sauce, subbed tamari - skipped the sugar (didn’t miss it) - added 1/4 tsp chili crunch (would do 1/2 next time) - doubled mushrooms and bok choy - used red onion and shallot bc I had some partial left over in my fridge - used 2/3 lb ground pork bc that’s what was available at my Asian grocery You could use a different veg combo if you’d like - I think zucchini and snow peas would both be great in here. And next time I might try grating some fresh ginger into the sauce for an added kick. Can’t wait to make again!