Yaki Udon is a Japanese stir fried noodles dish tossed in a savoury sauce. Just mix together udon noodles, shrimp, vegetables and the sauce and you are done within 20 minutes. This is fast, comfort food at its best!
What Is Yaki Udon
Yaki Udon is a Japanese stir fry dish made with udon noodles, sliced vegetables, a protein (optional) and a savoury sauce.
Udon noodles are thick, chewy, wheat-flour noodles. They are mixed with a sauce blend of soy sauce, oyster sauce and mirin. Of course, there are different variations to the sauce ingredients.
Yaki Udon is different from Yakisoba which is made with thinner, soba noodles.
If you love noodles, you will surely love this simple yet insanely delicious meal. It is a quick and easy dish for weeknight meals. And also a great way to use up leftover produce.
I love adding shrimp, mushrooms, onions and carrots to mine. But you can also mix in some bell pepper, bok choy, cabbage, zucchini, broccoli, chicken and even top it with a fried egg.
If you love spicy food, be sure to check out my 10-minute Garlic Chili Oil Noodles which are also made with wheat noodles that are thicker. But the recipe works wonderfully with udon noodles too.
Types of Udon Noodles
There are frozen, refrigerated, dried and fresh udon noodles. I am using fresh, pre-boiled Sanuki Udon Noodles (picture in the video below) which were sealed by vacuum.
I put them in boiling water for a couple of minutes till they were separated. Do not over cook these noodles, they get mushy pretty fast. The dried udon noodles are slightly thinner and taste not as good as the other types.
How To Make Yaki Udon with Shrimp
- Cut up the vegetables. Chop and slice the mushrooms, carrot, spring onion and yellow onion. Feel free to mix and match the vegetables according to what you prefer. Some other options are bell pepper, cabbage, zucchini and broccoli.
- Boil the noodles. Depending on which type of udon noodles you are using, cook them according to the package instructions. Under-cooking is better than over-cooking since you are going to be stir-frying the noodles later.
- Prepare the sauce. In my recipes, I like to use ingredients that are easily available everywhere. If you can get hold of Japanese soy sauce and mirin replace with dark soy sauce and rice vinegar respectively. For my Yaki Udon sauce I like mixing oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, rice vinegar, black pepper, brown sugar and a pinch of salt. Dark soy sauce is different from light or regular soy sauce. It adds the dark colour to this dish and is also less salty. I highly recommend using it.
- Stir fry the vegetables. On high heat, fry the vegetables just for a minute or two. Take out and keep aside.
- Fry the shrimp. Add a dash of soy sauce (optional for flavour) to the shrimp and cook till they are no longer pink. If you are using any other protein like chicken or beef, you might need to season it more.
- Add the udon noodles. In the same pan where you fried shrimp, add the udon noodles and crisp them on high heat for a minute or two. Then pour the sauce and toss. Combine with veggies and turn off heat.
- The toppings. Add chopped spring onion (green part). If it's easily available for you, top with bonito flakes and red ginger, they are very staple additions to the Yaki Udon.
- Serve and enjoy!
Watch How to Make It
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📖 Recipe
Yaki Udon with Shrimp
This Yaki Udon is a quick and delicious Japanese noodles stir fry dish with shrimp and veggies.
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Servings:
Ingredients
- 1 pack (200g) udon noodles preferably vacuum-packed
- 2 tablespoon neutral oil
- 8-10 shrimp approx 100g
- 1 garlic minced
- 1 yellow onion sliced
- 8 white mushrooms sliced, approx 120g
- 1 carrot cut matchstick-style
- 1 spring onion green & white separately chopped
- 1 tablespoon regular soy sauce
- pinch salt and pepper
For The Sauce
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce NOT regular one
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- ⅓ teaspoon freshly crushed black pepper
- 2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- pinch salt
Instructions
- Boil the udon noodles according to the package instructions. Drain and rinse with cold water. Drizzle some oil and set aside.
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a pan, toast the minced garlic for 1 minute then add the mushrooms. On high heat stir around until cooked. Then add the onions, white part of spring onions and carrots. Stir for 2-3 minutes. Sprinkle a pinch of salt and pepper and take the veggies out.
- In the same pan add additional 2 tablespoon oil and fry the shrimp. Add soy sauce and pinch of salt. Cook till the shrimp are no longer pink.
- Then add the udon noodles. Fry on high heat, stirring continuously so the noodles slightly crisp up evenly.
- Pour the sauce. Stir.
- Then toss in the veggies.
- Turn off heat and sprinkle spring onion.
- Take out in a plate and enjoy!
Video
Nutrition
Calories: 615kcal | Carbohydrates: 81g | Protein: 29g | Fat: 21g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 6g | Monounsaturated Fat: 11g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 81mg | Sodium: 1958mg | Potassium: 556mg | Fiber: 8g | Sugar: 16g | Vitamin A: 5158IU | Vitamin C: 9mg | Calcium: 69mg | Iron: 1mg
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Angie says
I've only made stir fry a hand full of times in my life, but I recently invested in some of these main condiments to start making these sauces from scratch and tackled this as my first recipe! I added broccoli and red cabbage and it was delicious! Thank you!
Karen says
This recipe for yaki udon with shrimp is pretty close to perfection. I don't see how this serves 2 people unless they are light eaters or of it is being part of a meal with many other dishes but maybe that's just my American appetite talking.
Karen says
So simple and delicious! I made 1/2 recipe noodles and veggies, but the full amount of sauce and it worked out just right. My only additions were a sliver of cabbage chopped, a small amount of frozen peas at the end and some garlic chile sauce to add a little heat. This will definitely be made often.