What is Yaki Udon?
Yaki udon (焼うどん) is a type of Japanese stir fry dish made with thick udon noodles. There are many different ways to make yaki udon. You can use different meats, various vegetables and even different sauces. There are no rules when it comes to yaki udon!
In my recipe, I flavor the dish with soy sauce, butter, and garlic. It’s quick, easy and tastes so good!
How I Developed This Recipe
When I was developing this yaki udon recipe, I thought I’d base it around mayonnaise, which is a popular choice for yaki udon in many Japanese home kitchens.
To make the dish more flavorful, I added soy sauce, butter, and garlic, which are a classic Japanese combination. This combination of flavors works really well together, adding some delicious savory and aromatic notes to the mayonnaise base.
This recipe is not only flavorful but also super quick to make—it can be ready in just about 15 minutes. It’s ideal for those days when you need a tasty, satisfying meal but don’t have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen!
Visual Walkthrough & Tips
Here are my step-by-step instructions for how to make Japanese Chicken Yaki Udon at home. For ingredient quantities and simplified instructions, scroll down for the Printable Recipe Card below.
For efficiency in the kitchen, I recommend washing and cutting all of your ingredients in advance.
The cabbage can be cut roughly as it’s already thin and cooks quickly, but I recommend cutting it into thin slices of similar sizes for the rest of the vegetables. Thinner slices mean faster cooking time; if the pieces are uniform, they’ll cook at the same rate.
You’ll notice that there are both red and green bell peppers on my chopping board. That’s just for extra color. Feel free to use any color you like!
Cutting the vegetables to the same size and thickness will ensure quick and even cooking.
The first step in the cooking process is to melt the butter and add the garlic. This will help infuse the flavors essentially. You will make your garlic butter. Do this over low heat to stop the garlic from burning.
Next, turn up the heat to medium and add the chicken pieces. Adding the chicken early gives it plenty of time to cook all the way through, and the surface will pick up the flavor of the garlic butter.
Cooking the chicken in the garlic-infused butter will help the chicken stand out in the dish!
Stir fry the chicken until the surface is sealed on all sides.
Once the chicken is sealed, add the cabbage, onion, and bell pepper, and then drizzle in the oyster sauce and half of the soy sauce. Stir fry until vegetables are softened slightly. This will take about 4 minutes or so.
You might find it strange that I use half of the soy sauce when adding the vegetables, but it’s not a mistake! I add the other half later when I add the noodles. This is because I want to flavor the vegetables and noodles separately.
If you add all the soy sauce initially, the flavor becomes lost and doesn’t reach the noodles. If you add it all at the end, the vegetables don’t have time to soak up the flavor, and everything becomes jumbled together.
I hope you enjoy this Chicken Yaki Udon recipe! If you try it out, I’d really appreciate it if you could spare a moment to let me know what you thought by giving a review and star rating in the comments below. It’s also helpful to share any adjustments you made to the recipe with our other readers. Thank you!
More Stir-fry Recipes
15-Min Japanese Chicken Yaki Udon Noodles
Ingredients
- 2 portions udon noodles pre-cooked, ready to use type
- 200 g chicken breast bitesize pieces
- 130 g green cabbage roughly cut
- 50 g onion thinly sliced
- 60 g bell pepper thinly sliced
- 1 tsp garlic grated or garlic paste
- 1 tsp butter
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 2 tbsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu)
- 1 pinch ground black pepper
- 1 tbsp Japanese mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp finely chopped green onions
My recommended brands of ingredients and seasonings can be found in my Japanese pantry guide.
Can’t find certain Japanese ingredients? See my substitution guide here.
Instructions
- Prepare your ingredients. Cut 200 g chicken breast into bitesize pieces, then 60 g bell pepper and 50 g onion into thin slices and 130 g green cabbage into rough chunks.
- Heat a wok/frying pan on a medium-high heat and add 1 tsp butter and grated garlic.
- Once the butter is melted and 1 tsp garlic paste is fragrant, add the chicken pieces and fry until the surfaces are sealed.
- Add the cabbage, onion, bell pepper then drizzle in 1 tbsp oyster sauce and half of the soy sauce. Stir fry until vegetables are softened slightly. (Approx 4 minutes)
- Next, add 2 portions udon noodles and stir fry for about 3 minutes.
- Add the rest of the soy sauce and 1 pinch ground black pepper. Mix again and fry for 1 more minute.
- Dish up, drizzle with 1 tbsp Japanese mayonnaise and garnish with 1 tbsp finely chopped green onions.
- Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Cut all vegetables to similar size and thickness for quick, even cooking.
- For fresh or dried noodles (not “ready to use” type), cook slightly less than package instructions, then rinse with water to remove excess starch.
- Add a small amount of lemon juice or vinegar if you prefer a tangier flavor.
- Substitute with any other stir-fry vegetables as desired.
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