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pork udon noodle soup topped with kamaboko fishcakes, chopped green onion and shichimi togarashi in a blue bowl with white swirl design top down view

Pork Udon Noodle Soup (Butaniku Udon)

Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time10 minutes
Total Time25 minutes
Author Yuto Omura
Servings 2 portions

Ingredients 
 

Marinated Pork

  • 150 g thinly sliced pork belly about 2 mm thick, the kind sold for shabu-shabu
  • 2 tsp Japanese light soy sauce (usukuchi shoyu) Japanese usukuchi, a different product from Chinese light soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp mirin
  • ½ tsp sugar
  • ½ tsp grated ginger root or a tube
  • 3 tbsp dashi stock

Onion

  • 50 g onion cut into thin wedges, a medium onion is about 110 g
  • ⅛ tsp salt

Broth

To Finish

  • 1 tsp cooking oil
  • 2 portions udon noodles frozen, dried, fresh or any kind, about 200 g per portion, or 80 to 100 g dried per serving
  • 4 slices kamaboko fish cake optional
  • finely chopped green onions about 1½ tbsp per bowl, optional
  • Japanese chili powder (shichimi togarashi) optional

Instructions 

Prep the Pork and Onion

  • Put 150 g thinly sliced pork belly in a container and add 2 tsp Japanese light soy sauce (usukuchi shoyu), 1 tbsp mirin, ½ tsp sugar, ½ tsp grated ginger root and 3 tbsp dashi stock. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then marinate in the fridge for 10 to 30 minutes. While the pork marinates, toss 50 g onion (cut into thin wedges) with ⅛ tsp salt in a separate bowl until every piece is coated. Leave it there until you fry it.
    thinly sliced onion, salted in a bowl. Marinated thinly sliced pork belly in a steel rectangular container. (Prep for pork udon noodle soup)

Make the Broth

  • Pour 500 ml dashi stock and 1 tbsp mirin into a pot and set it over medium heat. Bring it to a boil, boil briefly and turn off the heat.
    dash broth in a pot on the stove top
  • Stir in 1 tbsp Japanese light soy sauce (usukuchi shoyu), cover, and leave the pot on the stove to keep warm.
    homemade udon noodle soup heated in a pot on the stove top

Fry the Pork and Cook the Udon

  • Heat a frying pan over medium heat and add 1 tsp cooking oil and the salted onion. Fry until the onion is soft, the edges look translucent and a few spots turn pale golden.
    softening onions in a frying pan on the stove top
  • Add the pork with all of its marinade and fry it with the onion. Leave the rendered fat in the pan. Turn off the heat once the pork has changed color and browned lightly, while there are still juices in the pan.
    thinly sliced pork belly and onions frying in a pan on the stove top
  • While the pork fries, cook 2 portions udon noodles in another pot until they loosen and are hot all the way through. Cook dried udon as the package directs.
    udon noodles boiling in a pot on the stove top
  • Drain the udon and pour fresh boiling water over the noodles to rinse off the slippery surface.
    Udon in water in a steel mixing bowl

Assemble the Bowls

  • Reheat the broth until it is just below a boil. If you are using 4 slices kamaboko fish cake, warm them in the broth for 20 to 30 seconds.
    warming six slices kamaboko in a pot of udon noodle broth on the stove top
  • Put 1 portion of udon in each bowl, or split cooked dried udon evenly among them, and pour in the broth. Pile the pork and onion on top and pour the pan juices, fat and all, evenly over the bowls. If you are using the kamaboko, add 2 slices to each bowl.
    Pork udon noodle soup topped with chopped green onions, shichimi togarashi and kamaboko fish cakes in a white and blue bowl
  • Scatter finely chopped green onions among the bowls and sprinkle on Japanese chili powder (shichimi togarashi) if you like. Stir well before eating. Enjoy!
    pork udon noodle soup topped with kamaboko fishcakes, chopped green onion and shichimi togarashi in a blue bowl with white swirl design with black chopsticks holding up the noodles

Notes

Judge the broth in the bowl: The broth in the pot is thin on purpose, and the pan juices bring it up to strength. If it tastes flat on its own, hold off on more soy sauce and taste once the bowl is mixed.
The pan juices belong to the bowl: The juices and fat left in the frying pan turn a light broth into a full-flavored bowl. Cook them away and the bowl never comes together, however well you stir.
Stay at the stove once the juices turn glossy: The sugar and mirin in the marinade color the moment the liquid is gone. Black, sticky spots or a bitter smell mean the pan has started to scorch.
Dissolve the sugar before the pork marinates: The pork goes into the pan with every drop of its marinade, and any grains of sugar left whole burn on the bottom of the pan first.
Spread the pork out in the pan: Piled-up slices simmer in the liquid and stay pale. Hold the heat at medium, the liquid cooks down, and the browning follows.
A note on the nutrition figures: In Japan, the broth of a noodle soup like this is not finished to the last drop, so the numbers here assume you drink only about 30 percent of the soup, in line with measured Japanese consumption studies. Finish the whole bowl and the figures, sodium above all, will run considerably higher.