Yaki Udon is a wok-fried Japanese udon noodle dish with a complex, soy-based sauce, meat or seafood, and vegetables. Coming together in under an hour, it's a healthy, delicious dinner perfect for weeknights!
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Why You'll Love This Dish
This Shrimp Yaki Udon is deeply savory, has a lightly sweet sauce, and just a touch of spice.
This sauce is used in two ways: as a marinade for the shrimp and as a stir-fry sauce added to the wok or pan near the end of the cook time. If using a pan, be sure to use stainless steel, not non-stick or cast iron.
For protein, shrimp is one of my favorite healthy weeknight options, but feel free to use other proteins in its place. You can use beef, chicken, pork, or tofu or omit the protein entirely.
Once you have prepped your vegetables and marinated the shrimp, the dish comes together incredibly quickly. You can easily do your prep work in advance and have dinner on the table in under 15 minutes.
What You'll Need
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- Shrimp I used defrosted raw shrimp for this dish. You could also use fresh shrimp, but I would remove the shells before marinating.
- Udon Noodles Fresh udon noodles can be found in many grocery stores in the refrigerated fresh noodle section. If you are feeling ambitious, these fresh udon noodles have turned out well for me on numerous occasions.
- Fresh Vegetables In this dish, I recommend using onion, carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, zucchini, and jalapeño.
- Scallions
- Fresh Ginger If you have trouble finding fresh, try using this jarred ginger.
- Fresh Garlic You could also use jarred garlic if you cannot find fresh garlic.
- Soy Sauce I personally prefer a low-sodium soy sauce. Regular soy sauce will also work well here.
- Vegetable Oil or another neutral oil such as grapeseed or avocado oil. I would avoid olive oil or other oils with low smoke points (the point at which an oil burns) because of the high heat required for this dish.
- Brown Sugar You can also use a little bit of cane sugar.
- Mirin A sweet rice wine used often in Japanese cooking
- Sake A dry sherry will work here, too, if you can't find sake.
- Rice Wine Vinegar Be sure to select an unseasoned rice wine vinegar as the seasoned rice vinegar includes sugar and salt and will change the taste of the marinade/sauce.
How to Make Shrimp Yaki Udon
Step One Make your marinade.
Step Two Marinate the shrimp, reserving half on the marinade.
Step Three Cook the shrimp in a wok or skillet on high heat.
Step Four Remove the shrimp and add the onion. Add the broccoli, zucchini, and jalapeño. Then add the mushrooms and scallions. Add the noodles and remaining marinade.
Step Five Add the shrimp back into the mix and serve!
Variations
- Beef - I have made this dish with great success using stir-fry cut beef (pre-cut at the grocery store to make prep quick and easy) in place of shrimp.
- Chicken - Chicken works equally well here. You can use either sliced chicken thighs or sliced chicken breast.
- Pork - I find that pork chops can come out dry when sliced thin and cooked at this temperature. I recommend trying ground pork here and reducing the marinating time to 15 minutes. Ground pork has fat evenly distributed throughout the product and will stand up better to high heat.
- Vegetarian/Vegan - Try making this dish with no meat at all. You can either marinate some tofu or omit a protein entirely for a tasty, vegetable-forward meal.
- Different Vegetables - Feel free to try other vegetables that you have on hand or that you like best. Some veggies that would work great include bell pepper, celery, cabbage, edamame, and eggplant.
FAQ
Yaki Udon is a wok-fried Japanese udon noodle dish with a complex, soy-based sauce, meat or seafood, and vegetables.
Yaki udon sauce is generally a variation on a few ingredients, namely soy, sugar, ginger, and garlic, combined with other optional ingredients, such as mirin, rice vinegar, and sake.
Yaki udon is savory and sweet. The vegetables maintain a fresh flavor due to their short time cooked on high heat. There are strong elements of soy, ginger, and garlic as well as a bit of spice from the jalapeño.
This dish provides some wonderful healthy components in its use of fresh vegetables and lean protein.
Expert Tips
- Be sure to use very high heat with your wok or skillet and stir very often. This will cook the elements quickly and create a flavorful browning without burning.
- Don't use nonstick skillets on high heat. Use only stainless steel, carbon steel, or cast iron. Using nonstick skillets on high heat will compromise their coating.
- Only marinate your shrimp for 30 minutes to an hour. After this time, the texture will begin to change.
How to Store
Every component of this dish should last for 3-4 days in the fridge: the shrimp, the marinade, the noodles, and the vegetables will all remain safe during this time.
To reheat, I recommend throwing everything back into a wok or large frying pan on high heat with a little bit of oil.
You can freeze leftovers for future meals. You can freeze for two months. The best way to reheat is to place in the fridge overnight to thaw and then heat in the pan as above.
How to Pair
Yaki udon can be served as a standalone meal. Below are some drink ideas to serve with this dish:
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📖 Recipe
Shrimp Yaki Udon
Equipment
- Microplane (optional)
Ingredients
Yaki Udon
- 2 packages fresh udon noodles about 16 ounces
- 1 pound raw shrimp
- 1 tablespoon neutral oil such a vegetable, grapeseed or avocado
- ½ onion sliced, yellow, sweet or red
- 2 carrots peeled, cut on the bias
- 1 zucchini cut on the bias
- 1 small head broccoli chopped into bite-sized pieces
- 8 ounces mushrooms sliced
- 1 jalapeño sliced thin, on the bias
- 2 scallions sliced thick, on the bias
Sauce/Marinade
- ½ cup soy sauce
- ½ cup water
- 1 tablespoon neutral oil such a vegetable, grapeseed or avocado
- 1 tablespoon mirin
- 1 tablespoon sake or dry sherry
- 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar unseasoned
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1-2 inches ginger peeled, minced or grated
- 4 to 8 cloves garlic 8 small or 4 large
Instructions
Marinate
- Finely mince or grate the garlic and ginger on a microplane. Add the remaining marinade ingredients to a bowl and mix with the garlic and ginger.
- Pour half over the shrimp in a non-reactive container or gallon resealable plastic bag. Reserve the other half. Cover or seal and place both in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to an hour.
Prep
- Slice the vegetables and group by their cook times.
- Group 1: Onion.
- Group 2: Carrot, zucchini, broccoli and jalapeño.
- Group 3: Mushrooms and scallions.
Stir-Fry
- Place a wok or large stainless steel pan on high heat until hot.
- Remove the shrimp from the marinade and pat dry. Discard the marinade.
- Cook the shrimp until opaque, about 2 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside.
- Add the onion and stir-fry until slightly softened and golden.
- Add the carrot, zucchini, broccoli and jalapeño. Stir-fry for 1-2 minutes.
- Add the mushrooms and scallions. Stir-fry for 1-2 minutes.
- Add noodles and the remaining sauce and stir-fry for 3 more minutes, add the shrimp back in, stir to coat and serve immediately in bowls or on plates.
Notes
- Feel free to use different vegetables you have on hand in place of or in addition to the vegetables listed here. Try bell peppers, celery, eggplant, cabbage or edamame.
- All components of this dish can be stored for 3-4 days in the fridge.
- You can freeze the leftovers of this dish for 2 months, defrost in the refrigerator overnight and heat in a pan or wok with a bit of oil when ready to eat.
- You can use other proteins in this dish such as beef, chicken or tofu. You can also omit protein entirely.
- If you cannot find fresh udon noodles, you can use dried udon noodles. Cook according to package directions.
- If the ingredients while cooking, feel free to add a tiny bit of oil.
- If you omit the jalapeño and still want a bit of heat, some sriracha or sambal oelek would be an excellent addition.
Wendy says
This recipe was such a fun way to mix up our meal plan. I highly recommend it.
Genevieve says
Thanks Wendy!
Greta says
This was super delicious! And it was so easy to follow with the pictures and instructions! Thanks for sharing it!
Genevieve says
Thanks Greta!
Journa Liz Ramirez says
We enjoyed the night with this flavorful shrimp yaki udon. This dish is savory and healthy, one of our new go-to recipes. Thanks for this wonderful recipe Gen!
Genevieve says
You're welcome! Very happy to hear you enjoyed it.
Heidi says
My daughter absolutely loves shrimp and we were both excited to try this recipe! It was so tasty and we really appreciated the detailed photos and directions to help us make sure we were making it correctly! Thank you so much!
Genevieve says
Thanks so much, Heidi! I'm glad you both enjoyed it.
Jenn says
This recipe is so good, I don't even want to order it from a restaurant any more! I feel like a chef, and it was delish!
Genevieve says
Amazing, thank you so much, Jenn!
Rebekah Kuk says
Who needs takeout when I can make this at home? This turned out great, and I love that I can use this marinade with other meats too.
Genevieve says
Right? Thanks so much, Rebekah!
Glenda says
So many layers of delicious flavor get absorbed by these noodles. The broth is absolutely luscious! And I love how veggie-packed it is. Thanks so much for sharing the recipe!
Genevieve says
Thank you, Glenda! I'm really glad you enjoyed it.
Shelby says
I love how easy this dish whipped up. Plus the sauce/broth on the noodles was so warming!
Genevieve says
So glad you enjoyed it, Shelby!