Yakisoba is stir-fried noodles with Japanese sweet and savory brown sauce. It’s a traditional homemade snack, lunch and street food on festivals. I striped Yakisoba recipe down to its bare essentials, which means you need a bottle of Okonomi sauce. The Okonomi sauce (Otafuku sauce) is not only best for Okonomiyaki but also Yakisoba. You could buy remaining ingredients at your local grocery stores.
We normally use thinly sliced pork belly, but I made it healthier chicken version. Yakisoba is a versatile dish, so feel free to arrange with your favorite vegetable. It goes well with carrots, peppers, spring onions or spinach. But cabbage is must vegetable in Yakisoba. You can also substitute the chicken with prawns, bacon or sliced sausages. I change the ingredients every time what I have on hand.
Yakisoba sauce
According to Japanese resource here, people in the past made Yakisoba adding western Worcestershire sauce and a lot of cabbage to expand of the portion. But the Worcestershire sauce was too thin for the diluted Yakisoba by the moisture of the cabbage. So the sauce companies began experimenting with stronger flavored sauce. However, there is no exactly sauce for Yakisoba. Each company has each arrangement of ingredients for the sauce. Okonomi sauce is also a Worcestershire based sauce. It’s deliciously mild, rich and sweet taste. It contains plenty of vegetables, about 20 kinds of spices and fruits including dates. Other than using for Japanese dish, I recommend to put in sandwiches and also for other vegetable stir-fry. Once opened, it can be saved a half year in the refrigerator in my experience.
Yakisoba Noodles
We normally use thin Chinese noodles for Yakisoba. Those selling in Japan are pre-steamed and coated with oil. However, you don’t need to try to find the Chinese noodles. Because I will share you how to convert spaghetti pasta into Chinese noodles thank for this post. The original recipe recommends baking soda, but I normally don’t have it in my pantry. Then I substitute it with baking powder. Baking powder also worked well enough to play a role of soda. The spaghetti noodles became a completely chewy Chinese noodle in Yakisoba. It’s very useful for other Chinese noodle dishes.
In my experience, the most important tip for making delicious Yakisoba is stir-fry hard until all of the water evaporates at the last step. I added sesame oil to have some crisp texture. Even slightly burnt noodles make this more delicious. I hope you enjoy easy, fragrant and super delicious Yakisoba!
Simple Japanese fried Noodles Yakisoba with Okonomi Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 cup thin-sliced cabagge about 3-4 leaves
- 1/2 onion thin-sliced
- 200 g chicken breast sliced into thin strips
- 5-6 tbsp Okonomi sauce
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
Noodles
- 140 g spagetti pasta
- 8 cup (2 Liters) water
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp baking powder
Instructions
- Pour the water and the salt in a large pot and bring to boil.
- Meanwhile boiling water, pour 1 tbsp of the sesame oil into a large non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the cabbage, the onion and the chicken and stir until tender and the chicken cooked.
- Once the water boiled, turn off the heat and gradually add the baking powder. Keep an eye on the water as the water gets fizz a lot. Turn on the heat again and add the spaghetti pasta, then cook until the package directions say.
- When the pasta are done, drain well with a sieve and add into the pan. Then pour the Okonomi sauce and stir until well combined.
- Lastly add 1 tbsp of the sesame oil and stir until excess water evaporates and the noodles slightly burnt.
- Optionally top with dried green seaweed. If you like spicy one, sprinkle ground white pepper or hot chili powder.
Resource about Okononi sauce is from an official site here.
