Nabeyaki Udon

Nabeyaki Udon, a perfect as winter comfort food.

 To have a bowl of hot nabeyaki udon in winter is so comforting.

What is Nabeyaki Udon?

Nabe is a Japanese word that refers to hot pot.
Perhaps you may have heard the word 'donabe', which refers to claypot.



Nabeyaki udon is usually cooked and serve in clay pot.
Since I do not own Japanese clay pot (only chinese clay pot), I opt to cook my nabeyaki udon in cast iron pot.
Cast iron pot can retain heat better than my other everyday use pots.

Nabeyaki udon is basically noodles, vegetable and meat cooked in dashi or seaweed stock.
You can add tempura prawns or crack an egg into the boiling hot soup.

How to cook Nabeyaki udon?

Complete printable recipe of nabeyaki uodn, can be found at the end of this post.
However, I will explain with the photos below.

Step 1: Prepare chicken

Marinate 500g chicken thigh with soy sauce and mirin.

You can use store bought mirin or make your own.
Do note that store-bought mirin may have some sake added.
So I strongly suggest to read the label before purchasing.

How to make home made mirin?

Mix 2 tablespoon corn syrup with 2 teaspoon rice vinegar.
Adjust to your liking the sweetness and sourness.

Marinade the chicken for at least 4 hours.
Preferably and time permits, marinade the chicken overnight, will yield much better taste.

Step 2: Make Dashi

Dashi is Japanese stock made out of kombu (dried seaweed) and bonito flakes.
Dashi is the base in most Japanese food, that gives you the umami without msg!

Wash and soak dried seaweed. 

It is also known as kombu.

Making dashi is easy, cook kombu on low heat and bring to just about to boil.
Note: do not let the water comes to a rapid boil.
This will affect the flavour of the soup.

Remove kombu from pot.

Add bonito flakes and bring to boil for 5 minutes

Strain the stock and discard bonito flakes.

Step 3: Cook the chicken

Chicken or meat is normally cooked in dashi stock, together with the vegetables, in a claypot.

I am looking for a clean broth without any scums from the chicken.
I find this way is the best to have clear broth for my nabeyaki udon!

In another pot, add marinated chicken.

Add about a cup of dashi that we prepared earlier.

Remove scums as much as you can.

Dish out the chicken into a bowl and cover with plastic cling wrap.
Note: chicken will dry out if not cover immediately.

Step 4 : Vegetables for Nabeyaki udon

Soak shiitake mushrooms.

Some spring onion.
I use the white part of the spring onion. You can opt for leek.
Both will impart sweetness taste to the soup base.

Carrot to be sliced and added to the soup base.

Adding yuzu peel ia a must if you can find some!
Yuzu peel gives the soup a subtle hint of citrus and the aroma of yuzu peel is amazing!

Step 5: Preparing Nabeyaki Udon soup.

Put shiitake mushrooms, sliced carrots, spring onion and yuzu peel in a pot of dashi stock.

Add soy sauce.

Strain reserved chicken stock into the pot.

Add salt to taste.

What goes with nabeyaki udon?

I love to add enoki mushroom to my bowl of nabeyaki udon.
Note: do not cook enoki in the soup!
Pour hot soup over enoki and enjoy its sweetness.

Some slices of narutomaki or Japanese fish cakes.
I did a quick cook or dip narutomaki into the nabeyaki soup.

What I find is that, if I were to cook narutomaki together with the rest of the vegetables, it will affect its texture and taste.

You can add some baby bok choy too.

Nabeyaki Udon is best served immediately, while it is piping hot!

Other winter warmer soupy noodles on the blog

Pho Bo (Vietnamese beef noodle soup)
Laksa (Rice noodle in fish soup)
Glass noodles in oxtail stew
Noodles in creamy pumpkin soup

Video on'How to cook Nabeyaki Udon'

Nabeyaki Udon Recipe

Yield: 6 ¼x ½x 1x 2x 3x 4x 5x 6x 7x 8x 9x 10x

Author: Lisa Ho

Prep time: 30 MinCook time: 40 MinTotal time: 1 H & 10 M

Nabeyaki Udon is a hot Japanese noodle soup, perfect as winter comfort food.

Cook modePrevent screen from turning off

Ingredients

Chicken for nabeyaki udon

• 500g chicken thigh
• 3 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoon mirin (see Note 1 for my note below for homemade mirin).

Dashi

• 1 packet kombu
• 1 1/2 packet (15g) bonito flakes
• 6 cups of water

Nabeyaki udon broth

• 5 to 10 dried shiitake mushrooms
• 1 carrot
• 2 spring onion (the white part)
• Narutomaki (Japanese fish cakes)
• yuzu peel
• 2 tablespoon soy sauce
• a packet of enoki mushroom
• Bok choy (extra)
• 2 packets of dried udon (540g dried weight)

Instructions

How to cook chicken thigh

1. Cut chicken into bite size
2. Add soy sauce and homemade mirin
3. Mix well and keep refrigerated for at least 4 hours (overnight will yield better taste)
4. Add chicken to a pot
5. Add 1 cup of dashi (recipe below) into the pot.
6. Remove scum
7. Bring to boil until chicken pieces are cooked through.
8. Dish out chicken into a bowl.
9. Reserve the stock to be used later.

How to make dashi

1. Wash and soak kombu for at least 10 minutes
2. Bring 6 cups of water to boil.
3. Add kombu.
4. Bring the mixture to just boil.
5. Remove kombu from the pot.
6. Add bonito flakes and bring to boil for 5 minutes.
7. Strain the stock (dashi)

How to cook Nabeyaki Udon

1. Bring dashi (above) to boil
2. Add mushrooms, carrot slices, spring onion and yuzu peel
3. Bring to boil
4. Add soy sauce and salt (to taste)
5. Add chicken stock
6. Cook japanese fish cake in the hot soup, then dish it out (for later use)
7. Add salt (if required)
8. Cook dried udon as per instruction on the packet.
9. Steam baby bok choy

How to serve nabeyaki udon

1. Divide noodles within 6 bowls
2. Add enoki mushroom, mushrooms, sliced carrots, baby bok choy, japanese fish cakes and chicken pieces.
3. Ladle the hot soup into each bowls
4. Sprinkle some tagorashi
5. Serve immediately.

Notes

Note 1 - Homemade mirin

Mix 2 tablespoon corn syrup with 2 teaspoon rice vinegar.

Nutrition Facts

Calories

211.14

Fat (grams)

13.91 g

Sat. Fat (grams)

3.73 g

Carbs (grams)

5.84 g

Fiber (grams)

0.67 g

Net carbs

5.17

Sugar (grams)

2.21 g

Protein (grams)

15.63 g

Sodium (milligrams)

970.25 mg

Cholesterol (grams)

81.84 g

https://www.mykeuken.com/2009/06/souperlicious-udon.html

Lisa's Lemony Kitchen

鍋焼きうどん, nabeyaki udon, nabeyaki udon recipe, how to make nabeyaki udon, what is in nabeyaki udon, what is nabeyaki udon, nabeyaki udon noodles, udon soup, nabeyaki udon soup, chicken nabeyaki udon,

dinner

Japanese

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @lisas_lemonykitchen on instagram and hashtag it #nabeyaki_udon

Created using The Recipes Generator

Posted on 17th June 2009

I love Nabeyaki Udon!
I had my first 'bite' in the Japanese Restaurant on the ground floor of Faber Tower about 15 years ago. Thought that I'll never get to taste this 'refreshing soup' ever in Perth.
Lucky me! I found the bonito (Japanese fish stock), the very essential magical powder to a good Nabeyaki Udon.
Mix the bonito with the required amount of water. Boil. Add chicken, mushroom and carrots. Once boil...let it simmer until carrot is tender. Add leek and turn off the heat. Season with light soya or salt.