Yakisoba is a delicious Japanese inspired dish made with noodles, vegetables, and meat. This recipe uses healthy lean chicken, cabbage and shiitake mushrooms. Finally, an amazing sweet and savoury sauce finishes off this noodle dish.
Yakisoba Recipe
Yakisoba is probably my favorite Japanese noodle dishes and it’s one I order pretty much ever single time I go to a Japanese restaurant. However, it’s a really simple dish to make with just a few veggies, your favorite protein and an incredibly delicious and easy sauce that requires only 5 ingredients to make. So forget take out because now you can make this popular dish right in the comfort of your home.
Cabbage and mushrooms are a staple in this dish, but the great thing is that you can add whatever protein you like. Chicken, beef, pork, pork belly, seafood, whatever you like. Not only is Yakisoba easy to make, but it’s quite a versatile dish because you can add pretty much any ingredients you like to make it your own. While you can buy and use store-bought yakisoba sauce, I am going to show you how to make it with just a handful of ingredients.
Ingredient Notes
- Worcestershire Sauce – This is really the main ingredients in Yakisoba so I’ll say it’s a must for this sauce, however, if you really want to replace it with something else, replace it with soy sauce.
- Oyster Sauce – This will add an earthy, slightly sweet and a bit salty taste to our sauce.
- Ketchup – This adds a bit of sweet and tangy flavor to the sauce.
- Soy Sauce – I use low sodium soy sauce to control the amount of salt.
- Brown Sugar – Adds a bit of sweetness to our sauce to balance out the flavors.
- Yakisoba noodles – I used pre-cooked yakisoba stir fry noodles. These noodles are sold in most grocery stores in the fridge section, they can be replaced with ramen noodles.
- Oil – I used peanut oil which has a neutral flavor, and is well suited for high heat cooking.
- Chicken – I used chicken breast, sliced thinly. You can also use skinless, boneless, chicken thighs, or substitute the chicken for sliced beef, pork, pork belly or seafood such as shrimp or calamari.
- Onions – I used both a white onion for lots of flavor and some green onions for flavor and color.
- Carrot – Cut into thin strips, or also called matchstick or julienne cut.
- Cabbage – I cut them in about 1″ squares.
- Mushrooms – I used shiitake mushrooms but white mushrooms or cremini mushrooms will work as well.
How To Make Yakisoba
- Make the sauce: In a bowl combine all the Yakisoba sauce ingredients together. Set aside.
- Prep the noodles: Remove the noodles from their package, and place in a colander. Rinse well and drain. While rinsing you will have to separate the noodles with your hands.
- Stir fry the chicken and veggies: In a large wok or skillet, heat the peanut oil over medium-high heat. Add the chicken pieces and cook until no longer pink. Add the sliced onion and carrots and cook for another 2 minutes until the onion softens. Add the mushrooms, cabbage and green onions. Toss everything together and cook for another minute.
- Finish the dish: Add the Yakisoba noodles to the wok then pour the sauce over everything. Toss everything together using tongs. Cook for another 2 minutes until the noodles heat through.
- Serve: Serve immediately with sriracha sauce if preferred.
FAQ’s and Tips
FAQ’s
Yakisoba is a japanese stir fry dish with vegetables and meat. Yakisoba means “fried noodle”.
Yakisoba noodles are made of wheat flour, kansui, and water. Even though the color of noodles is yellowish, they are not egg noodles.
Ramen noodles are the most similar to yakisoba noodles and are a great substitute. If you can find fresh ramen, use that, or even fresh chow mein; otherwise instant/dried ramen noodles are super easy to find at your local grocery store.
Yakisoba Sauce is mostly used for seasoning yakisoba, the classic Japanese fried noodles. Sweet and savory, this versatile sauce can also be used in any of your stir fry recipes.
Tips For Making Yakisoba
- Substitute the chicken with beef, pork, pork belly, or seafood such as calamari or shrimp.
- We used pre-cooked yakisoba noodles but you can use fresh or dry noodles, or ramen as well.
- Use a big wok or a griddle to cook everything. Typically a nice char on the veggies is what you’re going for, because this will add great flavors.
- Make sure to rinse and loosen up the noodles first before adding to your stir fry, otherwise they will break while cooking.
Leftovers
Stored in an airtight container, yakisoba will last in the fridge for 1-2 days.
Freezer
Pre-cooked yakisoba noodles can be frozen for 1-2 months in an airtight container or freezer bag.
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Yakisoba
Ingredients
Yakisoba Sauce
- 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce low sodium
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar packed
Yakisoba
- 1 pound yakisoba noodles rinsed and drained
- 1 tablespoon peanut oil
- 1 pound chicken breast boneless skinless, cut into small thin strips
- 1 small onion sliced
- 1 medium carrot cut into thin strips
- 4 shiitake mushrooms sliced
- ½ small cabbage cut into bite size pieces
- 2 green onions cut into 1 inch strips
Instructions
- Make the sauce: In a bowl combine all the Yakisoba sauce ingredients together. Set aside.
- Prep the noodles: Remove the noodles from their package, and place in a colander. Rinse well and drain. While rinsing you will have to separate the noodles with your hands.
- Stir fry the chicken and veggies: In a large wok or skillet, heat the peanut oil over medium-high heat. Add the chicken pieces and cook until no longer pink. Add the sliced onion and carrots and cook for another 2 minutes until the onion softens. Add the mushrooms, cabbage and green onions. Toss everything together and cook for another minute.
- Finish the dish: Add the Yakisoba noodles to the wok then pour the sauce over everything. Toss everything together using tongs. Cook for another 2 minutes until the noodles heat through.
- Serve: Serve immediately with sriracha sauce if preferred.
Video
Recipe Notes
- Substitute the chicken with beef, pork, pork belly, or seafood such as calamari or shrimp.
- We used pre-cooked yakisoba noodles but you can use fresh or dry noodles, or ramen as well.
- Use a big wok or a griddle to cook everything. Typically a nice char on the veggies is what you’re going for, because this will add great flavors.
- Make sure to rinse and loosen up the noodles first before adding to your stir fry, otherwise they will break while cooking.
- Stored in an airtight container, yakisoba will last in the fridge for 1-2 days.
This recipe was so so so good! Everyone in my family really enjoyed it and it was so easy. Thank you Jo!
My pleasure, so glad you liked it!
Is there a substitute for the peanut sauce if one is nor able to have peanuts?
Do you mean the peanut oil? You can sub it with another vegetable oil.
This was delicious! Follow the sauce directions exactly and you won’t be sorry. I used smoked sausage instead of chicken (it’s what I had) and I used regular mushrooms (didn’t have shiitake on hand), used all white onion and shaved the carrots with green cabbage. I also used fettuccine noodles (again, what I had in the pantry). The flavor in the sauce is what makes it. It knocked my socks off! Thanks for this great recipe.
So glad you liked it! 🙂
I have a husband and 2 boys of 9 and 10. Everyone ate this! Practically unheard of for all 3 to like something! Made double the sauce (they all like sauce and lots of it) but cut the noodles by 1/3 (COVID 19 tummies to lose for hubby and I.) Total hit in this house!
So glad you all enjoyed it so much!
Very good and will make it again. I made it as written, but the chicken gave off liquid early. Next time, I would cook the chicken, take it out of the wok and complete the steps adding the chicken at the end. Yum!
Soba is yellow noodles and udon is white noodles. you can make both with your recipe, hence it is either yaki soba (fried yellow noodles) or yaki udon (fried white noodles)
That’s such great info, thanks for sharing!
This recipe was very easy and tasted delicious!
Who knew it was so easy to to this recipe?! Friday night fakeaway here i come!
Agreed, Leah! It’s so easy and so delicious! We’re glad you enjoyed it!
When using the dried ramen packets, do I need to cook the ramen noodles first, or can I add the dry noodles?
Hi Kat,
Yes, you need the noodles cooked before adding them to the recipe. Let us know how it turns out!