Yakisoba: Try Making This Japanese Stir-Fried Noodle At Home

Yakisoba is one of the popular street foods in Japan. The name "yaki soba" means fried buckwheat noodles, but it is not a hard line that you ought to follow. In Japan, the word 'soba' is used to describe noodles of any type. Yakisoba outlets are found everywhere in Japan, where a large quantity of noodles is cooked on industrial-sized iron griddles. The noodles are served hot, right out of the griddle and onto portion sized boxes or plates. The noodles are cooked with a selection of vegetables and protein, popularly thin slices of pork belly, but one can also use boneless chicken strips, lean beef cuts, shrimp, calamari or squid. If you're a vegetarian, you can swap out the animal protein for tofu or mushrooms. 

Yakisoba sets itself apart from other Asian stir-fried noodles by virtue of the Yakisoba sauce, which comes pre-packaged in Japan and elsewhere, and gives the noodle dish a distinct sweet and spicy taste profile. But fret not, we have a recipe for you which comes equipped with a homemade Yakisoba sauce preparation, so why wait? Bring out your pan and let's make this Japanese crowd favourite, the Yakisoba.

-250 gms soba or buckwheat noodles, parboiled

-200 gms boneless chicken breast, cut into strips

-1 tbsp peanut oil

-½ cup cabbage, chopped

-1 yellow capsicum, chopped

-1 red capsicum, chopped

-1 carrot, cut into strips

-1 red onion, sliced

-5-6 button mushrooms, sliced

-2 green onions leaves, chopped

-2 tsp salt, or as required

Preparing Yakisoba Sauce:

-2 tbsp brown sugar

-2 tbsp tomato ketchup

-2 tbsp soy sauce

-2 tbsp worcestershire sauce

-2 tbsp oyster sauce

-2 tbsp red chilli sauce

Method:

1. In a wok or a kadhai, add the peanut oil and put it on high flame.
2. Once the oil is heated up, add in the strips of chicken.
3. Add 1 tsp of salt to the chicken.
4. Once the chicken turns grey all around, add in the vegetables and stir it continuously in the pan.
5. After the vegetables are partially done, add in the 1 tsp of salt so that the vegetables release their moisture quicker. This is optional, since the sauces contain a lot of salt in them as well, so if want to adjust the salt later, you certainly can do so.
6. Once the chicken and the vegetables look well done, add in the components of the yakisoba sauce. Mix them beforehand in a bowl and drop it in the kadhai.
7. Stir the vegetables and the chicken around with the sauce mixture and once everything’s incorporated, add in the parboiled noodles. The buckwheat noodles tend to be chewy so, parboiling them beforehand reduces the cooking time while preparing the yakisoba.
8. Once the noodles have soaked up the sauces and everything is nicely mixed, add in the chopped green onion leaves and mix it around in the pan for a couple of minutes.

And there you have it! This very quick and easy stir-fried noodle from Japan is ready. Now the only thing left to do is to transfer it from the kadhai onto a bowl and serving it hot! Share it with your friends and family and prepare to blow their minds away with this amazing noodle dish.