Udon Stir Fry Recipe

Udon Stir Fry: This simple dish is loaded with flavor and packed with delicious ingredients. Thick, chewy udon noodles, ground meat, and loads of veggies are all tossed in an addictive stir fry sauce! Dinner ready in 30 minutes or less and picky eater approved!

Our Favorite Udon Stir Fry

If you ask my kids what their favorite thing I make them, they’ll tell you my “veggie and meat noodles.” Aka this Stir Fry Udon recipe. It’s their absolute favorite — they’ll literally lick their bowls clean and fight over leftovers.

It’s a bit of a random dish (not even close to an authentic Yaki Udon recipe!), but no complaints here that they love it — I feel great about “sneaking” in loads of veggies and a good amount of protein. Plus, it’s easy to make and can be on the table in 20-30 minutes. Easy Udon Stir Fry = weeknight dinner win!

What Is an Udon dish?

If you aren’t familiar, udon noodles are chewy Japanese noodles made from wheat flour, water, and salt. These noodles are fairly thick and usually rounded, but they can also be flat. Udon noodles are typically served in a dashi-based broth, but we’re using them in a simple, kid-friendly, stir-fry recipe instead! My kids are obsessed with these noodles!

Udon comes a few different ways — in refrigerated packets (fresh), shelf-stable packets, dried, and even frozen. The preparation can vary depending on the type of noodles you purchase, so reference the back of the package for specific directions to prepare them if dried or frozen.

How To Cook Udon Noodles For Stir Fry

For shelf-stable packets (specifically the Ka-Me brand of udon noodles), the best and quickest way we’ve found to prepare them is by soaking them in boiling water for 1 minute, draining, tossing in oil, and then pan frying them with the stir fry sauce. 

How To Make Stir Fry Udon

This Udon Stir Fry comes together so quickly, with minimal ingredient prep time and very little chopping (or none with some store-bought shortcuts!). Here are our top tips for making this recipe come together in a hurry:

• Get frozen veggies that don’t require any prep time. We love shelled edamame, peas & carrots, and corn — all cook super fast and require no prep beforehand. If you’re using other frozen veggies (like frozen broccoli for example), you may need to chop them down a bit before adding them to the stir fry. This will obviously increase prep time.
• Use store-bought shortcuts. Don’t want to do any chopping? Use already chopped green onions from the produce section of your store along with refrigerated garlic paste and refrigerated minced garlic. OR try Dorot’s® garlic and ginger cubes. They have crushed garlic and crushed ginger that you can keep handy in the freezer and pop into these (and other) recipes when needed. (Check if your local store carries them; they’re typically found with frozen veggies in the grocery store.) 
• Make the stir fry sauce ahead of time. Not a shortcut per se, but if you make the sauce ahead of time and have it in the fridge ready to go, come dinnertime, this Udon Stir Fry comes together that much quicker!

What Is Udon Sauce Made Of?

The stir fry sauce is fairly simple, but each ingredient is integral to ending flavor. Here’s a quick overview:  

1. Corn starch: This helps thicken the sauce. Here is a list of substitutes if needed.
2. Soy sauce: Use reduced or low-sodium (lite) soy sauce so this dish isn’t too salty. After all, you can always add some salt at the end, but you can’t take it away.
3. Sesame oil: For a great authentic flavor, sesame oil really delivers! (This oil is typically found with the Asian ingredients area, rather than with the other oils in the grocery store.) We love the flavor of toasted sesame oil best! 
4. Oyster sauce: This ingredient gives this dish a restaurant-quality feel and adds the perfect umami flavor. Typically found with Asian ingredients as well.
5. Mirin: This is a type of rice wine that is a very common ingredient in stir-fry sauces. It has a high sugar content and is quite sweet. Mirin is typically found in the oil and vinegar aisle or in the condiment aisle. It’s usually near soy sauce, rice vinegar, hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, etc. You can use rice wine vinegar (also called rice vinegar) in a pinch, but you may need a touch more sugar.

What Do You Eat With Udon?

The great thing about this Udon Stir Fry is that it’s really got it all in one pan — veggies, protein, and carbs (noodles). That said, here are some great sides to pair with this recipe:

• Make Udon Stir Fry with Eggs: Add an egg on top — soft boiled, fried, over easy, over medium, etc (however you like it).
• Add a crunchy side: Try this Asian Cucumber Salad for a fresh-tasting and crunchy contrast.
• More veggies: These Roasted Green Beans would make a nice side dish.

More Easy Veggie-Packed Recipes

• Turkey Sloppy Joes with mushrooms, onion, and peppers
• One-Pot Spaghetti with onion, carrot, and celery
• White Bean Soup with fresh basil pesto
• Chow Mein with cabbage and bell peppers
• Vegetable Noodle Soup with corn, peas, and carrots

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5 from 7 votes

Easy Udon Stir Fry

By Chelsea Lords

This easy Udon Stir Fry is full of flavor and packed with thick udon noodles, ground meat, and veggies, all tossed in an irresistible sauce. Ready in 30 minutes and picky eater approved!

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes minutes

Servings: 2 servings

Equipment

• Large pot
• Large pan or wok

Ingredients 

USMetric

 

1x2x3x

Sauce

• ▢ 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• ▢ 3 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
• ▢ 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• ▢ 1 tablespoon mirin
• ▢ 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

Meat and Noodles

• ▢ 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
• ▢ 1/2 pound lean ground turkey 93/7, or ground beef/pork
• ▢ 1 bunch green onions
• ▢ 2 teaspoons ginger
• ▢ 2 teaspoons garlic
• ▢ 2-1/2 cups frozen veggies see note 1
• ▢ 2 (7.1-ounce) packets udon noodles see note 2

Instructions 

• Whisk together cornstarch and soy sauce with a fork in a small bowl. Once smooth, add remaining sauce ingredients. Whisk and set aside. Bring a large pot of water to a boil (don’t salt the water).
• Heat sesame oil in a large pan or wok over high heat. Once oil is hot, add ground turkey. Let turkey sear (brown) for a minute before crumbling with a wooden spoon and browning all the way through. Meanwhile, thinly slice the entire bunch of green onions and mince garlic and ginger.
• Add garlic, ginger, and 1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions (set aside the rest for later, 28g) to turkey. Sauté 1 minute. Add frozen veggies. Sauté until veggies are tender and thawed through, 2–4 minutes.
• Water should be boiling at this point. Remove pot from heat and add in the packets of udon. Let sit in boiling water for exactly 1 minute. Drain and shake off excess water. Don’t rinse in water, but use tongs to toss with a swish (1 tablespoon) of vegetable oil to keep noodles from sticking.
• Add udon noodles and sauce (give it another quick stir first) to the pan with meat and veggies. Let stand for a minute or two to caramelize noodles a little; then toss with tongs until sauce thickens and nicely coats everything. Remove from heat.
• Add a sprinkle of sesame seeds and lots of cracked pepper (if desired). Top with set aside green onions and enjoy immediately!

Video

Recipe Notes

Note 1: For the frozen veggies, I use a mix of 1 cup (150g) frozen shelled edamame, 1 cup (150g) frozen peas and carrots, and 1/2 cup (70g) frozen corn. Use your favorite frozen veggies that will cook through in a quick amount of time or cut them down first. (Frozen broccoli will need to be chopped a bit first.)

Note 2: Udon comes in a few different forms—refrigerated packets (fresh), shelf-stable packets, dried, and even frozen. The preparation can vary depending on the type of noodles you purchase, so reference the back of the package for specific directions to prepare them if dried/frozen. Udon noodles can be tricky to find—use a grocery locator app to see if your store carries them. Our local grocery store doesn’t carry them, so we order udon noodles online. (These packets get you about 14 ounces of noodles, so use around 14–16 oz. for this recipe). If the noodles come with a seasoning packet, discard it or save it for a different recipe. (Don’t add to this one.)

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 595kcal | Carbohydrates: 91.9g | Protein: 27.9g | Fat: 12.1g | Cholesterol: 42mg | Sodium: 1100.2mg | Fiber: 7.4g | Sugar: 7.4g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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