Sauce Yakisoba
Cuisine: Japanese
Region: 日本各地
Servings: 2人分
Sauce Yakisoba is a home-style staple dish. Ingredients and step-by-step instructions are below, with notes for home cooking.
Ingredients
- Steamed yakisoba noodles 2 packs (300 g)
- Thinly sliced pork belly 120 g
- Cabbage 2 leaves (120 g)
- Onion 1/4 (50 g)
- Carrot 1/4 (40 g)
- Bean sprouts 1/2 bag (100 g)
- Neutral oil 1½ Tbsp
- Sake (or water) 2 Tbsp
- Salt and black pepper a pinch each
- [Sauce] Worcestershire sauce 2 Tbsp
- [Sauce] Japanese medium-thick sauce (chuuno) 2 Tbsp
- [Sauce] Oyster sauce 1 tsp
- Aonori (green nori flakes) as needed
- Beni shoga (red pickled ginger) as needed
- Katsuobushi (bonito flakes) optional
Steps
- Cut the pork into 4 cm strips. Trim the cabbage core into thin wedges and cut the leaves into 3 cm squares. Slice the onion 5 mm thick; cut the carrot into short batons. Mix the sauce ingredients in a small bowl.
- Snip a corner of the noodle pack and microwave (600 W) for 1 minute, then loosen gently by hand so the strands don't break when stir-fried.
- Heat ½ Tbsp oil in a frying pan over medium heat, spread the noodles, and leave undisturbed about 2 minutes. When browned, flip and cook 1 minute more, then remove.
- Add the remaining oil to the same pan and spread the pork. When it releases fat and changes color, season lightly with salt and pepper, then add carrot, onion, and cabbage core in that order, stir-frying.
- Add the cabbage leaves and bean sprouts, toss briefly, and return the noodles. Splash in the sake and toss while loosening the noodles.
- Pour in the sauce and stir-fry about 1 minute over medium-high heat until coated. When the sauce lightly chars and smells toasty, it's done.
- Plate, sprinkle with aonori and katsuobushi, and add beni shoga.
Rate this recipe
Notes
Pre-searing the noodles browns the surface so they stay fragrant and don't turn watery when sauced.
Pour the sauce down the side of the pan so it scorches for a second and blooms aroma—like a street stall.
Topping with a fried egg or a thin zigzag of mayonnaise is popular too.
Seafood mix, squid, or chikuwa from the fridge make easy variations.
Origin and history
Sauce yakisoba stir-fries steamed Chinese-style wheat noodles with meat and cabbage, seasoned with Worcestershire-style sauce. Despite the name "soba," it uses wheat noodles, not buckwheat—a Japanese take on Chinese chow mein adapted to a sauce flavor.
Worcestershire sauce became common in Japan from the Meiji through Taisho eras. From before the war through the postwar years, yakisoba spread at candy shops, okonomiyaki shops, and festival stalls as cheap, filling street food.
Today it is a home-lunch staple and a must at festival booths. Regional styles—Fujinomiya yakisoba in Shizuoka, Yokote in Akita, Ota in Gunma—vary in noodle, toppings, and sauce and are widely loved.