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Niku Udon (Japanese Beef Noodle Soup)
![Niku Udon (Japanese Beef Noodle Soup)](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/10/19/dining/19kenjirex-udon1/19kenji3-articleLarge.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
- Total Time
- 30 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 20grams/about 2 (4-inch) squares kombu
- 20grams/about 2 cups loosely packed katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes)
- 1pound thinly shaved beef (see Tips)
- 1small yellow onion, thinly sliced
- 1bunch scallions, white parts cut into 2-inch segments and halved lengthwise, light green parts thinly sliced at a sharp angle
- 1tablespoon granulated sugar
- ¼cup sake
- 2tablespoons soy sauce
- 2tablespoons mirin
- 2tablespoons soy sauce, plus more as needed
- 3tablespoons mirin, plus more as needed
- 1pound fresh or frozen udon noodles
- Shichimi or nanami togarashi, or use your favorite chile powder (optional)
For the Dashi (see Tips)
For the Beef
For Serving
Preparation
- Step 1
Make the dashi: Combine 2 quarts cold water and the kombu in a medium saucepan, and place over medium heat. As soon as the water boils, remove from heat and add the katsuobushi, pushing it gently into the water to submerge (don’t stir vigorously). Steep for 5 to 10 minutes. Strain and discard the kombu and katsuobushi (or reserve to make another batch of weaker dashi) and return the dashi to the saucepan. Keep warm, but don’t let it boil.
- Step 2
Cook the beef: Combine the shaved beef, onion, scallion whites, sugar, sake, soy sauce, mirin and 1 cup of the finished dashi in a large skillet or sauté pan. Bring to a simmer over high heat, stirring. Continue cooking over high heat, stirring frequently, until the beef and onions are tender and the mixture is still moist but not soupy, 10 to 15 minutes.
- Step 3
As beef cooks, bring a pot of unsalted water to a boil — udon noodles are typically made with plenty of salt in the dough — and cook the udon noodles according to package directions.
- Step 4
To serve, add the soy sauce and mirin to the reserved dashi and stir. Taste and adjust seasoning to taste with more soy sauce or mirin. (The broth should have a balanced savory-sweet flavor.)
- Step 5
Divide the cooked noodles across 4 large serving bowls. Ladle the broth on top of the noodles. Divide the beef and onion mixture evenly across the noodles, including any liquid in the pan. Top each bowl with sliced scallion greens. (You may have extra.) Serve immediately with shichimi togarashi to taste.
- You can use instant dashi powder, such as Hondashi, in place of homemade dashi. Katsuobushi, kombu and shichimi togarashi can be found at any Japanese supermarket or many well-stocked Western supermarkets, or ordered online. You can find thinly shaved beef intended for shabu-shabu, sukiyaki or other hot pots at most Asian supermarkets. Alternatively, if you have a source for high-quality shaved beef for cheesesteaks, you can use that. If you can’t find shaved beef, you can use regular ground beef (any fat percentage will do) to achieve different but delicious results.
- If you prefer, you can turn this recipe into gyudon (Japanese beef and rice bowls): Omit the noodles and broth (making only enough dashi to cook the beef) and serve the cooked beef mixture on top of bowls of steamed white rice. Garnish with beni shoga (pickled red ginger) and a poached or fried egg.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Namiko Chen's "Just One Cookbook" (which I access online) has several similar recipes, one of which I make frequently, "Simmered Beef with Ginger". She includes a YouTube tutorial for how to slice meat thin. Put a nicely marbled rib eye or chuck in the freezer for approximately 90 minutes to 2 hours. Remove and slice across the grain as thin as you want. It's that easy and makes these simmered meat dishes much more accessible.
WOW! Made this tonight pretty much to a T and it was wonderful. I only use low-sodium soy sauce so it could have benefited from a bit of extra salt, but that’s an easy adjustment for next time. For those near a Wegmans, they have very nice thin sliced shabu shabu style ribeye - it’s pricey (!) but worked beautifully in this. Used packages of Fortune pre-cooked udon noodles from the regular grocery store shelf (discarded the accompanying flavor packets).
Shichimi and nanami togarashi are two versions of, basically, the same thing. They are formulated slightly differently because a few ingredients like hemp seeds Were prohibited in some jurisdictions. Rather than buying the small bottles I buy the large bags of S&B brand from AMAZON which is much cheaper per ounce. If one is to only use it infrequently the small bottles are ok and like any spice may be fresher when used.
Why would you replace the kombu for a vegetarian dashi? Kombu is kelp and is a sea vegetable. I use dried shiitake steeped in water to make a strong broth concentrate and combine with the kombu. After adding the mirin and soy sauce in the recipe I don't think there will be a big flavor difference between it and awase dashi (I also use a little sake). My vegetarian friends in Japan make vegetarian dashi this way a lot!
Fresh udon are scarce here, but fresh Italian pasta is not - subbed in bucatini and used what my butcher calls "Philly meat". Delicious and simple. Thank you, Kenji.
I read this recipe yesterday and started craving it immediately. Luckily we live near an H Mart, so I was able to get all the ingredients and make it tonight. I made it per the recipe and it came out great. My whole family (including 2 teenage sons) loved it.
It's part of the liquid you boil the beef & onions in. See step 2.
Twice. Once to the meat and onions and again to the dashi / broth
I made this for dinner tonight. It's absolutely easy and super delicious. This is going in our regular rotation. I used some leftover tri-tip (nice and fatty) that I sliced super thin on my meat slicer (thanks, wedding gift that seemed a little silly at the time!) Next time we'll use another piece of it that we have in the freezer. I feel like you could also thinly slice up some bok choy or something like that and put it in right at the end if you want a hit of vegetables other than onions.
Simply delicious! Had to add more soy sauce and mirin to the dashi. And I tossed some baby bok choy in with the beef for crunch. Will definitely make this again!
So, so delicious. Used ginger as others had suggested, but other than that, exactly as the recipe said. The first time this year my husband is taking leftovers to the office for lunch… that says it all.
I was worried about simmering the meat for so long, but it turned out tender and delicious. I served with fresh, grated ginger and a little Boon sauce (chili oil). Thank you Kenji, this was awesome!
So, for a mostly vegetarian who does not like sea weed (among other leafy vegs) use a flavor sub, courtesy of a web search: dried mushrooms, dashi powder, bonito flakes (hate fish, use a sub, dried shiitake mushrooms, I have plenty ) and use any of the new alt meat crumbles instead of beef. I'll use Chinese cooking wine instead of mirin and instead of sake? I don't have it or any colorless hard liquor... hmm, white wine? I have a lot of them...the rest of the ingredients are simple :)
The beef gets tough when simmered for 10-15 minutes and it doesn't take on much flavor. So ultimately not that good.
I read this and had to make it! Ordered Dashi "teabags" and Udon noodles. Bought "Philadelphia" shaved beef and scallions. Forgot about the sake and mirin! But we had dry vermouth for the sake and I used apple cider vinegar for the mirin. This was so delicious! And the heat lovers in my family added chili paste to theirs. Comforting, yummy recipe!
Thank God for H Mart. Half the ingredients came from there.
So tasty, after trial and error I now add somewhat less mirin to the final base. Prefer it a little more savory, little less sweet. But great either way! Also, I always prefer thick fresh Udon if you have access. The dried stuff never 'feels' quite like real Udon to me, although I'm sure technically it is.
This came out great. I was cooking for a family member who is wheat-free, so I used soaked and softened pad thai noodles which worked well. I used #1.5 of beef for the four of us and I also added a little sliced bok choy near the end of the simmer. Put both chili crunch and tamari on the table for people to use as they liked. Delish!
Shave beef at supermarket works better than anything you try and cut.
For broth: Used 5 cups water with 5 tsp hondashi granules. Threw in a hunk of mataki mushrooms, two green onions and brought to a boil. Added in 3 tbs soy sauce, 2 tbs mirin & 2tsp sugar. Brought to a simmer with mushrooms.
I have made this 3 times, trying to get it "right". Done trying. 1: Takes 3 pots to make & results in no leftovers. 2: If using fresh udon, knock off the extra flour and use A LOT of water or the cooking water turns into a starchy mess. It does not reheat well; don't cook more udon than will be eaten at that meal. Frozen was more forgiving. 3: Ribeye varies. Be careful to select beef with little connective tissue or the meat will be stringy and inedible, no matter how thin. YMMV.
made with hondashi and hot pot meat. yum
I did not care for the broth. I found it too fishy but my husband thought it was fine. I might try the vegetarian version, or half and half, if I make it again.
I add a ton of thinly sliced mushrooms to the beef. So good!
This was amazing! I only had dried flat udon noodles. It was still very good but if anyone has a recommendation for an online source for fat chewy udon noodles please let me know Or I may need to make a pilgrimage to H-Mart.
I've made this twice added bok choy for a bit of veg. The udon soup was delicious. I used the dashi sachets that were recommended as a substitute in the original article.
Made this for dinner since I’ve been craving nikutama for a few weeks now. If you live close to a World Market they sell Dashi powder in their food section. Added a poached egg to mimic how it is served in restaurants and it was great
Wow! This was my first attempt at a Japanese noodle dish and I have to say I was really happy with the way it turned out. I didn’t have sake so I subbed with Chardonnay but will use sake next time. The udon noodles I had were not very salty so I amped it up a bit with some extra soy. Our local Costco carries thinly sliced beef for shabu shabu which were perfect for this dish.
Subbed Shaoxing wine for the Sake and it turned out great.
I loved it but E wouldn’t even eat it.
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