Easy 30 min beef yakisoba recipe: make your own stir-fried noodle dish

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Yakisoba is such an easy dish to make, and the GREAT THING IS, you can make it just as easily for 1 person as you can make it in larger batches for your family.

It’s one of those one-pan wok recipes that’s ready in 30 minutes, you just need one other pan to cook the noodles in, THAT’S IT!

Let’s start off with my favorite Yakisoba recipe OF ALL TIME and I’ll tell you all about yakisoba and some of the best cooking tips as we go along.

Easy beef yakisoba recipe

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How to make delicious yakisoba

Yakisoba beef and cabbage recipe

Joost Nusselder
There is no such thing as an exact recipe for Yakisoba because the ingredients can vary from one cook to another. But the one thing that gives the unique taste of Yakisoba is the Japanese soy sauce, so make sure you add it!
Here is MY FAVORITE example of a classic Yakisoba Recipe:
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine Japanese
Servings 4 people
Calories 63 kcal

Ingredients
 
 

Yakisoba sauce ingredients

  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp oyster sauce
  • tsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tsp sugar

Stir-fry noodles

  • 2 packs of Yakisoba noodles ( 8 oz)
  • 4 ounces of beef slices
  • ounces of cabbages thinly-sliced
  • 1 medium carrot julienned
  • 6 pcs shiitake mushrooms thinly sliced
  • 2 whole scallions julienned
  • Olive oil for pan-searing

Instructions
 

How to make yakisoba sauce from scratch

  • You can't make a classic Yakisoba without the special sauce, and although you can buy them pre-made, we are of course making a WAY MORE delicious sauce by mixing the soy sauce, oyster sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and sugar. Now set that aside.

How long should you boil yakisoba noodles?

  • Open the packs of Yakisoba noodles. Pour boiling water onto the noodles and loosen them with a chopstick. I'm talking about fresh noodles here as you only need to heat those in about 1 or 2 minutes in boiling water. If you're using dried noodles, cook them in a pan for 5 to 7 minutes, it's usually stated on the package. Drain the yakisoba and set them aside.
    Strain the yakisoba noodles

How to stir-fry yakisoba

  • Saute the beef slices in a wok until they turn brownish. Set those aside.
  • Then, start stir-frying the mushrooms for about two minutes. You'll want to remove the beef slices from the wok so the mushrooms and vegetables get a better chance to cook on their own.
  • After the mushrooms, add in your other vegetables and keep stirring for another two minutes.
  • Add in the ingredients you prepared earlier, so that's the sauteed beef, the noodles, and the Yakisoba sauce.
    Add in yakisoba sauce and beef
  • Continue to stir fry until they're all mixed evenly and cooked thoroughly.

How to serve yakisoba noodles

  • Now, your Yakisoba is ready to serve. You can just serve the stir-fried mixture in a bowl and eat them with chopsticks, or even on a plate and eat the dish with your fork like with any pasta dish.
    Yakisoba noodles with chopsticks

Video

Nutrition

Calories: 63kcalCarbohydrates: 5gProtein: 7gFat: 1gSaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 18mgSodium: 426mgPotassium: 213mgFiber: 1gSugar: 3gVitamin A: 2572IUVitamin C: 8mgCalcium: 23mgIron: 1mg
Keyword Buckwheat, Noodles
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Cooking tips

Even if it’s not your first time making yakisoba, there are some good tips to help you make the perfect dish every time.

Use a griddle or a big wok which is spacious enough that you can really move the noodles around. The noodles must be stirred and mixed with the meat, vegetables, and sauce, so a small pan just doesn’t give you enough space.

Yakisoba recipe
Yakisoba recipe card

(this recipe is part of our free Japanese with ease recipe book here)

It’s very easy to make it for one person or an entire group, but the thing that often goes wrong when cooking larger batches is that there isn’t enough space for all of the ingredients to cook properly, and you just end up with a tasteless mush.

YUCK!

Also, the ingredients must always be in contact with the hot surface to cook properly. Therefore, spread them out if you’re using a griddle and flip the meat over a few times.

Before you stir-fry the noodles, loosen them up a bit so they don’t stick together. If you don’t loosen the noodles before you stir-fry, they can break.

Avoid steaming the noodles while they cook – to do this, spread them out. Add some sesame oil to help the noodles stay separate.

If you like crispy noodles, fry them first, take them off the griddle or out of the wok. After the other ingredients are done, add them again and let everything cook together. This double cooking method makes the noodles super crispy and delicious.

Always stir-fry hard vegetables first and then the softer ones later. Not all vegetables have the same cooking time and you don’t want mushy fall-apart veggies like broccoli, for example.

In this recipe though, the vegetables all have the same consistency so you can just add them together and reduce cooking time.

How to serve & what to pair with Yakisoba

Honestly, yakisoba is a filling dish, and you can eat it for lunch and dinner and feel full. It doesn’t require side dishes but you can always add them to make it even tastier.

A popular pair is fried dumplings or potstickers. These can be filled with pork, chicken, or vegetables. What makes them great is that they are also fried, so they have a similar crunchiness as the noodles and cabbage.

If you’re feeling like one course isn’t enough, you can have a tasty miso soup as an appetizer. It prepares the stomach for the protein-filled noodle dish.

In the West and some Japanese restaurants, yakisoba is served on plates. The noodles are piled on and you can eat them like any type of pasta dish.

In Japan, you’ll even often see yakisoba served as yakisoba-pan, which is the noodle stir-fry stuffed into a hot-dog type bun. It is topped with Japanese mayonnaise (check the difference with American mayo here) and enjoyed as street food.

What noodles do you use for Yakisoba?

Japanese “yaki” means to grill over direct heat and “soba” means buckwheat noodles, but for Yakisoba, you don’t use soba noodles but a special type of wheat noodles (NOT BUCKWHEAT), which is more like Chinese wheat noodles. Add special Yakisoba sauce and meat and vegetables to a wok and stir-fry.

What noodles do you use for Yakisoba

The word “soba” means buckwheat noodles, which are commonly used in Yakisoba, however, they are not the top choice for Yakisoba recipes in Japan.

In Yakisoba, the soba means Chinese wheat noodles flavored with a savory sauce similar to Worcestershire sauce.

Yakisoba noodles are yellow in color, made from wheat flour, and meant for stir-frying. They hold their shape and cook easily, much like ramen. The yakisoba noodles are pre-steamed so you don’t have to boil them. Instead, simply reheat them.

A popular type of noodle for this dish is called Mushi Chukamen (蒸し中華麺) which are a Chinese style of steamed noodle.

These are made from wheat flour, an alkaline solution called Kansui, and water. They have a similar texture to ramen and have a yellow color, but they are not egg noodles.

The noodles are steamed and then packaged so they’re ready to cook instantly.

However, it is also common to use regular wheat noodles like the one in ramen. People sometimes use egg noodles as well.

Soba noodles are actually one of the most popular of all of these kinds of noodles we’ve written about before, so it’s no wonder why Yakisoba is so well-liked.

The top two instant Yakisoba noodle brands are:

They make great instant yakisoba noodles and it takes minutes to make a delicious portion of the dish.

There are many plain soba noodles in packs, especially if you live in Japan. The popular brands include:

  • Sun Noodle
  • Hakubaku
  • Roland

Some of these noodles are dried, so you need to boil them first and strain them.

There are also soba noodles that are already soft and wet. You just need to pour it with hot water to loosen it up.

Outside Japan, it might be a little difficult to find instant Yakisoba noodles in the supermarket.

But it is not a huge deal because there are many other options you can use as a substitute.

Whole wheat vermicelli or Chinese wheat noodles can be a close alternative. You can also try udon or spaghetti instead, but it’s not ideal.

Yakisoba noodle substitutes

Just because the Yakisoba recipes call for the special Yakisoba noodles doesn’t mean you can’t experiment and use other noodles.

Sometimes you can’t find the noodles in stores, especially if you don’t have Asian grocery shops nearby.

Are yakisoba noodles the same as ramen noodles?

The top substitute for yakisoba noodles is ramen noodles. They have an almost identical color and texture and they will give the dish a similar flavor.

You can use fresh ramen which is best but packets of instant ramen are also good just don’t use the seasoning packets.

Read more about the different types of Japanese Ramen like Shoyu & Shio

Another popular substitute is chow mein noodles, which are about 1/4 inch thick. The fresh egg noodles are extremely tasty and are easy to stir-fry.

Soba noodles are a great healthy option for yakisoba. The buckwheat noodles are more nutritious and of course, they taste great.

You can also use Western-style spaghetti or linguine but be careful when cooking these – they need to be al-dente so that they’re not overcooked when you cook them on the hot plate.

Be sure to check out our Yaki udon recipe and find out how to make one of Japan’s favorite noodle dishes

Check out our new cookbook

Bitemybun's family recipes with complete meal planner and recipe guide.

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Joost Nusselder, the founder of Bite My Bun is a content marketer, dad and loves trying out new food with Japanese food at the heart of his passion, and together with his team he's been creating in-depth blog articles since 2016 to help loyal readers with recipes and cooking tips.