Making Udon

The other day I was seriously craving some Udon Noodles.  There is a joint I hit with a friend on the monthly that has what I consider to be the best Udon in the area.  Its a lil Mom and Pop joint run by 3 Japanese expats and 3 helper staff.  I was fiending for this udon, but didn't want to make the drive and wanted to try making it.

In the past I had tried those chilled Udon noodles that come with a flavor pack.  The noodles themselves were great, but the broth was severely lacking.  So much that I was turned off.  I did try a 2 more times.  One of those times I froze the udon pack, which was a mistake, there was heavy breakage of the noodles themselves.  Perhaps there was something I didn't pay attention to.  Nonetheless, I would like to start chronicling my cooking experiences and maybe have some ideas out there for folk to try.

So began the trip to the local Asian Supermarket, the place is huge.  My mission was to find some dry udon noodles at a decent price and udon broth making necessities.  Now my Japanese, is pretty much unchanged since my roadblock, but Ive watched a few more J-dramas and somewhat kept up with my flash cards and a friend speaks to me in Japanese and I talk back in English.  But shopping for these noodles was a massive chore.

Eventually I found what I was looking for.  Nice big ol kana udon printed on the front.  The upper right going down says Cold district Preparation?  Upper left in the purple basically open and seal zipper here.  This is what did it for me, cant go wrong with a resealable pack.  In my opinion if it comes in a bag it should be a resealable pack.  I have no idea what label or brand this is, there is some kanji below the red kanji that I have no idea what it says.  Another reason I picked this one was because there are 8 individually wrapped bundles that suggest this is the amount for a single serving (well... it says so on the back.)

Next was the easy task of finding some green onion.  No issues here.  Then I needed to find all the bits and pieces I needed to make my udon broth, I needed special spices this, mirin sauce that, some anchovies, some of that kamaboko, some dried kelp.  List was long.  In the store I thought well what if they had some stock cubes, like they do with chicken bouillon.  I found what I was looking for in the aisle where they have spices, and look for the Miso soup stock, and you will find all types of soup stock.

It was here I found this.  Again in some easy to read kana, udon soup.  In blue type it says Higashimaru, which sounds like this is the label. Inside the red bowl shape is the kanji for east.  In the black type above soup Soup powder base?  Boom sold! No need to translate further, this looked like what I needed, and not only that, it serves 8 people.  No need for the list to make the broth!


Chicken Udon is what I was craving, the chicken I already had in the fridge.  Next stop was home to make my Chicken Udon.  I cubed up my 2 breasts chicken and seasoned it with seasoned salt.  I chose seasoned salt because I didn't want the chicken to get in the way of the taste of the broth.  Cut up lots of green onion for garnish and flavor.

I first boiled the water, and then added two packs of udon noodles into the pot.  In a separate skillet I grilled my chicken on one side only.  As soon as one side was sufficient, I added the chicken to the already cooking udon I pretty much left it like that until the noodles looked like they were ready (the bag said 14-18 mins.  I had ready to go in a measuring up two packs of the udon stock base ready for 600mL of the water that I would source from my udon noodle and chicken pot.

Once I got to 600mL I dumped out the rest of the pot into a strainer.  Picked out all of the chicken and washed out the noodles in cold water.  Apparently this is done to firm up the noodles a bit.  Upon first look at the noodles, they aren't the typical thickness of udon that I was used to.  The measuring cup with what was now the soup base went back into the pot where I added the noodles and chicken again.  I was worried the noodles would make the soup could so I simmered them all at low to medium  heat.

Took the pot off and added it to my massive bowl and put the green onion garnish on. And this is what I got (left).  Doesnt look too appetizing I know.  But let me tell you!  The broth was amazing, very close to restaurant grade.  The chicken cubes were a little big but the flavor of the chicken was great, half grilling/half boiling the chicken was a great idea.  As you can see the noodles look a bit small.   Oh yeah I also put a hard boiled egg there, the idea was to slice em. but I didn't boil the egg long enough, and slicing was a failure.

My udon cooking was a success.  I highly recommend giving it a try.  I did try making this udon once again, but with just one serving.  I grilled all sides of the cubes, tried some "blackened" seasoning for the chicken and used cilantro instead of green onion.  I must say, seasoned salt is the way to go for the chicken.  The broth got way too much flavor from the blackened spices.  The Cilantro added an amazing flavor to the broth and noodles.  I also didn't add the egg.  The result was a sub par attempt (above).

My next attempt will definitely be seasoned salt chicken grilled/boiled, with both cilantro and green onions, oh and gotta have the egg.