Beef Udon (Niku Udon) (Video) 肉うどん (2024)

Craving a steamy bowl of hot noodle soup? This heartwarming Beef Udon is my go-to Japanese comfort dish. My recipe serves up tender sliced beef on top of thick, chewy udon noodles in a savory broth. What’s not to love?

When my family visited Takayamain Japan in 2015, we had the opportunity to enjoy this warm udon noodle soup with Hida beef. Made of freshly cooked udon noodles in a fragrant hot soup, topped with sweet juicy sliced beef, the beef udon was delicious and perfect. Today, we are going to recreate this Beef Udon (肉うどん) back in our own kitchen.

Despite its simplicity, this noodle soup is packed with flavor! The savory broth, seasoned tender beef, caramelized scallion, and chewy smooth noodles — that’s all you really need for a well-composed bowl of noodle soup.

Ingredients for Niku Udon

With basic Japanese condiments, you can easily make this delicious noodle soup at home.

• Udon noodles – Can be frozen, fresh, or dried. Wish to learn more about this noodle?Clickhere.
• Thinly sliced beef – It works great with “shabu shabu beef” from a Japanese market, but you can always slice your own.
• Negi (Japanese long onion) – You can use green onion as a substitute.
• Dashi (Japanese soup stock) – More about it below.
• Condiments: soy sauce, sake, mirin, and sugar.
• Optional toppings: narutomaki (fish cake), green onion, mitsuba (Japanese herb), etc.

Jump to Recipe

How to Make the Best Beef Udon

1. Prepare dashi broth and add the seasonings to make udon soup broth.
2. Stir fry the negi (or green onion) and thinly sliced beef. Season them with soy sauce and sugar.
3. Cook udon noodles according to the package instructions and drain well.
4. Assemble udon noodles and broth in individual bowls. Top with cooked beef and other toppings of your choice.

3 Ways to Make Dashi

The key to the most flavorful broth for beef udon is dashi — the quintessential Japanese soup stock. Dashi is clear, delicate, mildly sweet, and full of umami. It is the base flavor for a superb bowl of beef udon.

For those who had never made dashi, it might sound intimidating. But trust me, it’s easier to make dashi than any other broth out there; all you do is drop the ingredients in water and let them steep. That’s it!

Just in case you’re new to making dashi, here are 3 ways to make dashi:

1. Homemade dashi— You can make standardAwase Dashiby steepingkombu(edible kelp) andkatsuobushi(dried bonito flakes) in water. If you’re vegetarian/vegan, makeVegan Dashiwith kombu and dried shiitake mushrooms. [20 minutes]
2. Dashi packet— Adashi packetis the best shortcut method that I use often. Similar to making tea, you steep the dashi packet in water and cook for a couple of minutes. Despite its quick method, the flavor of this dashi is pretty good. [5 minutes]
3. Dashi powder—Dashi powderis my least favorite method due to its lack of flavor, but you can make a quick dashi with just dashi powder and hot water. [1 minute]

If you want to learn more about dashi, check outThe Ultimate Dashi Guide, where I talk about 6 different types of dashi and the above 3 methods in detail.

Make Homemade Udon Noodles

If you have extra time, I recommend making Homemade Udon Noodles from scratch! All you need is flour, water, and salt.

The texture of the dough is much firmer than bread dough, so traditionally, the Japanese used their feet to knead the udon noodles. Isn’t it fun? Check out the post to see how we make udon noodles in Japan.

Other Delicious Udon Noodles

Don’t miss out on these delicious recipes with udon noodles:

• Yaki Udon (Stir-Fried Udon Noodle)
• Curry Udon
• Nabeyaki Udon (Hot Pot Style Udon Noodle Served in Donabe)
• Kitsune Udon
• Miso Nikomi Udon

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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on November 8, 2015. It’s been updated with new images and video.