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 Takayama in 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.
Table of Contents
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? Click here.
- 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.
How to Make the Best Beef Udon
- Prepare dashi broth and add the seasonings to make udon soup broth.
- Stir fry the negi (or green onion) and thinly sliced beef. Season them with soy sauce and sugar.
- Cook udon noodles according to the package instructions and drain well.
- 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:
- Homemade dashi — You can make standard Awase Dashi by steeping kombu (edible kelp) and katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) in water. If you’re vegetarian/vegan, make Vegan Dashi with kombu and dried shiitake mushrooms. [20 minutes]
- Dashi packet — A dashi packet is 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]
- Dashi powder — Dashi powder is 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 out The 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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Beef Udon
Video
Ingredients
For the Broth from Scratch
- 2½ cups dashi (Japanese soup stock) (use standard Awase Dashi, dashi packet or powder, or Vegan Dashi)
- 1½ Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp mirin
- 1 tsp sugar
- ⅛ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
For the Udon Noodle Soup
- ½ Tokyo negi (naga negi; long green onion) (white part only; or use 2 green onions)
- 4 sprigs mitsuba (Japanese parsley) (optional; for topping)
- 1 green onion/scallion (for topping)
- 4 slices narutomaki (fish cakes) (optional)
- 6–8 oz thinly sliced beef (chuck or ribeye) (or slice your own meat)
- 1 Tbsp neutral oil
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- 2 servings udon noodles (1.1 lb/500 g frozen or parboiled udon noodles; 6.3 oz/180 g dry udon noodles)
For Serving
- shichimi togarashi (Japanese seven spice) (optional)
For the Broth with Mentsuyu (Optional)
- ⅓ cup mentsuyu (concentrated noodle soup base)
- 2⅓ cups water
- 1 Tbsp mirin
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients. Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the udon noodles. Once boiling, keep it covered on low heat until you‘re ready to cook the noodles.
To Make the Broth from Scratch
- First, make 2½ cups dashi (Japanese soup stock) of your choice. (To make udon broth with mentsuyu (noodle soup base), see the instructions at the end of the recipe.) Here, I‘ll show you how to make a quick dashi using a dashi packet (you can find it on Amazon). In a medium saucepan, add 2½ cups or 600 ml water and 1 dashi packet. Bring it to a boil over medium heat.
- Simmer for 2–3 minutes. Then, squeeze the liquid from the dashi packet and discard the packet.
- Add 1½ Tbsp soy sauce, 1 Tbsp mirin, 1 tsp sugar, and ⅛ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt and mix it all together. Cover the pot with a lid to prevent evaporation and keep it hot. Remove it from the heat and set aside.
To Prepare the Ingredients
- Cut the white part of ½ Tokyo negi (naga negi; long green onion) diagonally into ½-inch (1.3 cm) slices. Set aside.
- Thinly slice the leaves and tender stems of 4 sprigs mitsuba (Japanese parsley)(optional).
- Cut 1 green onion/scallion into thin slices. Transfer the green onion slices and mitsuba to a small plate or bowl for topping the soup later.
- Diagonally cut 4 slices narutomaki (fish cakes). Then, cut 6–8 oz thinly sliced beef (chuck or ribeye) in half, about 1½ to 2 inches (3.8-5 cm) wide.
To Cook the Beef
- Heat the frying pan on medium heat. When it‘s hot, add 1 Tbsp neutral oil and the Tokyo negi.
- Sauté the negi until golden brown and tender. Then, add the meat and cook until it‘s no longer pink.
- Add 2 tsp sugar and 1 Tbsp soy sauce.
- Stir-fry the meat until it is well coated with the seasoning. Remove from the heat.
To Boil the Udon Noodles
- Cook 2 servings udon noodles in boiling water according to the package instructions. For frozen udon noodles, boil from frozen for 1 minute to reheat. Drain well and rinse quickly with water to remove the excess starch.
To Serve
- Divide the well-drained udon noodles into individual serving bowls and pour the hot broth over the noodles to cover.
- Place the stir-fried beef, narutomaki, green onions, and mitsuba on top. If you like it spicy, sprinkle shichimi togarashi (Japanese seven spice) on top. Enjoy!
To Store
- You can keep the stir-fried beef, udon noodles, and broth separately in airtight containers and store them in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
To Make the Broth with Mentsuyu (Optional)
- In a medium saucepan, combine ⅓ cup mentsuyu (concentrated noodle soup base), 2⅓ cups water, and 1 Tbsp mirin and mix well. Bring the mixture to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Cover with a lid and turn off the heat. The udon broth is now ready to use.
Nutrition
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on November 8, 2015. It’s been updated with new images and video.
this was my first time making udon and it was delicious. i would recommend adding as much extra salt as needed for taste, if not it would taste a bit tangy. thank you for the recipe💛
Hi Angel, Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe!
We are glad to hear you enjoyed homemade Niku Udon!
Hi Nami. Is it okay to substitute soy sauce with bottled soba tsuyu for this recipe?
Hi Anna, Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe!
Soba Tsuyu contains other ingredients like sugar, and it’s lighter and a touch sweeter taste than soy sauce, but yes, you may use it for this recipe.
Please feel free to adjust the sugar and salt amount for your liking.
Thank you so much for this recipe. I tried this and it turned out great I added cabbage and aburaage (fried tofu) my kids loved it!!
Hi Joy, Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and sharing your cooking experience with us!
We are happy to hear your kids loved the Beef Udon!😊
I just made this last night for my sisters birthday.. she has been craving udon noodle soup. It was better than either of us hoped! She said it was the best bowl she’s had. Thank you for the amazing recipe! I’m making it again for dinner tonight!!
Hi Chris! Aww… Happy Birthday to your sister! We are so happy to hear you and your sister enjoyed this homemade Niku Udon. Thank you very much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback!😊
Hello Nami,
Thanks for the recipe, can’t wait to try it. I always use your website when cooking Japanese food (as well as my Japanese Cooking – A Simple Art by Shizuo Tsuji).
What would you recommend to replace the beef with? My girlfriend only eats seafood.
Thanks,
Hi Scott, Thank you very much for your kind feedback! How about Ebi tempura as topping instead of beef? In Japan, we often serve this type of Udon, and it is called “Tempura udon” and can be served with the same broth.
Here is the recipe link for Ebi(Shrimp) Tempura:
https://www.justonecookbook.com/shrimp-tempura/
https://www.justonecookbook.com/tempura-recipe/
We hope this is helpful.🙂
Very nice and easy to cook.
Don’t cut too thinly the meat, as it’s too easy to overheat it then, and have the bits a little too chewy…
Hi Solveig, Thank you very much for trying this recipe!
Love your recipes!
Is it possible to adapt the beef udon recipe with leftover chicken?
Hi Nicole, Sure. You can thinly slice the chicken and add it to the Udon. Please feel free to adjust the seasoning for your liking! Thank you very much for your kind feedback!
Hi Nami! I absolutely love your recipes and it always brightens up my day when I receive your newsletter! I’d love to know where you get your udon noodles from? Thank you!
Hi Maddie, Thank you very much for reading Nami’s newsletter!❤️ Nami gets her Udon noodles from a local Japanese store.
Our recommended brand of udon noodles is in the frozen package called “Sanuki Udon.” You can purchase it in the freezer section of Japanese supermarkets and some Asian supermarkets or online. We hope this helps!
So simple yet rich and delicious! I’ve made this a few times now, such an easy quick dish to make!
Hi Naomi, Thank you very much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback! We are so happy to hear you enjoyed Niku Udon.😊
I have made this once and I’m making it again today. I live in Toronto, Canada so I am very lucky be in such a multicultural city where these ingredients aren’t hard to find – even at the big supermarkets. I’ve also shared this recipe with two colleagues already. It’s so delicious and makes me so proud of myself that I want to cry sometimes. Lol. Thank you!
Hi Sriracha!
Thank you very much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback.
We are so happy to hear you were able to find all the ingredients and enjoyed this Beef Udon in Toronto, Canada!
We hope your colleagues also enjoy this recipe.☺️
So first of all, thank you for the recipe! I’ve wanted to try home-cooking udon since trying some in Melbourne some years ago and loving it ever since, and this site in general made it very easy (I literally just up and bought ingredients and made it one day on a whim, and it wasn’t even that expensive)
That said, I had something of an interesting experience; the first time I tried it out with just a single serve for myself, I left the broth uncovered and a lot of it boiled off (it spent a lot of time in the stage just before boiling over, and I think most of it went then). I used the full amounts for two servings and wasn’t even left with enough to cover one serve of noodles!
However, the broth was really tasty and I figured I just needed to keep it from escaping into the air and maybe boil it faster by starting at a higher heat. I did this when preparing the broth for two people (using amounts for four servings, setting the stovetop to high immediately, and covering the broth with a lid as much as possible) and got the right amount of liquid, however it was nowhere near as flavorful and generally tasted watered down.
I’m partly ascribing this to only half the dashi being refrigerated overnight (I used combination kombu/shiitake dashi made by placing both ingredients in the water at once, and the other half was made using the 15 minute warm water method due to a time crunch), and I suspect it’s also partly due to less of the broth boiling off (I imagine that’s mostly water, leaving you with more concentrated soup base)…but I’m sure there are a lot of factors I’m not aware of that influenced the result as well. It was literally my second time making it, after all, and I’m something of a novice at cooking in general so there’s probably super basic kitchen understanding that I’m just straight up missing.
Sadly, I live in Australia and it’s getting warmer over here, so hot noodle soup isn’t really an appropriate dish any longer. So basically what I wanted to ask is: How can I get that more concentrated, rich taste while still making enough broth for the dish? Or more generally, do you have any broad advice on how I should alter the broth-making process?
Thanks again, finding this website has been a huge boon for me. I’m looking forward to trying out some of the other stuff!
Hi DC,
Thank you for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback. We’re happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe!
As for your question, once you made the soup stock, you have to keep it covered (Step 4: Cover and keep it on low heat.). If you are taking the time to cook the rest of the ingredients or not serving immediately, we recommend to turn off the heat. Please note that this recipe is written assuming that you would serve immediately after cooking.
You don’t want to lose your broth that you work hard to get! 😉
As for broth amount and flavor, no need to reduce the broth in this recipe, which is not counted for the ingredients. If you prefer a more robust flavor (more concentrated), make stronger dashi and slightly increase the condiments. However, you don’t want to overwhelm the broth with condiments, so don’t increase the condiments only. Dashi in noodle soup is very important!
You may enjoy this cold udon noodles in the summertime: https://www.justonecookbook.com/cold-tanuki-udon/
I hope this is helpful and you will enjoy udon all year around!😊
My wife and I went to Japan for our honeymoon and fell in love with the food. We loved this recipe so much… simple and delicious. It was perfect and reminded us so much of our food adventures in Japan. Thank you for your blog!
Hi Kevin,
Aww. Thank you so much for trying this recipe and for sharing your story with us. We are so happy to hear you and your wife enjoy this Niku Udon and reminded of your sweet time in Japan!
Thanks for the awesome recipes 🙂 My whole family loving it…thanks for sharing and love ur blog so much…
Hi Jasmine! I’m so happy to hear your whole family enjoyed this recipe. Thank you for your kind feedback. 🙂
I love Japanese food, not the raw ones.
Looks simple to follow. Will definitely try cooking.
Hi Angie! Thank you! I hope you enjoy this recipe!
Just made this for the family tonight. It taste exactly like the one we had in Japan. Lived there 20 yrs and moved out last yr. Your recipe has been my rock when I miss Japan Nami san! Thank you for sharing!
Hi Idelia! Aww thank you so much! I’m so happy to hear your family enjoyed this recipe! 🙂