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Cool down and relax with this Japanese Cold Ramen dish called Hiyashi Chuka. It’s a bright, flavorful, fun way to experience the magic of ramen on a hot summer day!
As the temperature and humidity soar in Japan in the late summer, I just want to eat chilled noodle dishes like cold soba or cold udon. But when it gets extra hot, like it did this year when the rainy season ended two weeks early, all I can think about is the flavorful, rainbow color of toppings on a bowl of cold ramen called Hiyashi Chuka (冷やし中華).
Today, I’m sharing a Hiyashi Chuka recipe with my favorite soy-sesame homemade noodle dressing.
What is Hiyachi Chuka?
Hiyachi Chuka literally means “chilled Chinese”; however, it is a Japanese dish with chilled ramen noodles and various colorful toppings, including strips of egg crepes, cucumber, ham, and imitation crab. Be creative and add your favorite toppings to this hiyashi chuka. If you are vegetarian, omit ham, shrimp, and imitation crab, and add your favorite veggies instead.
Finally, a soy sauce or sesame based dressing is poured over the dish. Although the store bought hiyashi chuka package comes with dressing, it has lots of MSG and preservatives. For a healthier option, you can easily make the dressing at home. The dressing recipe I specified below is more than enough for 3 servings of cold ramen, in case you want to add more toppings than what I have included.
On hot days, a cold noodle dish like Hiyashi Chuka is a delicious nutritious meal to cool your body down, while filling up your tummy. Now go ahead, pick up some ramen and your favorite toppings, and create this cool Japanese dish!
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- 6 Tbsp soy sauce
- 4 Tbsp sugar
- 3 Tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 Tbsp sesame oil (roasted)
- 2 Tbsp water
- 1 Tbsp toasted white sesame seeds
- ¼ tsp ginger (grated)
- ½-1 tsp la-yu (Japanese chili oil)
- 2 large eggs (50 g each w/o shell) (beaten)
- 2 tsp sugar
- ¼ tsp kosher/sea salt (I use Diamond Crystal; Use half for table salt)
- neutral-flavored oil (vegetable, canola, etc)
- 6 shrimps (+ 1 Tbsp sake)
- 1 Persian/Japanese cucumbers (or 1/3 English cucumber, julienned)
- 1 iceberg lettuce (shredded)
- ½ tomato (cut into wedges)
- 3-4 slices hams
- 4-6 imitation crab meat (kanikama) (or crab meat, shredded)
- Kaiware radish sprouts
- chicken tender (steamed, shredded)
- bean sprouts (blanched)
- dried wakame seaweed
- shredded nori seaweed (kizami nori)
- 3 servings fresh ramen noodles (6 oz or 170 g fresh noodles/person)
- 1 Tbsp toasted white sesame seeds
- Japanese karashi hot mustard (optional)
- pickled red ginger (beni shoga or kizami beni shoga) (beni shoga, optional)
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Gather all the ingredients.
- Combine all the noodle dressing ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk all together. You can keep it chilled in the refrigerator.
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For eggs, you make thin egg crepe and cut into thin strips (Kinshi Tamago). If you want to make super-thin crepe, follow my recipe here. Whisk together the eggs, sugar, and salt. Heat the oil in the pan over medium heat. Pour the egg mixture into the pan and cook on both sides.
- Cool the crepe and slice into very thin strips.
- For shrimps, bring a small pot of water to a boil. Add sake and shrimp and cover with the lid. The alcohol in the sake will help remove the smell and tender the meat. Turn off the heat when the color of shrimp started to change and let it cook with remaining heat. Do not overcook otherwise shrimp will become hard. Transfer shrimps to a plate and let them cool.
- Cut all the topping ingredients.
- For the noodles, bring a pot of water to a boil and add the noodles, separate the noodles before dropping into water. Cook according to package directions. Drain the water and rinse the noodles to remove starch. Soak the noodles into a bowl of ice water to cool. Drain completely and divide the noodles on plates/bowls.
- Place all the toppings and pour the dressing before serving. Serve with karashi hot mustard and pickled ginger on the side, if desired.
Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe in your own words and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.
Looks great! Can I replace ramen with soba?
Sure, or if you can find somen noodles or udon noodles, they are probably better kind of noodles with this dressing. 🙂
Nami, I’m not sure we have fresh ramen noodles on Guam, I’ve never seen the cold noodle packages sold here. We have something similar but in hot soup flavors (I can’t recall their names). These noodles are coated with something white and powdery. Would it be safe to use these instead of what you use? If not, do you have a substitute noodle to recommend? Thank you
Hi Vanessa! You can use the regular (hot) fresh ramen noodles, and those white powders are flours to separate the noodles so it’s safe to use. When you drop the noodles, make sure to separate noodles so they don’t stick each other. 🙂 You can use somen or udon noodles, soba is okay too, but I’d prefer somen/udon to eat with these toppings. 🙂
Hi Nami,
Thanks for the quick response! I’m thinking ill use udon noodles instead, but I only have the dried version not the fresh frozen type. I hope this would be fine to use as well. Going back to the ramen noodles here on Guam, I noticed that after cooking them, they are sticky. If I should use these, will rinsing them (as you instructed) take care of the stickiness? Thanks
I like Sanuki Udon, but if you cannot find it, then dried udon is perfectly okay! About ramen texture, the noodles can get sticky from the following reason 1) overcooked 2) not rinsed enough and there is too much starch (but I’d say it’s more “slimy” than “sticky”…). Or simply the kind of noodles is different. I’m not sure about this brand and kind of noodles so it’s a bit hard to tell. 🙂 Hope rinsing will help!
This looks so delicious and refreshing! I think the sauce is the most important part of the dish and I can’t wait to try this recipe. So happy you and the family are having a grand time in Japan!
Agree, sauce is the most important part! Thank you so much for your kind words, Donna! xo 🙂
Looks so good! Just the perfect thing to make on this hot day in LA! Thanks!
Thank you Julia! Yeah I already had this three times since I came to Japan… LOL. Perfect summer meal!
Love hiyashi chuka, takes me right back to tokyo july 1990 and sooo hot and humid like I never felt before, my friend yumiko introduced me to these chilled noodles and I survived on them on many hot days, we are having a heat wave now so this is a perfect time to try your recipe, oishiso 🙂
Hi Ran! Arigato! It was nice to hear your hiyashi chuka story! Japan’s summer is so humid and hot and we definitely enjoy eating cold noodles. I’ll post 2 more cold noodles recipes and hope you will enjoy them this summer. 🙂 Thank you for following my blog!
What a great meal for a hot day! You took beautiful pictures of the dish. You need to teach me some photo taking skills. =)
Hi Candice! Thanks for your kind words. Every photo shooting is practice for me…until I really understand everything. I’m not very technical so it takes extra time to learn. 😉
Hi Lisa! Thank you for visiting my blog! Compared to freshly made Hiyashi Chuka, I have to say the taste and texture won’t be the same if you make it in advance. You can cut cucumbers, hams, eggs etc (toppings, basically) and make the dressing ahead of time but please try to cook the noodles on the same day at least? Maybe it’s just me, but I am very particular about texture of noodles and I don’t like them to be soggy and not fresh. Hope this helps. 🙂
This dish originates from China, hence the name. Cold sesame noodles are very common all over the east coast of China, and have been served for quite some time.
Hi Marcus! Yes, all the 中華 recipes have sesame oil in it and the Japanese love the flavor!
Your recipes all look so delicious!!! My husband is Japanese and I am mainly Hawaiian/Irish. I don’t know any japanese recipes. I have a question though. Is there any non seaweed/seafood dashi recipes? My mother in law is allergic to anything from the sea which really limits me from using a japanese recipe. Thank you for all the mouth watering recipes 🙂
Hi Alina! Thank you! I have a lot of readers who have a Japanese husband like you and try to cook Japanese dishes for him. 🙂 Non-seafood dashi will be kombu if you don’t consider kombu as seafood. It’s kelp, and I’m not sure how your mother-in-law feels about kombu from the ocean…maybe allergic also? Another good dashi is dried shiitake mushroom. It has great flavor to it, so you can soak the shiitake to rehydrate and reserve that liquid for cooking. We don’t necessarily call it “dashi” but it’s better than using water in terms of flavor. Hmmm other than that, everything else includes fish (dried bonito flakes and dried anchovies). Depending on the dish, you “can” use chicken stock too. But usually flavor is too strong unless you cook Japanese chicken dish. If you have a specific recipe you want to try that includes dashi, let me know. I can maybe say you don’t need dashi (esp. if it’s 2 Tbsp. etc). Hope that helps! 🙂
can i make this the night before for next day’s lunch?
Hi Jill! Ideally, boil the noodles and pour the sauce before you serve. That way, the texture of the noodles is best and noodles won’t get soggy. You can cut all the ingredients for toppings on previous day. However, if you absolutely don’t have time on the day, then make the noodles on previous day, but please pour the sauce right before you serve. Hope this helps!
My relative recently recommended that I eat hiyashi chuka since it’s been so hot. I found your recipe and tried it out. The husband and I love it! I know that I could buy bottled sauce but the recipe that you provide is so tasty. Thank you for sharing!
Hi Kathy! I’m so happy to hear you liked Hiyashi Chuka. I love cold noodles in general (like Cold Tanuki Udon) and I can’t live without it in the hot summer days. I’m happy to hear you liked the homemade Mentsuyu too! 🙂 Thank you for your kind feedback! xo
Nami,
I made this for dinner tonight and it’s absolutely perfect for summer. It’s 98 degrees in NM today, so turning on the oven at all, or the stove for long, just isn’t an option. I’ll be doing your cold udon noodles in the very near future.
I did have one question for you… would the method for cooking the shrimp work with any alcohol? Or is it something specific to sake? I was curious if I could use vodka for a shrimp cocktail.
Thanks, as always, for the fabulous recipe.
Hi Madeline! So sorry for my late response (I was traveling…). I hope you enjoy cold udon. I make it at least twice a week with different toppings. Sure, you can use vodka for a shrimp cocktail. White wine etc works too. You don’t need much, but the alcohol evaporate with unwanted smell. 🙂 Thank you for reading my blog!
Just an FYI for all of those folks who may have switched, or wanted to, to a low(er) carb diet: we have made this recipe with zucchini noodles on a Spiralizer and cut the sugar in the sauce in half. It is obviously not the same recipe, but for those that are seeking a lower carb alternative, it will give you hope. I apologize to the traditionalists who think giving up noodles and rice are crazy.
Hi Jason! You’re kind and polite. Thank you for sharing your low-carb option! My readers and I appreciate your feedback! 🙂
Just made this for me and my younger sister and WOW! I love cold noodle salad so much and especially on a summer day~ I subbed out the ramen noodles for shirataki noodles, and also added some parsley and that went really well 🙂
Hi Reina! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! So happy to hear you two enjoyed the recipe! And yay for Shirataki noodles! 🙂
Hi Nami, I made this for lunch today for my daughter and I. I didn’t have ramen noodles, so I used frozen sanuki udon instead, with ham, egg crepe, cucumber and prawns for toppings. It turned out wonderfully, and made for a light, refreshing, and healthy meal. I regret not making more! Haha.
Hi Ying! I’m so happy you two enjoyed this dish! It’s my kids’ favorite too (my daughter would always prefer udon noodles). 🙂 Thank you for your kind feedback!
I just made it, the sauce was the star of the show. The hint of chili was a subtle, but made the taste complex and interesting. I didn’t realize how easy this was to do. Thank you for sharing!
Hi Jay! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Thanks for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback, Jay!
I made this with zoodles, it was fantastic! Best zoodles ever 🙂
Hi Cindy! Thanks so much for trying this recipe. So happy to hear you enjoyed it. Thank you for your kind feedback. 🙂