Is Yaki Udon Healthy? (A Healthy Yakiudon Recipe)

Chicken Yaki Udon is a delicious and simple protein packed Japanese stir-fried dish -- complete with juicy chicken mixed with an umami soy-based sauce, chewy udon noodles, and a creamy egg. There's no doubt that Yaki Udon is delicious -- but is Yaki Udon healthy?

Yaki Udon can be a very healthy dish, consisting of only 414 calories predominantly coming from the 33 grams of proteins from the chicken and egg and 47 grams of carbs from the noodles, making it a well-balanced and nutritious dish.

The key to making this dish help rather than hinder progress towards your fitness goals is portioning high calorie ingredients mindfully.

Jump to:

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• 🍎 Calories and Nutrition – Is Yaki Udon Healthy?
• 🍏 How to Make It Healthy – The Fitsian Method
• 💡Tips and Tricks
• 📋 Ingredient Notes
• 🔪 Step by Step Instructions
• 🍳 Recipe

To understand the calorie and nutrition content of yaki udon, it’s useful to look at the core ingredients that make up the recipe. Yaki Udon is made of four main components: protein, vegetables, sauce, and the noodles

• Protein: Yaki Udon is can be served with a variety of different protein choices including chicken, beef, pork, or seafood. For the purposes of making a low calorie dish, it’s best to choose a lean protein, such as chicken or seafood.
• Stir Fry Sauce: The sauce is relatively simple here and consists of a mixture of soy sauce, mirin, oyster sauce, and some minced garlic and onions. The sauce does not add a significant amount of calories to the dish.
• Vegetables: The vegetables in the crab yaki udon usually consist of onions, mushrooms, and/or carrots. These are a great way to balance out the dish without adding much calories.
• Udon: The udon is a vital part of this dish and carbs are definitely a necessary part of our diet. However, it's important to portion this mindfully as carbs can easily add up calorie-wise if not portioned correctly, hindering progress towards your fitness goals.

Looking at each component, it’s easy to see that while yaki udon is consists of a number of healthy ingredients, it can be made into a high calorie dish if the higher calorie ingredients are not portioned correctly, making it less than ideal for dieting purposes. This chicken recipe will show you some tweaks that will make it low calorie and delicious.

🍏 How to Make It Healthy – The Fitsian Method

While the ingredients that go into the dish are naturally pretty healthy and don't have any calorie bomb culprits, it's still important to portion carefully and keep calorie and protein content in mind. Here's how I portioned the recipe to be only 413 calories:

• Used only half a pack of Udon at only 160 calories
• Portioned out 4oz of boneless skinless chicken thigh, a great tasty lean protein source
• Portioned sauce ingredients mindfully to only be about 30 calories
• Added a poached egg for additional protein and yumminess
• Used cooking spray instead of oil to minimize adding calories

For a detailed breakdown of each ingredients, their portioning, and how they make up the nutrition profile of this chicken yaki udon recipe, you may refer to the table below:

💡Tips and Tricks

What is yaki udon sauce made of?

In this recipe, I used a mixture of soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, and mirin to make the stir fry sauce. For purposes of meal prepping, you can make a bigger batch of this sauce and store it in the fridge, and just pour in the sauce when you're ready to cook if you're planning to make this recipe multiple times a week.

What about yaki soba? What is the difference between yakisoba and yakiudon?

Yaki soba uses a different type of noodle as its base. Besides the noodle, there isn't much of a change between the 2 recipes. It's just a matter of personal preference on which type of noodle you like better. There isn't much of a difference in their nutrition profiles as well.

What other protein choices would be good to use here?

You can also use shrimp here to make a delicious shrimp yaki udon. For my vegan and vegetarian friends, loading up on mushrooms or adding tofu is a great alternative as well.

If you liked this recipe, check out the following:

• Healthy Udon Recipes for more low calorie and protein packed udon recipes
• Oyakodon recipe for a classic Japanese chicken rice bowl dish
• Fast and Fit Recipe Collection for more quick and healthy recipes
• Shoyu Chicken Ramen for a recipe for the classic Japanese noodle soup

📋 Ingredient Notes

Stir Fry Sauce

• 2 teaspoon Soy Sauce
• 1 teaspoon Dark Soy Sauce
• 1 teaspoon Mirin
• 1 teaspoon Oyster Sauce

Noodles & Stir Fry

• ½ pack Udon noodles
• 4oz Chicken thigh, boneless & skinless
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tablespoon Onions (Chopped)
• Julienned carrots, sliced mushrooms, and other veggies of choice
• 1 egg (Poached)
• Chili flakes (optional)
• Scallions, furikake, togarashi, and bonito flakes (For garnish)

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🔪 Step by Step Instructions

1. Begin to make poached egg. I made mine using the sous vide method, cooking it at 75 Celsius for 13.5 minutes. See this article about sous-vide poached eggs for more info.
2. To prepare the stir fry sauce, in a separate small bowl, mix together oyster sauce, soy sauce, dark soy sauce and mirin and set aside.
3. Next, let's prepare the udon noodles. Add water to a pot and turn heat on to high. Once the water is boiling, cook half a pack of Udon noodles, drain and set aside. If you cannot separate the udon block before cooking, cook the entire block and drain thoroughly. Then, use a scale to take out half of the weight of the udon.
4. Spray skillet with cooking spray and turn heat on to medium. When the pan is heated, sauté garlic, onions, and veggies. Stir thoroughly to prevent the aromatics from burning. Keep stirring for about 2-3 minutes or when the onions begin to soften and the garlic begins to turn golden.
5. Cut the chicken thigh into small bite-sized pieces. Season them liberally with salt and pepper. add in the chicken pieces in a single layer and cook for about 3-4 minutes on each side, or until the chicken pieces are cooked thoroughly.
6. Once chicken is ready, toss in the Udon noodles along with the sauce mixture. Stir everything together thoroughly until well-mixed together.
7. Remove the yaki udon, top with the poached egg and garnish with scallions, furikake, and togarashi, and enjoy your delicious chicken yaki udon!

🍳 Recipe