Easy and delicious Korean style stir fried udon noodles with chicken and vegetables.

From time to time I crave a particular texture of food. I’m not referring to any particular food but just the texture, like something crunchy or chewy or soft. Is this weird?

Anyway, the other day, I wanted to have something chewy and slurpy but not messy so that it’s easy to take to work for my husband. So, I bought a couple of packets of udon noodles and it seemed like it ticked all the boxes, but I had no idea what I was going to do with it.

While udon noodles are very versatile ingredients (it can be served hot or cold and stir fried or served in a soup), you can unwillingly end up with a quite bland taste depending on how you cook it. Do you agree?

So here is my ‘not bland but out of the blue recipe’ that I came up with. I named it out of the blue because I just added whatever ingredients seemed right at that time. 🙂

Still, I used my staple marinade mixture – soy sauce, garlic and honey and I decided to give some Korean twist to it, so it’s not totally out of the blue.

But, the result was real out of the blue! It was super delicious. I can proudly say that it was my best udon noodle dish I’ve ever made. 🙂 I was so glad that I wrote down the ingredients as I was cooking it, so I can share this with you now.

Even though I added a small dose of gochujang, it wasn’t spicy nor could you even tell that I added gochujang in the sauce. It was a well-balanced savory, sweet and juicy (the sauce), crunchy (from the vegetables), tender (from the chicken thigh) and chewy and slurpy (from the udon noodles) meal.

So, I hope you try this soon too!

P.S. If you love udon noodles, be sure to check out my kimchi udon stir fry and chicken and broccoli noodle stir fry.

Ingredients for 3 to 4 servings

Main

370 g / 13 ounces skinless chicken thigh, thinly sliced
270 g / 9.5 ounces fresh baby bok choy leaves, separated and rinsed in cold water
230 g / 8 ounces broccoli, stem trimmed and cut into small florets
210 g carrots, chopped into long strips
20 g / 0.7 ounces red capsicum/bell pepper, chopped into long strips
600 g / 1.3 pounds fresh udon noodles
Some cooking oil (I used rice bran oil)

Chicken marinade sauce (mix these sauce well in a small bowl)

6 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp gochujang (Korean chili paste)
3 sprinkles of ground black pepper

* 1 Tbsp = 15 ml

**If you want to learn about Korean ingredients, check my 30 essential Korean ingredients list!

How to Make Stir Fried Udon Noodles with Chicken and Vegetables

1. Prepare the ingredients as mentioned in the above ingredients section. (I used the baby bok choy without chopping it, but you could cut them if you wish.)

2. Marinate the chicken in the marinade sauce for 30 mins.

3. Heat the wok on the stove for 10 seconds on high heat. Add some cooking oil and spread the oil with the spatula. Then add the marinated chicken (with all sauce) and cook it for 3 to 5 mins on high heat. Stir it occasionally.

4. Reduce the heat to medium high and add all the vegetables. Stir them well. Cook it for 3 to 5 mins.

5. While you are cooking the chicken from step 3, boil some water in a saucepan (it takes 5 to 8 mins). Then add the udon noodles and boil them per manufacturer’s instructions. Drain the water. Set the noodles aside.