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What is Yakisoba Sauce?
Yakisoba sauce has it all! It’s sweet, savory, tangy, and packed with umami; no wonder yakisoba is one of Japan’s most popular street food dishes.
As you can probably guess from the name, yakisoba sauce is mostly used to flavor yakisoba, a popular fried noodle dish made with pork, onions, and cabbage. You can check out my recipe here!
Other than yakisoba, you can also use this sauce in stir-fries or as a marinade. Okonomiyaki and takoyaki also use quite similar sauces so that you can use yakisoba sauce for those, too.
How I Developed This Recipe
In Japan, it’s common to use store-bought yakisoba sauce or the seasoning powder that comes with pre-packaged yakisoba noodles for convenience. But you can create authentic-tasting yakisoba without these products, and the ingredients needed are surprisingly simple!
This homemade sauce adds a depth of flavor that elevates the dish, making it taste just like the yakisoba you’d find at a street festival. The beauty of this sauce is its versatility – it can be tweaked to suit your taste preferences or what you have on hand.
It’s a fun and satisfying way to add a personal touch to your cooking, and you might be surprised at how much of a difference it makes in the overall flavor of the dish!
Ingredients & Substitution Ideas
- Soy Sauce: Kikkoman soy sauce is a budget-friendly choice. Check our soy sauce guide for more options in Japanese cooking.
- Oyster Sauce: Adds a deep flavor to the dish.
- Worcestershire Sauce: Regular Worcestershire sauce works well and is essential for its vegetable and fruit flavors in yakisoba.
- Tomato Ketchup: Regular ketchup is fine; I prefer Heinz tomato ketchup.
- Sake: If unavailable, substitute with white wine or dry sherry.
- Sugar: Regular sugar works, though I’ve been using light brown cane sugar lately.
- Black Pepper: Optional, but recommended for a bit of kick.
- Sesame Oil: Kadoya’s sesame oil is my recommendation for adding subtle flavor.
One of the beauties of making the sauce yourself is that you can adjust the ingredient quantities to suit your preference! Would you prefer it sweet? Add more sugar or ketchup! Like a sour kick? Then more Worcestershire sauce! It’s totally up to you.
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FAQ
Should I Use Cooking Sake Or Drinking Sake?
When a recipe calls for “sake,” it can be confusing to choose the right type, as some specify regular or cooking sake. On Sudachi, “sake” refers to pure sake without added salt (in short, not cooking sake), so if you use cooking sake with salt, adjust the recipe’s salt content accordingly. All dishes on Sudachi are created using drinking sake.
If you want to know more about sake in Japanese cooking, please refer to Sake 101 post written by a professional chef with 30+ years of experience in the industry for the right selection and substitutes.
Where can I buy yakisoba sauce?
You can buy the Japanese brand Otaf*cku yakisoba sauce on Amazon. You might also be able to find it in Japanese or Asian supermarkets.
Is Japanese Worcestershire sauce the same as the British Lea and Perrins?
The ingredients are a little different, and Japanese Worcestershire sauce contains more fruits, so it’s a little sweeter. But overall, they taste quite similar and can be used interchangeably.
I hope you enjoy this Yakisoba Sauce recipe! If you try it out, I’d really appreciate it if you could spare a moment to let me know what you thought by giving a review and star rating in the comments below. It’s also helpful to share any adjustments you made to the recipe with our other readers.Thank you!
More Japanese Sti-fry Recipes
- Authentic Yakisoba(Japanese Stir-fried Noodles)
- Shio Lemon Seafood Yakisoba
- Shrimp Yaki Udon(Shio Lemon Shrimp Udon Stir Fry)
Quick & Easy Homemade Yakisoba Sauce
5 from 2 votes
By Yuto Omura
Yakisoba sauce is a tangy, savory sauce used to flavour delicious Japanese fried noodles. While it's common to buy the sauce premade, with just a few condiments you probably already have in your cupboard, you can whip up your own tasty homemade yakisoba sauce in just a few minutes!
Prep Time3 minutes mins
Total Time3 minutes mins
Course Sauces and Dressings
Cuisine Japanese
Servings 2 portions
Prep Time: 3 minutes mins
Total Time: 3 minutes mins
Course: Sauces and Dressings
Cuisine: Japanese
Servings: 2 portions
Print Recipe Pin Recipe Save Recipe
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Ingredients
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- ½ tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp tomato ketchup
- ½ tbsp sake
- ½ tsp sugar
- 1 pinch black pepper
- 1 tsp sesame oil
Instructions
Add 1 tbsp oyster sauce, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1/2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce, 1 tsp tomato ketchup, 1/2 tbsp sake, 1/2 tsp sugar, 1 pinch black pepper and 1 tsp sesame oil to a small bowl.
Mix well.
Feel free to play with the ingredient quantities to suit your preference.
Use to stir fry with noodles, vegetables and meat. You can see full yakisobe recipe here.
Notes
You can adjust the ratio of the ingredients to suit your taste for example, more soy sauce makes it thinner and saltier, more ketchup makes it sweeter and the color becomes more red etc. Feel free to experiment!
This sauce is to cook together with the noodles, meat and vegetables. I wouldn’t recommend using it cold and uncooked because it contains sake which is alcohol.
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