Will regular soy sauce work instead of dark soy sauce?

If you can't find dark soy sauce, regular soy sauce will still taste great (we tested and can confirm). However, dark soy sauce is more concentrated and really does make a difference for how much the flavor saturates into the noodles. We ended up finding some dark soy sauce at an Indian / Asian grocery store near us! But u003ca href=u0022https://amzn.to/3nQUC2Ju0022u003eAmazon sells itu003c/au003e*, too.

I have a little bit of extra sauce. Can I save it for another round of this recipe?

I often find that I have a little extra sauce, too. No problem, it can be saved in the fridge for a half-batch or full-batch later on!

Can I add meat to this dish?

You can definitely add a protein if you want! I love veggie noodle stir fries, but true yaki udon (the Japanese name for this dish) usually includes meat of some kind. I would think chicken or shrimp would be great. I also made a version of this with tofu kind of scrambled into a ground-meat-like consistency that was really yummy.

Where can I find oyster sauce?

You can find it at most bigger / chain grocery stores down the sauce aisle (usually by the soy sauce) or a local Asian grocery store likely sells it as well. If you can't find it, hoisin sauce would probably be the best sub.

Black Pepper Stir Fried Udon Recipe

Description

This Black Pepper Stir Fried Udon is the perfect SOS dinner! Saucy udon noodles, dark soy sauce, stir fry veggies, fresh garlic, and lots of freshly ground black pepper. So easy!

Ingredients

Units Scale

Sauce:

3 tablespoons dark soy sauce (see FAQs if using regular soy sauce)
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon rice vinegar

Udon Stir Fry:

a little bit of neutral oil
2 cups of stir fry veggies (I use about half of a bag of a frozen stir fry veggie blend)
two 7-ounce packages of udon noodles (the cooked, fat, squishy ones, like this – see post for more noodle options)

Finishing Touches:

1–2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
a ton of freshly ground black pepper

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Instructions

Sauce: Shake up all the sauce ingredients in a jar.
Noodles: Heat a nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add a swish of oil. Add the noodles and enough sauce to coat. Stir-fry until nice and yummy. (They’ll get kind of caramelized if you leave them undisturbed for a minute or two – so good.)
Veggies: Add the veggies and pour a little more sauce over everything (it’s okay if you don’t use all of it -it’ll keep in the fridge for a second batch later). Toss it around for 2-3 minutes until the veggies are fork-tender and everything is looking browned and sticky and pan-fried to perfection.
Finish: Remove from heat and stir in some freshly grated garlic and A TON of freshly ground black pepper. (I mean, yes, pull some out for the kids first so it’s not too spicy, but then PEPPER THAT UP.) The smell of the fresh garlic hitting the pan. The steamy noodle pulls. This is the moment you’ve been waiting for.

Notes

If you have extra udon noodles and/or want to make this more than once, double or triple your sauce for later! It makes this the fastest meal of all time.

There is sugar in the sauce which can burn so don’t leave your noodles sitting undisturbed in the hot pan for too long or your caramelization will turn to burning.

If you’re using dry udon noodles, cook them for a shorter amount of time than recommended on the package, the equivalent of an al dente, so they can finish cooking as they stir-fry in the pan with the sauce.

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Category: Pasta
Method: Stovetop
Cuisine: Asian-Inspired

Keywords: udon noodles, black pepper udon, stir fry