Iron Chef Morimoto teaches us how to make authentic, udon noodles recipe from scratch. Delicious homemade noodles that are far more superior than store-bought ones!

The recipe and step-by-step photos is from Morimoto’s second cookbook “Mastering the art of Japanese Home Cooking.”

Homemade Udon Noodle Recipe - Morimoto

Why This Udon Noodle Recipe Is So Good

  • Udon noodle recipe features just 3 ingredients: flour, a little salt and water
  • You can make these with a large wooden rolling pin, but you can use a KitchenAid pasta attachment.
  • Perfectly soft and chewy noodles with a smooth texture.
  • Great for udon noodle soup is made with 3 ingredients: dashi, soy sauce and mirin

Ingredients

  • All purpose flour
  • Kosher salt
  • Water

How to Make Udon Noodles Recipe – Step By Step

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour and salt. Add 1 1/4 cups water. Use hands to mix until dough starts to come together in a few large lumps. Firmly press and knead the dough, incorporating any loose flour until there is none left. If necessary, add a little more water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until you can incorporate all of the flour.

Homemade Udon Noodle Recipe - Morimoto cookbook Japanese Home Cooking

Knead the dough until smooth, about 5 minutes. Cover dough with plastic and let it rest for about an hour. This will make the dough relax and easier to roll out. *Jaden’s note – I like resting the dough for over an hour (timing is flexible here…I’ve let my dough rest anywhere between 1-3 hours, just keep it covered in plastic wrap), it just makes it so much easier to roll out!

Use a big rolling pin (Chef Morimoto likes to use a heavy, straight, wooden rolling pin like this one.)

Homemade Udon Noodle Recipe - use big wooden rolling pin

As you roll the dough, occasionally rotate the dough 90 degrees and dust lightly with flour.

Homemade Udon Noodle Recipe - use big wooden rolling pin

Roll evenly.

Homemade Udon Noodle Recipe - roll evenly

Homemade Udon Noodle Recipe - roll evenly

Dough thickness should be slightly less than 1/4″.

Homemade Udon Noodle Recipe - roll evenly to 1/4"

If you find the dough resisting too much, cover with plastic wrap and let dough rest for 5-10 minutes.

When you get the dough to desired thickness, fold dough in thirds (like a letter fold) and slice into 1/8″ thick noodles.

Homemade Udon Noodle Recipe - cut into noodles

Dust noodles with flour and separate. Cook immediately.

Homemade Udon Noodle Recipe - cut into noodles

An Easy Udon Noodles Recipe

Chef Morimoto says, “Dried udon noodles are fine, Store-bought pre-cooked udon work well. But there’s nothing like homemade udon and believe it or not, you can really make the irresistibly slick, chewy, spring noodles at home. Udon takes no great skill. Just water, flour, a rolling pin and a little patience. If kneading the dough, which activates the gluten in the flour and gives the noodles their texture, makes your arms tired, do what home cooks in Japan do: put the dough in a resealable plastic bag, wrap in a towel, and knead with your feet!”

What Goes Well With Udon Noodles

  • Snow peas.
  • Carrots (sliced thinly or use julienne carrots)
  • Fresh mushrooms.
  • Corn kernels.
  • Hard boiled egg (already hard boiled, just cut in half)
  • Thin, roasted seaweed slices (nori)
  • Fresh bean sprouts.
  • Spinach.

A Delicious Udon Broth Recipe

These Udon noodles make for a divine soup and it’s so easy. 

Ingredients

4 cups dashi
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons mirin

How To Make Udon Broth

In saucepan, combine ingredients and bring to simmer. Serve with fresh udon noodles, garnish with sliced green onion.

Jaden’s Tips for Udon

  • I am so using making homemade pasta with the help of a machine to roll to desired thickness! The rolling pin method was a bit challenging – getting the noodles to even thickness took some patience.
  • If the dough is too hard and stiff to roll out, cover dough with plastic wrap, let sit for at least 10 minutes and let the dough relax.
  • Try using your hand-crank pasta maker (this one is my favorite) or KitchenAid attachment to roll out to desired thickness, which is just under 1/8″ thick.
  • After rolling out to desired thickness, fold sheet into thirds, then let it rest for a few minutes before slicing by hand. Hand-slicing the noodles gives a more homemade feel, I love the unevenness of hand-made noodles.
  • I separated the dough into 4 balls, this made it easier to roll out, instead of dealing with a massive mound of dough!
  • Fresh udon takes a little longer to cook than fresh Italian pasta. Let it cook 7-12 minutes in gentle simmer. Cooking time really depends on how thick your noodles are. Check at the 7 minute mark and adjust. The udon should be soft but not mushy.
  • After cooking noodles immediately dunk them in a ice bath. This will help remove excess starch, stop cooking and bring more “bounce” to the noodles.
  • If you are serving the noodles in a soup, cook the noodles separately from the broth. Meaning, don’t try to cook the udon noodles in the broth itself. Too much starch will be released in cooking process.
  • The broth for udon noodles soup is simple. Start with the basic recipe, and add vegetables, seafood and meats as you please.

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More Japanese Noodle Recipes

Have you tried this Udon Noodle recipe? Feel free to leave a star rating and I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!

Homemade Udon Noodles Recipe from Chef Morimoto

Masaharu Morimoto
Reprinted with permission by Harper Collins Publishing. From Mastering the Art of Japanese Home Cooking by Masaharu Morimoto. For a simple dashi udon broth, please see above.
4.94 from 16 votes
Prep Time 2 hours
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 10 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine Japanese
Servings 6 people

Ingredients
  

  • 5 cups (600 grams) all-purpose flour, sifted, plus more for dusting
  • 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups water

Instructions
 

To make Homemade Udon Noodles:

  • In a large mixing bowl, combine flour and salt. Add 1 1/4 cups water. Use hands to mix until dough starts to come together in a few large lumps. Firmly press and knead the dough, incorporating any loose flour until there is none left. If necessary, add a little more water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until you can incorporate all of the flour.
  • Lightly dust work surface with flour. Knead dough (folding and firmly pressing with your palm, folding and pressing forcefully) until dough looks and feels fairly smooth, about 5 minutes. Form dough into ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and let rest at room temperature for 1-5 hours.
  • On a lightly floured surface with ample room, knead it again for a few minutes. Divide dough into 4 equal-sized balls. Dust each ball with flour and cover with plastic wrap until ready to roll out.
  • Use rolling pin to roll out the dough, occasionally rotating the dough 90 degrees and lightly using with flour if it threatens to stick to the pin, until just between 1/8" to under 1/4" thick. If the dough is too difficult to roll out, cover with plastic wrap, let rest for 10 minutes, and then resume. This rest allows the gluten to relax and makes it easier to roll out.
  • Fold the sheet of dough into thirds (like a letter fold) and then slice widthwise into approximately 1/8" thick noodles. Gently separate the noodles and toss them with a little bit of flour, just so they don't stick together. Cook right away.

To Cook Homemade Udon Noodles:

  • Bring a large pot of water to boil and prepare a large bowl of icy water. Add noodles to boiling water, stirring frequently and adding 1/4 cup fresh water if the water threatens to bubble over, until they are fully cooked but not mushy, 7-12 minutes (depends on how thick your noodles are). Unlike Italian pasta, Japanese noodles shouldn't be al-dente, but don't let them get mushy.)
  • Drain noodles, transfer to icy water. Briefly and gently rub the noodles with hands to remove some of the starch. Drain from cold water.
Keyword homemade noodles, noodle recipe, udon noodles
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Homemade Udon Noodle Recipe - Morimoto cookbook Japanese Home Cooking

The cookbook features Japanese cooking, from classics like miso soup and chicken teriyaki…to dishes that are common in Japanese households, like Omuraisu (omelet with ketchup fried rice) to Sake Shioyaki (salt-grilled salmon).

I had the pleasure of personally trying some of Morimoto’s creations at the grand opening of Morimoto at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Not only did I get to meet Morimoto, enjoy his sushi, but he even sang in Japanese for us! See end of post for photos of his new restaurant.

Recipe and photos reprinted with permission from HarperCollins Publishers © 2016 Masahuru Morimoto.