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Miso Nikomi Udon

A Japanese dish of udon noodles simmered in miso broth with chicken, shiitake, aburage, gobo, kamaboko, eggs, and green onion.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Shiitake and tofu share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 58 recipes. Both carry methyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Miso Nikomi Udon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the chicken into small pieces and lightly salt.

  2. Soak the shiitake mushrooms in water until the tops are soft.

  3. Remove the stems from the shiitake and cook briefly in a small amount of water flavored with soy sauce and sugar.

  4. Place the aburage in a metal sieve and pour 1 to 2 cups of boiling water over each side. Rinse the aburage in warm water, squeeze dry, and cut into 3 by 1/2 cm rectangles.

  5. Wash the gobo root and scrape the surface with the edge of a knife. Cut the gobo into slivers.

  6. Cut the green onion into thin slices.

  7. Peel the hard-boiled eggs and slice them horizontally.

Make the soup

  1. Stir the miso and dashi together. Strain the miso-dashi mixture.

  2. Place the miso mixture in a large pan, add the milk, and bring to a boil.

  3. Reduce the heat to simmer.

  4. Boil the udon noodles in a separate pot of boiling water. When the udon is still a little firm, drain it and rinse under cold running water to remove starch.

  5. Add the drained udon, chicken, drained shiitake, aburage, and gobo to the simmering miso mixture.

  6. Add the kamaboko and green onion to the pot. Increase the heat so the soup just boils up once more.

  7. Remove the pot from heat.

Serve

  1. Divide the soup into individual bowls.

  2. Garnish each bowl with slices of hard-boiled egg and sprinkle sansho.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

809Calories
81 gProtein
37 gFat
40 gCarbs

Counts 10 of 12 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Salmon100g cooked208
Chicken100g cooked165
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Tofu100g firm76
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Shiitake1/2 cup (73g)34
Miso1 tbsp (18g)34
Mushroom1/2 cup sliced (35g)15
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Burdocknot in our table0
Soupnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Shiitake + tofutop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together58 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Shiitake + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together412 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  4. Shiitake + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together552 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Shiitake + burdocktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Red miso
Provides the main savory, fermented flavor base of the broth.
Udon noodles
Supply the chewy, starchy body that holds up in the hot broth.
Milk
Adds richness and a mellow, rounded body to the miso broth.
Chicken
Adds savory meat flavor and protein-rich texture to the soup.
Dashi
Provides the umami-rich stock that forms the base of the soup.

The step that matters

Rinse the udon in cold water. Rinsing removes surface starch so noodles stay separate and do not turn gummy, and stopping the cooking keeps them from softening further in the hot soup.

Swap the burdock

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, shiitake, mushroom, tofu, fish, egg, onion):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Burdockthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, shiitake, mushroom, tofu, fish, egg, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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