Udon salad

A light Japanese salad with udon noodles, poached chicken, eggs and plenty of veggies, served with a warm dressing.

Credit: Danielle Abou Karam

• serves

  4

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  10 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 2 large eggs
• 1 chicken breast
• salt
• 500 g frozen udon noodles
• 75 g (1 cup) finely shredded Chinese cabbage
• 1 short cucumber, julienned
• ½ cup coriander leaves
• 2 spring onions, thinly sliced
• 40 g (¼ cup) crushed roasted peanuts

Dressing

• 2 tbsp peanut oil
• 2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• ¼ tsp chilli flakes, or to taste
• ¼ tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1½ tbsp lemon juice

Instructions

1. Bring a saucepan or wok of water to the boil and place a bamboo steamer over it. Add the eggs and chicken breast and steam the eggs for 8 minutes, then remove and chill in iced water. Steam the chicken for 10 minutes or until the centre of the chicken reaches 75°C, checking with a digital probe thermometer. Remove the chicken from the steamer and set aside until cool enough to handle.
2. Carefully peel and halve the eggs. Rub your hands with a little salt and shred the chicken into fine threads.
3. Cook the udon noodles in a large saucepan of boiling water according to the packet instructions and drain well and refresh under cold running water.
4. Transfer the noodles to a large platter and top with piles of the cabbage, cucumber, coriander, spring onions, shredded chicken, halved eggs and crushed peanuts.
5. Heat the peanut oil in a small frying pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and fry until it begins to brown. Add the chilli and cook until the garlic and chilli are well toasted. Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar, fish sauce and lemon juice. Pour the hot dressing straight over the udon salad and serve.

 

Photography by Danielle Abou Karam.

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Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.