Eating soba (buckwheat noodle) on New Year’s Eve is the tradition in Japan, hoping for living a long life like soba noodle. I had the chicken soba noodle soup for the dinner on New Year’s Eve, but this hearty noodle soup is good for any day in winter. It is very satisfying dish with pan seared chicken, charred leeks, and sake steamed mushrooms.
Sear a chicken in a cast iron pan, skin side down until nicely browned. Flip the chicken and cook it though. Remove the excess oil with a kitchen paper.
Meanwhile, make a teriyaki sauce: mix soy sauce, sake, and mirin. Once the chicken is almost cooked through, add teriyaki sauce and allow to simmer until the sauce is syrupy. Flip the chicken a few times to get it well coated with sauce. Slice the chicken and set aside for topping.
Cook leek and mushroom. Heat sesame oil in a pan until hot, add leeks. When leeks are nicely charred, turn down the heat to low and add mushrooms and sake. Put a lid on, steam for 2 minutes to cook through the leeks. Set aside for topping.
Make a noodle soup. In a pot, put sake and mirin over high heat and boil away the alcohol. Add 3 2/3 cups of water, soy sauce, and kombu. Just before it comes to boil, remove kombu and add bonito flakes. Turn down the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes.
Strain it though with a fine mesh sieve. Discard the bonito flakes and put the soup back into a pot. Add salt and adjust seasoning. Add the cooked soba and heat up the noodle.
Divide the noodle soup into two bowls. Place toppings: chicken slices, mushroom, and leeks on noodle. Garnish with shichimi togarashi peppers and a zest of meyer lemon.
The hot noodle soup often has zests of yuzu for a garnish. It is hard to get a fresh yuzu here, so I use a meyer lemon instead. It is the closest very similar fragrance. Try it out!
- 1 ea chicken thigh, skin on and boned or boneless chicken thigh
- salt and black pepper, to season
- ½ tablespoon canola oil
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon sake
- 2 tablespoons mirin
- ½ tablespoon sesame oil
- ½ ea leek, cut into about 2 inches length
- ½ package maitake mushroom, tear into bite size (or your favorite mushroom)
- 2 tablespoons sake
- ¼ cup mirin
- 3 2/3 cups water
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 1 x 2 inch pieces kombu seaweed
- 1 cup bonito flakes
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 ea green onion, chopped
- shichimi togarashi, to garnish (optional)
- zests of meyer lemon, to garnish (optional)
- Cook a chicken: Season a chicken with salt and generous amount of black pepper. Heat canola oil in a cast iron pan until hot, add a chicken, skin side down. Sear it until nicely browned over medium-low heat. Flip the chicken and cook it though. Remove the excess oil with a kitchen paper. Meanwhile, make a teriyaki sauce: mix soy sauce, sake, and mirin. Once the chicken is almost cooked through, add teriyaki sauce and allow to simmer until the sauce is syrupy. Flip the chicken a few times to get it well coated with sauce. Slice the chicken and set aside for topping.
- Cook leek and mushroom. Heat sesame oil in a pan until hot, add leeks. When leeks are nicely charred, turn down the heat to low and add mushrooms and sake. Put a lid on, steam for 2 minutes to cook through the leeks. Set aside for topping.
- Cook a soba noodle in a boiling water for a little shorter time than the instruction of the package (because it will be heated up with a hot soup again). Drain and rinse well in cold ice water. Drain and Set aside.
- Make a noodle soup. In a pot, put sake and mirin over high heat and boil away the alcohol. Add 3 2/3 cups of water, soy sauce, and kombu. Just before it comes to boil, remove kombu and add bonito flakes. Turn down the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes. Strain it though with a fine mesh sieve. Discard the bonito flakes and put the soup back into a pot. Add salt and adjust seasoning. Add the cooked soba and heat up the noodle.
- Divide the noodle soup into two bowls. Place toppings: chicken slices, mushroom, and leeks on noodle. Garnish with shichimi togarashi peppers and a zest of meyer lemon.
María says
I have a long time crush with Japanese food (Japan in general). I’ve wanting to try something like this by myself. Sound easy the difficult part is to find some ingredients in Portugal.
PD: Great blog and beautiful pics 😉
Misa O'Donnell says
Thank you so much for checking my recipe 🙂
Ohh I see, the ingredients problem! Staple ingredients for Japanese food are just 5: soy sauce, miso, sake, rice wine vinegar, and dashi. Are these also difficult to get in Portugal? Anything else can be substituted with your local fresh ingredients!