Chicken Soba Noodles Stir Fry drenched in a savory peanut sauce and loaded with colorful veggies. A flavor packed 30 minute meal perfect for hectic evenings!
We also love this chicken cabbage stir fry!
Table of Contents
Finding a healthy dinner that’s not only quick and delicious but also gets everyone at the table excited is like striking gold, and this peanut chicken soba noodles stir fry nails it!
This dish has been a weeknight favorite for as long as I can remember, and swapping out rice for soba noodles adds a burst of rich flavor to every mouthful.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Reader favorite: Crowned a 5-star recipe for its simple ingredients, easy preparation, and restaurant quality taste.
- Flavorful textures: Tender chicken, soft noodles, colorful veggies, a creamy sauce, and crunchy peanut topping.
- Quick and easy: Chicken with soba noodles combines protein, veggies, and noodles in one, saving the hassle of making separate dishes on a busy weeknight.
- Customizable: Stir fry recipes are known for their flexibility, customize with whatever veggies you have on hand!
Ingredients for Chicken Soba Noodles Stir Fry
The ingredient list for this chicken soba noodles stir fry recipe may look long, but most are kitchen staples.
- Soba noodles: These Japanese noodles have a nutty taste with a hint of sweetness. You can find them in the International aisle of most grocery stores. If they’re hard to find, brown rice noodles work too.
- Chicken: Thinly sliced boneless skinless chicken breasts.
- Vegetables: I love the savory and sweet combo of kale and bell peppers, see other veggie options below.
- Peanuts: Add crunch with unsalted roasted peanuts.
- Green onion: A popular garnish for stir fries adding a mild onion flavor and crisp texture.
- Red pepper flakes: Feel free to season to your liking.
- Oil: For frying, I used avocado oil.
- Peanut sauce: My favorite part! You’ll need soy sauce, chicken broth, honey, rice vinegar, unsalted peanut butter, toasted sesame oil, crushed garlic cloves, and cornstarch for thickening.
How to Make Chicken Soba Noodles
Get ready to dish up a plate of soba noodles with chicken in just 30 minutes!
Here’s a quick overview with photos, there is a full recipe card below.
- Make the peanut sauce: Add soy sauce, chicken broth, honey, rice vinegar, peanut butter, sesame oil, garlic and cornstarch to a medium bowl, whisk and set aside.
- Cook soba noodles: Boil the soba noodles in a large pot until they’re just right, about 2-3 minutes. Save a cup of that starchy water (awesome for thinning the sauce), then drain the noodles in a colander, rinse with cold water and leave to drain.
- Cook chicken: Heat a non-stick wok or large deep skillet on high, coat with oil, and add chicken. After 7-8 minutes of occasional stirring when chicken is golden brown, pour in 1/3 of the sauce. Keep stirring for a minute until the sauce thickens and coats the meat. Scoop it into a bowl and set aside.
- Saute bell peppers: To the same skillet, add remaining oil and bell peppers. Cook for 3-4 minutes stirring constantly until fragrant and some peppers are golden brown.
- Combine: Bring the heat down to medium, toss in kale, pre-cooked soba noodles, chicken, and the rest of the sauce. Gently mix it up for about a minute, then remove from heat. The sauce thickens as it warms up, if the noodles soak up too much, throw in some reserved noodle water.
- Garnish and serve: Sprinkle on some peanuts, green onions, and red pepper flakes, serve hot, and enjoy!
Tips for Best Results
Here are my tried-and-true tips for the best soba noodle stir fry with chicken!
- Don’t overcook the noodles: Soba noodles cook faster than pasta and can turn mushy if overcooked. Cook for just 2-3 minutes, then drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process.
- Have all ingredients ready before cooking: This recipe moves quickly so prep time is key. Have your sauce, sliced protein, chopped veggies, and garnish all set to go.
- Cooking chicken: Meat tastes best if browned on high heat and a bit of sauce added during the last minute. The sauce caramelizes and coats meat evenly – to-die-for sticky sweet and salty chicken!
- Serve immediately: For the best texture and flavor. The noodles will be perfectly chewy, chicken and veggies at their peak – delicious!
Additions and Variations
Here are other vegetables you can add either after cooking bell peppers or at the end:
- Shredded cabbage or coleslaw mix: Add at the end with kale or to replace kale. If you have extra coleslaw, try ground turkey egg roll in the bowl tomorrow!
- Carrot matchsticks: If you prefer a more tender texture add them with the bell peppers. For a crisper texture, add towards the end.
- Mushrooms: Choose from sliced white or brown mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms would be great too. Saute with the bell peppers, so they can release moisture and develop a savory flavor.
- Broccoli or broccolini: Toss them in once the bell peppers are partially cooked.
- Broccoli slaw: Best added at the end with kale to maintain some crunch.
- Grated ginger: Add grated ginger with oil and bell peppers at the beginning to infuse its flavor into the dish.
- Edamame beans: Frozen and thawed, add at the end with kale.
- Other additions: Snap peas, bean sprouts, asparagus, or baby corn can be added after the peppers, or toss in some Bok choy or spinach with kale. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds, chopped cilantro, a squeeze of lime juice for zest, or sriracha for heat.
How to Store and Reheat
Store: Tonight’s dinner, tomorrow’s healthy lunch! Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
Reheat in the microwave for 1-1.5 minutes or quickly stir fry on the stove with a bit of oil or chicken broth.
Freeze: Do not freeze, it will lead to mushy noodles, vegetables, and separated sauce upon thawing.
FAQs
Soba noodles can be gluten free if made solely from buckwheat flour or other gluten free flours, as buckwheat itself is gluten free. However, some soba noodles may contain a mix of buckwheat and wheat flour, making them not gluten free.
Yes. You can substitute soba noodles for udon noodles, brown rice noodles, egg noodles, ramen noodles, or shirataki noodles for a low carb option.
Make chicken soba noodles stir fry spicy by adding more red pepper flakes, mixing some chili garlic sauce or sriracha into the peanut sauce, or sprinkle a pinch of cayenne pepper or smoked paprika.
Yes. Make this chicken soba recipe vegetarian by omitting chicken and adding more veggies or replace protein with fried tofu, and use low sodium vegetable broth.
More Stir Fry Recipes to Try
- Chicken asparagus stir fry
- Shrimp and vegetable stir fry
- Healthy chicken stir fry
- Beef stir fry recipe
- Buckwheat stir fry
- Chicken and zucchini noodles
- One pot Pad Thai
Peanut Chicken Soba Noodles Stir Fry Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
For Peanut Sauce:
- 1/2 cup soy sauce low sodium or 1/4 cup regular soy sauce
- 1/2 cup chicken broth low sodium
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons peanut butter unsalted
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil toasted
- 2 large garlic cloves crushed
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
For Stir Fry:
- 6 ounces soba noodles brown rice noodles would work too
- 1.5 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts thinly sliced
- 2 large bell peppers cut into thin strips
- 4 cups kale coarsely chopped & packed
- 1/2 cup peanuts roasted & unsalted
- 3 green onion sprigs finely chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes or to taste
- 2 tablespoons oil for frying
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, add soy sauce, chicken broth, honey, rice vinegar, peanut butter, sesame oil, garlic and cornstarch. Whisk and set aside.
- In a large pot with boiling water, cook soba noodles until al dente, for about 2 – 3 minutes. Reserve about a cup of noodles' water (starchy water is great for diluting the sauce), transfer noodles to a colander, rinse with cold water and leave to drain.
- Preheat non-stick wok or large deep skillet on high heat, add 1 tablespoon of oil to coat and add chicken. Cook for about 7-8 minutes until golden brown, stirring occasionally. Add 1/3 of prepared sauce and stir constantly for a minute or until sauce thickens and coats the meat. Transfer a bowl and set aside.
- Add remaining 1 tablespoon of oil and bell peppers, cook until fragrant and some peppers are golden brown, about 3-4 minutes, stirring constantly.
- Reduce heat to medium and add kale, previously cooked soba noodles and chicken, and remaining sauce. Toss gently until mixed, about 1 minute, and remove from heat. Sauce will thicken as it warms up. If noodles absorb too much sauce, add some reserved noodles' water.
- Add peanuts, green onions and red peppers flakes. Serve hot.
Notes
- Store: Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 2 days. Do not freeze.
- Reheat: Reheat in a microwave for 1 – 1.5 minutes or sti fry quickly on the stove on high heat with a bit of oil or chicken broth.
This recipe was a great base recipe! I doubled the peanut butter, used low sodium soy sauce (although may cut in half next time as it was a little salty), added a little extra garlic, some onion powder, and the kale was a little odd. I’m going to try cabbage next time. But other than that this recipe is very good!!
This was easy and delicious! I didn’t have all the ingredients so used udon noodles and broccoli instead of the kale. Will definitely make again.
Easy and so delicious! Great for leftovers. Might be a weekly go-to recipe for me.
Happy to hear! Leftovers are the best!
I’ve made this 3 times in 2 weeks & wouldn’t change a thing.. Beautiful!
So happy to hear, Abby!
Super delicious and easy recipe! I’m by no means a cook and this meal was healthy and tasty! We will definitely be adding this to our rotation of meals. I added an extra tbsp of peanutbutter to the sauce for extra flavor and it was great! Thanks for sharing!
Delicious! I used less kale and added broccoli. Kids thought it was just ok but I loved it! Great with juicy orange slices on the side.
Glad you enjoyed. And I always tell my kids they can’t love every meal and every dinner can’t be fabulous. You just have to eat some times.
As I’ve returned to this recipe many many times over the years, I figured I owe you a comment and rating. 5 Stars. This sauce is quick, easy, and uses simple ingredients. Versatile and delicious. I add a little fresh ginger and basil to the sauce, sub out the honey for maple syrup, and swap the chicken for mushrooms. I highly recommend this amazing recipe to everyone!
Hi Jocelyn. Thank you so much for taking time to rate the recipe and super happy to hear you love it that much!!!
Heck no you don’t have to sell me on noodles! I will take them any day any time, I love them. I have not make soba noodles in a while even though I have them in the kitchen cabinet 🙂 Time to get them out and whip something like this soon!!
This looks amazing, Olena!
Wow this looks’s amazing. Like you said this is something the kid’s and I are not only going to eat but we won’t be worrying about the leftovers, since there won’t be any. I love the addition of the peanut sauce.