These Noodles Will Stay In My Back Pocket Forever.
The first time I made these, I was waiting for a sushi takeout order.
Bjork was working out, girls were in bed, sushi hadn’t come yet and I was just so extremely hungry. So I raided the pantry and found a package of those Momofuku noodles – which, obviously, are delicious, but have always just been lacking a certain lusciousness to my tastebuds.
So I made the noodles as directed, and then added a knob of butter for creaminess, a drizzle of honey for sweetness, and a glug of sesame oil for depth. And then I literally ate *the whole* package straight, hot, slippery and delicious right out of the pan. OOF. These are good.
I now rely on these noodles as a back-pocket lunch, SOS dinner, or honestly – just a really great snack – and I make them several times a month.
When I’m not having them as an eat-out-of-the-pan snack, I like to fill half the bowl some kind of a shreddy slaw and maybe a soft boiled egg if I’m really feeling fancy.
You could absolutely add some freshly ground black pepper or a clove of freshly grated garlic to punch them up even further; that said, I really enjoy them as is. Just minimal and uncluttered tangly slips of joy.
Make These Noodles With Me
1
Cook the noodles.
My favorite are the Momofoku spicy soy noodles which I buy at Target, but there are lots of similar varieties out there. We are cooking them basically as directed – boiling noodles and adding sauce.
2
Add sauce packet.
Boop! Here comes the sauce packet.
3
Add butter, sesame oil, and honey.
Now comes the extras that make it really magical. I never measure it – just a knob of butter, a drizzle of honey, and a drizzle of sesame oil. Then toss it up with tongs and add a bit of water if it gets too sticky.
4
You’re done! Yum!
Top with chili crisp, sesame seeds, or some kind of spicy sprinkle, plus some green onions… AMAZING little quick lunch, dinner, or snack.
Quick Tip!
I love to serve these noodles with something fresh and crunchy, or add a little bit of protein when I have time. For crunch, this Napa Chicken Salad or Roasted Peanut Kale Crunch Salad are perfection. Or, you can even add some of this Air Fryer Chicken!
Shortcut Sesame Butter Noodles
Total Time: 12 minutes
Yield: 1, maybe 2 (I can pretty easily eat a package by myself) 1x
Description
One of my favorite back-pocket recipes! Packaged noodles for ease, butter for creaminess, honey for sweetness, and sesame oil for depth. Just tangly slips of joy!
Ingredients
Scale
Shortcut Sesame Butter Noodles:
- 1 (3.35 ounce) package saucy shortcut noodles – my favorite are the Momofuku spicy soy or soy scallion
- 1 tablespoons butter
- 1–2 teaspoons honey
- 1/2 tablespoon toasted sesame oil (more to taste)
- a splash of water
- optional toppings: green onion, sesame seeds, chili crisp, togarashi
Instructions
- Make the noodles: Cook the noodles according to package directions, including adding in the little sauce packet.
- Add the extras: Once prepared, toss hot noodles gently with the butter, honey, and sesame oil. Taste and adjust to however you like it. It should be silky when hot but it will get more sticky the longer you wait – if it’s too sticky, add a bit of warm water to loosen it which will emulsify and make it just a little creamy. It’s perfect.
- Finish and serve: Finish with chili crisp, scallions, or some kind of sesame or spicy sprinkle! Ideal little snack, or you can make it more of a rounded out meal by serving with a fried egg and/or a salad. Or ground chicken. Or shrimp. It’s the kind of thing that’s good with everything.
Notes
Adjusting noodle stickiness level: You can rinse the noodles after boiling, before adding sauce, to reduce the overall stickiness – I usually rinse them for just a brief moment so they retain a little bit of starchiness. If you rinse them for more than a few seconds, you’ll take off quite a bit of starch and the noodles will be more slippery / silky. It’s still delicious, but the sauce won’t cling to the noodles quite as much. If you find that they noodles and sauce aren’t as clingy as you want, you can help it out by just heating it for a few minutes over low heat.
- Prep Time: 2 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
Keywords: sesame noodles, sesame butter noodles, momofuku noodles, shortcut noodles, quick and easy recipe
Frequently Asked Questions
These noodles can be made vegan by using non-dairy butter and dash of agave instead of honey.
Trader Joe’s sells a similar product called Tingly Noodles which works exactly the same way. Other brands that would work well: any flavor of Omsom, or A-Sha noodles. The noodles that come in the Momofuku packages are A-Sha brand noodles, but Momofuku adds their own sauce which is what makes them different. If you’re using a noodle product that doesn’t have a sauce packet, that is totally fine – just add a shot of soy sauce and maybe a bit of chili crisp to create the same effect.
Yes, but don’t prepare them as directed – that will create a soup rather than a saucy noodle. I would suggest just using the noodles, ditching the broth packet, and creating your own sauce or flavor with soy sauce and chili crisp before adding the butter, sesame, and honey.
Fried eggs or soft-boiled eggs, ground chicken or pork, shrimp, or thinly sliced steak.
I often serve this alongside a shredded cabbage slaw-type salad – something like this. The light, crunchy texture of the salad works really well with the silky noodles. A fast and easy side of vegetables could be a steam-in-the-bag broccoli or just some salad greens tossed with sesame oil and rice vinegar. More traditionally, you can serve sesame noodles with edamame or thinly sliced cucumber, carrots, or peppers.
