How to Cook Costco’s Yakisoba Stir Fry Kit

Costco is selling a Yakisoba Stir Fry Kit as a premade meal in the deli.  We tried the meal and were pleasantly surprised with the quality and flavor.

Keep reading and we will cover the basic cooking instructions and share some tips we picked up along the way.

Contents of the Stir Fry Kit

The yakisoba kit contains four primary ingredients:

• Two containers of stir fry sauce
• Japanese style fried noodles (yakisoba)
• Sous vide cooked seasoned chicken meat
• Mixed fresh vegetables

The vegetables are a mix of broccoli, red onion, celery, sweet bell peppers, carrots and snap peas.

The yakisoba noodles, sauce and chicken all contain gluten so you should avoid this meal if you are gluten sensitive.

There is just about exactly one pound of chicken meat in the tray.

The chicken consists of large pieces of thigh meat that has been seasoned and cooked by sous vide.  The meat is fully cooked and just needs to be heated through.

Cooking Instructions for the Stir Fry

There are cooking instructions on the packaging that I followed with some modifications.  The package instructions are:

• Heat a large pan over Medium High heat and add 2 oz (4 tbls) of oil.
• Add vegetables to the pan and cook for two minutes.
• Add the chicken and cook for two minutes.
• Add the yakisoba noodles and sauce and cook for one minute until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165F.

The modifications I made were:

• Used 2 tbls of oil instead of 4 tbls.  I used peanut oil.
• Cut the large broccoli florets in half for faster, more even cooking.
• Added an extra cup of broccoli florets.
• Cut the large chicken pieces in half for faster, more even cooking.
• Used only one of the containers of yakisoba sauce.
• Added 1/3 cup of water to rinse help the food steam.

The stir fry sauce is thick and intensely salty.  I suggest adding one container of the sauce, mixing it in well and then give things a taste.  If you want to add more sauce then go ahead but I suspect you will find one container is plenty.

Some other tips and considerations for prepping the meal are:

I used a Medium-Large wok and the meal completely filled it making it very hard to toss and mix.  Go with one of the bigger pans in your arsenal to make prepping the meal easier.

There is no spiciness with the sauce so add a tablespoon of Sriracha if you want some heat.

If you have room in your pan then you can add more vegetables to stretch the meal, increase the nutritional content and increase the flavors.  Some great additions would be sliced mushrooms, bok choy, shredded cabbage, water chestnuts, edamame or even more broccoli.

Taste Test!

I ended up liking this meal a lot more than I expected!

The Japanese style fried noodles are almost like ramen but a little thicker with a bit more chew.  The chicken is wonderfully seasoned, tender and not dry at all.  The veggies were plentiful, colorful and the peppers brought a delightful amount of sweetness.

Everything was lightly coated with the deeply rich, salty yakisoba sauce.  The sauce is made from soy sauce, water, sugar and ketchup and is seasoned with sesame, ginger, garlic and onions.  There is a lot going on with the sauce and I really enjoyed it!

There is enough food to easily feed four people.

Leftovers will keep for 3-4 days in the refrigerator.

Calories and Nutrition

If you use both containers of the yakisoba sauce then the calories and nutritional information for the meal is as follows for a single serving:

• Calories: 240
• Fat: 5g
• Cholesterol: 4mg
• Sodium: 1270mg
• Carbohydrates: 30g
• Protein: 18g

If you only use one container of the sauce then that will significantly decrease the sodium content and will also lower the calories.

The nutritional information for this meal, and all of the other Take and Bake meals at Costco, can be found at the deli kiosk where you place orders for party platters from the Costco catering menu.

Price

The Yakisoba Stir Fry Kit is Item Number 81505 and is found in the refrigerated deli counter with the other Take and Bake meals.

The meal kit costs $5.99 per pound and weighs about 3.3 pounds for a total cost of about $20.

I figure that paying $20 to pay for dinner for a family of four is pretty reasonable especially given the quality of the meal.  You would pay at least twice that much if you went out to dinner for noodles at a restaurant.  You could probably make this meal from scratch for about $15 but once you factor in your time for prep as well as cleanup it probably is a wash.

This is a meal that I will buy again.

Storage

The yakisoba stir fry kit does not keep well in the freezer so plan on cooking the meal within a few days of bringing it home.

The meal kit should be fine for 4-5 days past the “Sell By” date printed on the label.  The quality of the meal will drop off considerably past this time frame so get it into the wok while it is still good!