9 Japanese Comfort Foods to Make Right Now

Japan might be known for its pristine sushi and other delicate, minimalist dishes, but it's also responsible for some seriously filling, rib-sticking comfort foods, like giant bowls of ramen and crispy fried tempura. Here, nine delicious, indulgent Japanese recipes to make on cold winter nights.

1. Soba Noodles with Hot Broth and Shrimp Tempura

Fantastically crunchy tempura shrimp star in Andrew Zimmern's mellow, slightly sweet soba noodles with super-simple dashi broth.

2. Pork Tonkatsu

These fried, breaded pork cutlets take just 30 minutes to prepare.

3. Red Cabbage and Fried Mortadella Okonomiyaki

Chef Jonathan Brooks makes a delicious version of the savory Japanese pancake called okonomiyaki, loaded with red cabbage and chewy udon noodles, and topped with a fried egg.

4. Chawan Mushi

This savory steamed Japanese egg custard is topped with sweet crabmeat and earthy shiitake mushrooms.

5. Classic Chicken Teriyaki

Nobu Matsuhisa's teriyaki recipe couldn't be simpler.

6. Cheater’s Ramen with Country Ham, Parmesan and Egg

Making restaurant-style ramen takes days. A quick cheat is to add instant ramen noodles to chicken broth enriched with smoky country ham.

7. Chicken Meatball and Shishito Yakitori

Skewering chicken meatballs and shishito peppers on the same stick is key here, as the meat flavors the vegetables and the peppers in turn provide a zestiness to the chicken.

These juicy Japanese meatballs, known as tsukune, are grilled on skewers with the finger-size green peppers called shishitos.

RELATED: 7 Yakitori Recipes to Make at Home

8. Stir-Fried Noodles and Pork

In Japan, this dish is called yakisoba. Yaki refers to the method of cooking—grilling, broiling or pan-frying—while soba refers to chuka soba, the long, thin yellow noodles that are stir-fried here.

9. Broiled Yellowtail Collar with Daikon

"This is simple, easy bar food," F&W contributing editor Andrew Zimmern says.

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