What is Chinese Hot Pot?
Hot pot 火鍋 (huo guo), literally translating as fire pot, is a dining experience universally loved by Chinese people. The idea is simple: assemble a selection of raw vegetables, meats, seafood, and starches — anything you want, really — then cook them in a boiling pot of flavored broth. Across China and Taiwan, bustling all-you-can-eat hot pot restaurants are a fixture of everyday life. At home, families gather around the dining table to enjoy their own array of ingredients.
Hot pot is a deeply communal method of eating — ingredients are meant to be leisurely cooked and enjoyed as a group over several hours, preferably accompanied by Chinese bai jiu, beer, sake, or other spirits. Many use it as a delicious excuse to gather with friends and loved ones. There ain’t no party like a hot pot party.
Hot pot styles vary drastically region by region. In Beijing, mutton hot pot with a light broth or water is most common, and ingredients are dipped in sesame paste and sesame oil for flavor. Yunnan, home to over 600 species of wild edible mushrooms, is famous for — you guessed it — mushroom hot pot. The Northeast of China favors a hot pot made of sour, preserved vegetables. The most notorious hot pot in China and abroad hails from Sichuan Province. A blood-red blend of chili, flowery Sichuan pepper, aromatic spices, and bars of beef tallow, the broth of Sichuan hot pot is 麻辣 (ma la), numbing, spicy, and not for the faint for heart. A can of sesame oil is used as a dipping sauce to, theoretically, balance the heat (spoiler alert: it doesn’t work very well).
And that’s just scratching the surface. The list goes on and on. In this post, we’ll dive into how you can make Chinese hot pot at home,
How to Make Chinese Hot Pot at Home
Though hot pot may seem intimidating to recreate at home, it is actually quite easy (and significantly cheaper than eating out at a restaurant):
- Start by equipping yourself with essential hot pot tools. I use a metal hot pot with an accompanying electric burner very similar to this one (Lenza gifted it to me a few years ago and we use it at least once a week). Other helpful tools include hot pot ladles, Chinese-style bowls, small bowls for dipping sauce, and chopsticks.
- Make your soup base.
- Wash and chop vegetables, meats, and other hot pot ingredients.
- Assemble dipping sauces.
- Wait until your soup boils then start adding in your hot pot ingredients.
Pro tip: Do not put everything in the hot pot at once! Cook specific morsels of food at a time and eat as you go. Some ingredients, like root vegetables, take a little longer to cook. Others, like thinly sliced meat or mushrooms, take under a minute. Keep an eye on everything you put in the pot so it doesn’t overcook.
Chinese hot pot at home can be as simple or complicated as you want it to be. Sure, you can make a complex and nuanced broth by slow-cooking bones and mix-and-matching spices, but reasonably tasty variations can be made with bouillon cubes or even just water.
These days, there are a variety of packaged broth bases in every flavor imaginable that you simply combine with boiling water. Voila—authentic Chinese hot pot ready for enjoyment in minutes! Here are my favorite brands:
- Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot. Little Sheep is a famous Chinese hot pot chain. I like their Sichuan soup base best, though the plain flavor is also tasty.
- Hai Di Lao. Hai Di Lao is another famous Chinese hot pot chain that offers manicures as you wait in the inevitable line. I like their mushroom and shrimp flavor soup bases.
- Lao Gan Ma is a Chinese chili sauce brand with a cult following. They carry a soup base that tastes very close to their flagship sauce.
For those up for a more involved broth, you can easily adapt a variety of Asian soups into a hot pot. I like the following recipes:
HOW TO EAT HOT POT! (Chinese Hot Pot 101) – Fung Bros Food
FAQ
What are the best things to put in a hot pot?
What is usually in hot pot?
What to look for when buying a hot pot?
What is the best meat to buy at hot pot?
Do you need special equipment to make a hot pot?
That’s why we prefer to make our hot pot at home. You do need some special equipment to have a hot pot meal at home. Let’s start with the essential gear. Heat Source: We have a specialized electric hot pot burner that comes with a pot. However, any portable heat source will work.
What to eat in a hot pot?
Many hot pot restaurants have a salad bar-esque set-up (I create a similar buffet at home!), where you can build your own bowl of chopped aromatics (scallions, garlic, cilantro), sauces (soy, peanut, sesame), vinegar, oils, and seasonings (sacha, chile flakes) to stir together and plunge your broth-cooked ingredients into before eating.
How to make a hot pot at home?
Thinly sliced meat, leafy greens, and an aromatic boiling broth are all you need to make a hot pot at home. You may be used to going out to hot pot restaurants to enjoy this dish, but with the right ingredients, you can do it yourself! Chinese hot pot is a traditional dish in China.
How to prepare food for a hot pot party?
When shopping for food for the hot pot, you simply need to consider the amount of meat and seafood. I usually prepare 4 to 8 ounces of meat and seafood per person. And I usually get 2 to 3 ingredients from each food group. You can save all the leftovers and use them to cook soups and noodles in the days following the party. 3. Prep the ingredients