Hot Pot

Name: Hot Pot
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: Wagyu beef, paper thin sliced, 400g; Lamb, paper thin sliced, 300g; Tiger prawns, shell on, 300g; Silken tofu, cubed, 300g; Enoki and shiitake mushrooms, 300g; Napa cabbage and spinach, 400g; Glass noodles or udon, 300g; Sichuan spicy broth base, 1 packet; Sesame dipping sauce, to serve; Fresh garlic and chilli oil, to serve

火锅/huǒ guō/

Also known as: Huoguo, Chinese Hotpot, Sichuan Hot Pot, Steamboat

About this dish

A bubbling split pot of spicy Sichuan and mild broths for cooking paper-thin meats, vegetables and dumplings at the table.

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History & Origin

Hot pot (huo guo, literally fire pot) is one of China's oldest cooking traditions, with evidence of communal pot cooking dating back over 1,000 years. The Mongolian version — a simple mutton broth with thinly sliced lamb — was the original. In Sichuan it evolved into the fiery, numbing broth now most famous worldwide. Haidilao, the Sichuan hot pot chain founded in 1994, became famous for extraordinary service: free manicures, shoe shines and noodle-pulling performances for waiting customers. It is now one of China's most valuable restaurant chains. Hot pot is deeply social — it cannot be eaten alone.

Ingredients

🥩Wagyu beef, paper thin sliced, 400g

🐑Lamb, paper thin sliced, 300g

🦐Tiger prawns, shell on, 300g

🫘Silken tofu, cubed, 300g

🍄Enoki and shiitake mushrooms, 300g

🥬Napa cabbage and spinach, 400g

🍜Glass noodles or udon, 300g

🌿Sichuan spicy broth base, 1 packet

🫙Sesame dipping sauce, to serve

🧄Fresh garlic and chilli oil, to serve

Method

Serves 4

Prepare the Sichuan spicy broth by simmering the broth base with tallow, dried chillies, Sichuan peppercorns and aromatics for 30 minutes.

Set up a split pot (yuan yang) with the spicy broth on one side and a clear chicken or mushroom broth on the other.

Arrange all raw ingredients on platters around the table — meat thinly sliced, vegetables cut into bite-sized pieces, tofu cubed.

Set the pot to a vigorous boil. Prepare dipping sauce bowls with sesame paste, garlic, spring onion, coriander and chilli oil.

Cook ingredients according to their time: beef 10-20 seconds, prawns 1 minute, vegetables 2-3 minutes, tofu 3-4 minutes.

The broth becomes more flavourful as the meal progresses. Towards the end, add noodles to the enriched broth for the final course.

✓ What Makes it Authentic

The Sichuan broth base should contain tallow for authenticity. Cook wagyu beef for seconds only — 10 to 20 seconds maximum. The sesame dipping sauce is essential.

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