Chinese Hot Pot. A hearty and boiling pot of soup stock, similar to fondue, is used for cooking various delectable foods, such as meat, vegetables, and herbs.
Every Chinese New Year, families gather around the dining table for a delicious, hearty, and comforting supper. And this traditional Chinese Hot Pot is always present.
This traditional Chinese dish can be made in the Instant Pot, and you’ll find all the ingredients you need in just one sitting.
During winter, especially on cold nights, hot pot is a popular dish. A pot of hot soup with a wide variety of fresh ingredients is the ultimate comfort food.
Soup stocks come in many forms, but the simplest Chinese hot pot just requires two: chicken broth and freshly ground white pepper. I used chicken broth in this recipe.
When it comes to fresh ingredients, you have a lot of leeways to get creative or flexible.
It’s a brilliant idea to start with a variety of protein sources, such as meats and seafood, as well as Chinese veggies such as bok choy and Napa cabbage.
Do you want to learn some tips? Follow these techniques below:
- Place the fresh ingredients on a platter and cut and slice them to assemble.
- The hot pot should be placed in the center of the dinner table so that everyone can gather around it.
- To enjoy the dinner, each guest will be handed a bowl and a pair of chopsticks along with the hot pot’s fresh contents.
- Boiling the soup is the first step, followed by the slow addition of the ingredients. As the napa cabbage stems require more time to cook, begin with those ingredients that take longer to prepare, such as meats and seafood, fish balls, tofu, and mushrooms.
- It will take 2-3 rounds of cooking to use up all the fresh ingredients, so don’t use them all at once. With a ladle, you eat, speak, and add more ingredients to the soup when you finish what’s in the pot, and you’re done.
- As the meal continues to cook, the soup’s flavor deepens and becomes more enjoyable. My favorite addition to the hot pot is garlic oil, which lends an earthy flavor.
- You only need soy sauce for the dipping sauce. If desired, soy sauce can be spiced up with chopped chilies or chili oil.
Wondering what to buy?
Well, you can buy any kind of thinly sliced meat you like. Fish balls, mushrooms, other veggies, eggs, noodles, and tofu are common additions. The broth is just made with chicken stock too.
Each serving of this meal has 401 calories in it.
INGREDIENTS:
- 115 g of sliced napa cabbage
- 340 g of fish balls
- 170 g of sliced chicken meat
- 170 g of shelled and deveined shrimp
- 115 g of tofu
- 115 g of sliced salmon fillet
- 115 g of sliced shiitake mushrooms
- 115 g of sliced white mushroom
- 115 g of scallops
- 115 g of sliced baby bok choy
GARLIC OIL
:
- 5 tablespoons of cooking oil
- 1 minced head of garlic
CONDIMENT:
- Chilies (optional)
- Soy sauce
HOW TO COOK CHINESE HOT POT
- Place the freshly prepared items on serving platters. Make sure that all of the similar components are on the same plate.
- In a skillet, add the cooking oil. Fry some minced garlic in it when it’s hot to make some Garlic Oil! Remove the garlic oil from the heat and store it in a small container. Take a break and let it cool off.
- Turn on the Set Instant Pot and make sure that it is set to Saute mode for 30 minutes. Stir in the Chicken Stock, water, and ground white pepper.
- Bring the broth to a boil. Add the napa cabbage and boil for one minute.
- Add fish balls, chicken, tofu, mushrooms, shrimp, salmon, scallops, and baby bok choy to the Instant Pot in batches. Do not use all of the components at one time. The hot pot should be used to cook the items for 2 to 3 baths.
- As the soup starts to boil, drizzle a little garlic oil over the top. Make sure everything is fully combined by giving it a good stir. Ladle some soup and part of the ingredients into serving bowls and serve with the Condiment right away! You’ll need to keep cooking the soup after the first round is complete to ensure that you’ve used up all the ingredients.
NOTE:
Asian stores have a wide variety of fish balls. They can take on a variety of forms and are all guaranteed tasty. Typically, I’d recommend simple white fish balls, fried fish balls in round or rectangle shape, and different fish sticks.