Japanese Hot Pot Recipe: Easy Chicken Meat Ball Nabe

Unlike nabe, sukiyaki, oden, or other hot pot dishes, Shabu-shabu is generally the dish to enjoy paper-thin sliced meat (commonly, beef/pork/fish).

The paper-thin sliced meat is served in a specially shaped-pot filled with boiling water.

Just dip it into the boiling soup and move back and forward for seconds, and eat the meat with the “ponzu” dipping sauce.

1. Chicken breast
2. garlic and ginger
3. Shio Koji
4. Onion
5. Potato starch

This chicken ball recipe is also effortless, totally, when using a food processor.

I use a mini chopper for this recipe serving 2 people.

This Cuisinart hand blender comes with three attachments- a blinder, mini-chopper, and mixer.

So powerful, easy to clean, and no needed extra space so I love it.

Shio Koji is a traditional Japanese condiment that I use a lot in my cooking.

Adding shio koji to chicken balls instead of salt provides a rich Umami flavor instantly with savory sweetness.

The homemade shio koji recipe is available in this post, or you can get a store-bought one on Amazon.

You can use just regular salt, absolutely.

If you like more flavor in chicken balls, use chicken soup powder or add soy sauce.

There is no rule about vegetables for Japanese hot pot dishes.

Especially, I don’t want to say, “get Daikon radish”, “get napa cabbage”, “get leeks”, “get shiitake mushrooms”, and “get Shungiku”, whatever you can’t get easily in your neighborhood, outside of Japan.

Besides, these oriental vegetables are not so reasonable, agree?

Indeed, these vegetables are typical ingredients in Japan so you can stick to the authentic “nabe” recipe if desired.

(*also, the Daikon radish I can get in the US is not as delicious as one produced in Japan so I prefer to use radishes. )

Since Nabe is a simple dish that you’ll enjoy the ingredients themselves, it’s better to use authentic Dashi broth to create a rich gentle savory Japanese flavor in the soup despite I add chicken soup powder or hondashi powder.

Besides, you can damp a piece of dashi kelp in purified water before going to bed so why not?

When using dashi broth, it can provide a complex savory soup combined with chicken broth and vegetable broth ingredients so you can make delicious soup the next day.

Indeed, the dish called “Shime” in Japanese is commonly adding rice or noodles in the last to enjoy the delicious soup.

Hondashi powder or Chicken stock will be used to adjust the soup flavor.

Taste the soup after making chicken broth, and add hondashi powder to make “Japnese” soup, or add Chinese chicken broth to make “Chinese” soup.

Kiritanpo is the local traditional food in Akita prefecture, Japan, made from roughly mashed cooked rice on a skewer.

Make rice balls and wrap them around wooden skewers while turning the skewer so that the rice covers nicely around the tip.

To serve Kiritanpo, remove the rice ball from the skewer, and slice and throw it into a “Nabe” dish.

Kiritanpo will absorb a rich savory soup and the rice will not be mushy since they’re broiled.

*KIRITANPO RECIPE

Especially, for a Japanese hot pot dish such as “Torisuki”, “mizutaki” which is made of simple clear broth, Ponzu sauce is preferably used as the dipping sauce.

Ponzu Sauce is a tangy citrus soy sauce-based sauce made of citrus juice (sudachi, yuzu, and kabosu), vinegar, soy sauce, sugar or mirin, and dashi.

Its refreshing flavor goes well with the simple ingredients so it’s the perfect condiment for the simple Toridango nabe.

Also, Gomadare is a popular dipping sauce for the nabe dish. Generally, gomadare sauce is said for pork, but, it goes well with any hot pot dish.

Chicken and “yuzu kosho” are the perfect combination to add a unique tangy flavor.

Personally, I just top yuzu kosho with chicken balls and tofu without dipping sauce.

You can make homemade Yuzu kosho with limes despite it being called Yuzu-kosho.

For the recipe, check out this post later!

Make Yuzu(lime) kosho from now since it takes a minimum of 1 week to get well combined.