🍲 Recipe · classic
Clear Bone Broth Hot Pot 清汤火锅
The purist's hot pot — ingredients shine without spice
The clear bone broth hot pot lets the quality of each ingredient speak for itself. No chili, no mala — just a deeply flavoured, golden bone broth made from pork or chicken bones. This is the classic choice for Beijing-style hot pot and for diners who want the freshest ingredients to taste their best.
Broth Ingredients
- 500g pork bones or 1 whole chicken carcass
- 2L cold water
- 3 cm ginger, sliced
- 2 stalks scallion
- 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine (optional)
- 1 tsp salt
- White pepper to taste
Dipping Sauce
- 3 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp fresh ginger, minced
- 1 tbsp scallion
- 1 tbsp fresh cilantro
- Optional: 1 tsp chili oil or fermented leek flower sauce (for Beijing lamb style)
At-Table Ingredients
Proteins (quality matters most here)
- 250g thinly sliced lamb leg or shoulder (the traditional Beijing choice)
- 200g thinly sliced beef ribeye
- 150g fresh shrimp
- 100g scallops, halved
Vegetables
- 100g napa cabbage
- 80g spinach
- 80g enoki mushrooms
- 80g chrysanthemum greens (茼蒿) — the traditional Beijing hot pot green
- 100g firm tofu, cubed
Noodles
- 100g glass noodles
Instructions
1
Make bone broth ahead (recommended)
Blanch bones in cold water 5 min, discard water. Cover with 2L cold water, add ginger and scallion. Bring to a boil skimming foam, then simmer gently 2–3 hours. Strain. The broth should be golden and clear. Season. This can be done the day before.
2
Quick version
Use a high-quality store-bought clear broth or chicken stock. Add ginger, scallion, and Shaoxing wine. Simmer 10 min to develop flavour.
3
Set up the dipping sauce
In clear broth hot pot, the dipping sauce is more important than the broth — it carries most of the flavour. Make a simple soy-sesame sauce. For Beijing lamb style, add fermented leek flower sauce (韭菜花酱) and sesame paste.
4
Cook delicate ingredients gently
Clear broth hot pot is about precision. Lamb: 10–15 seconds. Beef: 10–20 seconds. Shrimp: 60–90 seconds. Scallops: 2–3 min until fully opaque. Vegetables: 30 seconds to 2 min. The broth should be at a steady simmer — not a fierce rolling boil.
⚠️ Food Safety
Lamb: USDA 145°F/63°C minimum — thin slices reach this in seconds
Scallops: fully opaque, no translucent centre — FDA 145°F/63°C
Shrimp: fully pink, no translucent sections
💡 Tips
- In clear broth hot pot, ingredient quality is everything — buy the best beef or lamb you can afford
- Chrysanthemum greens (茼蒿) are the classic Beijing hot pot green — find them at Asian grocery stores; substitute with watercress
- The broth concentrates and improves throughout the meal — the last bowl of broth (喝汤) is often the best part
- Use the broth as soup at the end — it will be rich with flavour from everything cooked in it