Chanko Nabe Sumo Wrestler Hot Pot

Ingredients

• For the broth
• 2 litres chicken stock, rich, preferably from whole bird
• 3 tbsp white or red miso paste, dissolved in a ladleful of hot stock before adding
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• Protein
• 500 g chicken thighs, boneless, skin on, cut into large bite-sized pieces
• 400 g firm tofu, cut into large cubes
• 200 g fish cakes (kamaboko or chikuwa), sliced into rounds
• 4 eggs, cracked directly into the pot at the end
• Vegetables
• 300 g napa cabbage (hakusai), roughly chopped into large pieces
• 200 g daikon radish, peeled, sliced into half-moons
• 150 g shiitake mushrooms, stems trimmed, caps left whole
• 3 stalks spring onions (negi), cut into 4 cm lengths
• Shime (finish)
• 400 g thick udon noodles, fresh or par-cooked; added after the main pot is cleared

Method

1. 1
   Bring the chicken stock to a steady simmer in a wide, deep donabe or heavy pot set at the table or on the stove. Dissolve the miso paste in a ladleful of hot stock, return it to the pot, and add the soy sauce. Taste: the broth should be savoury and full-bodied but not sharp — this is the foundation on which every subsequent ingredient will depend.
2. 2
   Add the chicken thigh pieces to the simmering broth. This step is where the dish lives or dies: chicken is the only philosophically and traditionally correct primary protein — a two-legged animal that stays upright, never touches the ground. Cook until the pieces are just cooked through, showing no pink at the centre when pressed apart with chopsticks, and the broth has taken on a deeper poultry richness.
3. 3
   Add the daikon and napa cabbage, which require the most time. Simmer until the daikon offers no resistance to a chopstick pushed through its thickest point and the cabbage has collapsed into the broth.
4. 4
   Add the tofu cubes, fish cakes, shiitake mushrooms, and spring onions. The pot should be visibly abundant — volume is not incidental but defining. Simmer until the mushrooms are tender and the fish cakes are heated through, their surface taking on a slight sheen from the enriched broth.
5. 5
   Crack the eggs directly onto the surface of the simmering pot. Allow them to set to a soft, barely firm yolk — the whites fully opaque, the yolks trembling when the pot is gently moved. Serve immediately from the communal pot into deep bowls.
6. 6
   When the main ingredients are consumed, add the thick udon noodles to the remaining enriched broth — the shime. Simmer until the noodles are tender and have absorbed the concentrated stock. The broth at this stage should smell deeply of chicken, miso, and rendered vegetable sweetness: this is the correct end.