How to Make Chanko Nabe (Sumo Stew) At Home
Chanko nabe is a hot-pot dish that was originally created with the intent to serve to Japanese sumo wrestlers. Chanko means a dish made to be eaten by sumo wrestlers and nabe means pot. In chanko nabe, vegetables, and meat are placed in a pot and simmered together in a soy sauce or salt-based broth. Additionally, rice, rice cakes, or noodles are added at the end to fill the stomachs of the sumo wrestlers.
Sumo wrestlers sleep and eat together in an organization called a sumo beya (Sumo house), so chanko nabe was created to provide an efficient and nutritionally balanced meal for sumo wrestlers since they eat a lot. It’s the perfect menu because it can be made in a large batch, creates a sense of solidarity among wrestlers as they gather around the same pot, and the broth created by simmering the various ingredients becomes very tasty in the end.
Sumo wrestlers gain weight because they eat a lot of food on an empty stomach after practicing hard without breakfast, and then take a nap afterward to bulk up even more.
Don’t worry, chanko nabe itself is actually a simple and healthy meal that only contains vegetables and meat in a soup. It has become popular not only in the sumo world but also with normal Japanese people. The soup and ingredients can be arranged in endless ways such as by adding miso paste into the broth, using seafood instead of chicken, changing up the dashi, and more. There are various recipes that exist for each restaurant and household.
A common recipe for chanko nabe consists of chicken meatballs, napa cabbage, Japanese leek, and mushrooms cooked in a chicken-based broth. The sight of a family eating around the same nabe (hotpot) is a typical Japanese winter event. It is common to gather around and cook while eating nabe at the dining table using a tabletop gas stove or an electric pot. If you do not have a portable gas stove or electric pot, you can make chanko nabe using a regular kitchen stove and serve each portion individually.
Now, let’s get to making Chanko nabe!
Overview
Prep time: 25 mins
Cook time: 25 mins
Total time: 50 mins
Total servings: 2
Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients
- 250g Ground Chicken
- 30 cm Japanese Leek
- 100g Lotus Root
- 1 Tbsp Soy Sauce (for making the meatballs)
- 1 Tbsp Sake (for making the meatballs)
- 1 Tbsp Potato Starch (for making the meatballs)
- 1 tsp Grated Ginger (for making the meatballs)
- 300g Napa Cabbage
- 1 package of Enoki Mushrooms
- 1/2 Carrot
- 1 Piece of Fried Tofu
- 1000ml Water
- 1.5 Tbsp Chicken Stock Powder (for the soup broth)
- 2 tsp Soy Sauce (for the soup broth)
- 2 tsp Mirin (for the soup broth)
- 2 tsp Sake (for the soup broth)
- 1 tsp Salt (for the soup broth)
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