Chanko Nabe or Sumo Stew is a robust hot pot filled with all kinds of vegetables and tons of protein in a rich dashi and chicken broth. This well-balanced meal is traditionally eaten by sumo wrestlers but also enjoyed at home or some restaurants.
Spring is here and why am I still sharing a hot pot recipe? Well, the Japanese eat nabe (hot pot) more frequently in the fall and winter months, but they do enjoy all types of nabe dishes all year round. And for Sumo Wrestlers, they eat Chanko Nabe (ちゃんこ鍋) all the time!
What is Chanko Nabe?
Chanko Nabe (ちゃんこ鍋) is a type of Japanese nabe (hot pot), which I think is similar to a stew (but with more broth). It is traditionally eaten by sumo wrestlers in Japan and usually served in massive quantities as part of a weight-gain diet for sumo wrestlers. They eat this meal pretty regularly with different ingredients.
The characteristic of this hot pot is that there is no specific “recipe”. And unlike other varieties of Japanese hot pot meals, meats, seafood, vegetables, and pretty much everything can be thrown into the hot pot.
Chanko means “a meal” that is eaten by sumo wrestlers. There are a few different theories regarding the origin of the name “chanko”.
One of the theories is that Chan is an endearing name to call Oyakata (親方), or a retired sumo wrestler coach (coming from To-chan (父ちゃん) or daddy). And ko comes from kodomo (子供) or a child or a pupil (deshi (弟子)). So chanko stands for a meal that the sumo coach and his pupils share. You could use chanko in a sentence like “Today’s chanko is Gyudon.” (今日のちゃんこは牛丼だよ).
Today’s recipe is from this beautiful Japanese cookbook, Let’s Cook Japanese Food!: Everyday Recipes for Authentic Dishes. Author Amy Kaneko demystified home-style Japanese cooking in her book and I absolutely enjoyed reading this cookbook! If you love Japanese cooking then I highly recommend you to keep it in your cookbook library.
Amy is an American married to a Japanese husband and learned to cook Japanese food from her mother-in-law and sister-in-law. She brought her knowledge all into this beautifully photographed and illustrated cookbook, and I love her choices of recipes that she had selected to share with readers.
I know how much you love cooking Japanese food, so I’m giving away this cookbook to one JOC reader! You’ll see the link to my giveaway page at the bottom of this post.
The Delicious Broth for Chanko Nabe
The broth for Chanko Nabe is usually dashi and/or chicken broth soup, seasoned with sake and mirin to add more flavor.
For good luck before the match, they won’t use beef and pork bone for soup base because four-leg animals represent the loss for sumo wrestling (can’t touch the ground with any part of the body other than the soles of the feet). You can use them as ingredients, but not for soup broth.
There are various flavors added to the broth. The most common choices are:
- Miso
- Salt
- Soy sauce
- Kimchi
Today’s recipe is with miso, and it’s recommended to use white miso for mild and creamy flavor.
What’s inside Chanko Nabe?
Common ingredients that are thrown into Chanko Nabe include:
- Chicken thighs
- Chicken meatballs
- Fish fillet
- Fishballs
- Crab
- Shrimp
- Sliced pork belly
- Bacon
- Sausages
- Tofu (Thick/thin deep-fried tofu, medium-firm tofu, etc)
- Konnyaku
- Garlic
- Kimchi
- Sesame seeds
- Vegetables (daikon, onion, carrot, napa cabbage, green onion, gobo, mizuna, chives)
- Mushrooms (shiitake, enoki, maitake, shimeji, etc)
- Udon noodles or Chuka noodles (Chinese style noodles)
Leftover Chanko Nabe broth can also be used later as broth for noodle dishes, and I enjoy drinking it as a soup (dilute with water or dashi a little bit if it’s too salty) as it has so much flavor from all the hot pot ingredients.
Japanese Ingredient Substitution: If you want to look for substitutes for Japanese condiments and ingredients, click here.
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Chanko Nabe (Sumo Stew)
Ingredients
For the broth:
For the chicken meatballs:
- ½ lb ground chicken
- 1 large egg (50 g w/o shell) (beaten and halved)
- 2 tsp ginger juice
- 2 tsp soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp cornstarch
- 6 Tbsp panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
- 3 Tbsp green onions/scallions (finely chopped)
For the stew:
- chicken meatballs (follow instructions)
- 1 ½ lb cod fillet
- 8 shrimp
- 6 oz sliced pork belly
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 14 oz medium tofu (momen tofu) (1 package)
- ½ head napa cabbage
- 2 negi (long green onion)
- 6 green onions/scallions
- 4-6 shiitake mushrooms
- ¼ carrot (for decoration; sliced and cut out with a vegetable cutter)
For serving:
- ponzu (for my homemade ponzu recipe, click here)
- sesame sauce
- 2-3 cups cooked Japanese short-grain rice (alternatively, you can serve udon noodles)
Instructions
To make the broth:
- Gather all the ingredients for Chanko Nabe Broth.
- To make the broth, in a Dutch oven or other large pot over medium heat, combine the broth, sake, mirin, ginger juice, and garlic and bring to a simmer.
- Spoon several spoonfuls of broth into a small bowl, add the miso, and stir until smooth.
- Gradually add the miso mixture to the broth in the pot, stirring to avoid lumps. Once the miso has been incorporated, do not let the broth boil.
To make the chicken meatballs:
- Gather all the ingredients. This grater (I have 6" one) works great for grating ginger (daikon, garlic, etc) and keeping the juice from grating it. In this recipe, we only use ginger juice.
- In a large bowl, combine the chicken, ½ beaten egg (reserve the remaining egg for another use), the ginger juice, soy sauce, corn starch, panko, and green onion. Using your hands, mix all together.
- Once the mixture becomes a little bit white and well combined, shape the mixture into a ball. Sprinkle with panko as needed.
To cut all the ingredients:
- Cut the cod fillet into 2-inch chunks, peel and devein shrimp, cut the sliced pork belly into 2-inch pieces, trim the visible fat from the chicken thighs and cut into bite-sized pieces, cut the tofu into 1-inch cubes, and separate the leaves from napa cabbage and cut them into smaller pieces. Slice the carrot and cut out with a flower-shaped vegetable cutter.
- Cut negi (long green onion) diagonally into 1-inch-thick pieces, cut the green onions into 2-inch lengths, and remove stems of shiitake mushrooms and make a decorative cut on the caps if desired.
To set up the table:
- To prepare the stew ingredients, place the meatballs, seafood, pork belly, chicken, tofu, carrot slices, napa cabbage, long green onion, green onions, and mushrooms on the platter.
- Pour the ponzu sauce and sesame sauce (goma dare) into individual dipping bowls at each place setting along with chopsticks, a soup spoon (optional) and a soup bowl.
- Place a portable gas burner and the nabe, and the stew ingredients on the table. If you don’t have a gas/electric burner, you can cook the stew on the stovetop, transfer it to a large bowl, and serve it family style.
To cook Chanko Nabe:
- If cooking the stew ingredients on the stovetop, cook in batches. Add some of each of the ingredients to the broth, simmer (do not boil) until cooked, and serve them, returning to the stove to start a new batch as each previous batch is eaten. The vegetables and tofu cook more quickly than the meatballs, seafood, and chicken.
- Keep the broth at a simmer the entire time. If the liquid gets low, add a little water or chicken broth to have enough liquid to heat the noodles or rice at the end (even though you are thinning the broth, the flavorful ingredients you are cooking in it continue to enrich it).
- When diners are ready, remove any solids in the broth and add the noodles or rice. Simmer until heated through, then ladle into the soup bowls and serve.
Hi Nami! I love your recipes, especially your hot pots. However, I’ve had people tell me gas burners aren’t safe for the indoors, and that if I cook. with it, the co2 gases will fill the house/could be deadly. Is there a special brand of gas stove that you use that’s safe? I can’t find much info on the internet about a safe open flame burner.
Hi Victoria! I listed the brand that I use here:
https://www.justonecookbook.com/shop/
It’s very common for Asian families in Asia and oversea to have a gas or electric burner at the table. You can get an electric burner too. The cooking time is minimal, and we usually turn off between so that it doesn’t overcook. So it’s not constantly on for… like 1 hour. You can mostly cook on the stove top, transfer to the table, then heat up a little before serving. When you add more ingredients you will turn on the heat, but it takes 10 minutes to cook in general. Then you can turn off etc. Honestly, I never heard of any gas burner accidents at the table…. but I understand cooking at the table might sound scary to non-Asian family. 🙂 It’s very fun to do – like fondu! Just make sure safety – like no paper around frame etc.. common sense stuff. 🙂
Victoria, I have one of the gas burner sets that are popularly sold at Asian markets. The manual comes with strict cautions and warnings of accidental death if you use it indoors, but also says it is safe for use inside a restaurant. The manual does not elaborate on why it is safe in a restaurant but not at home, leaving me to assume this has to do with room size and ventilation, but even that is a strange way to put it because I’ve eaten at some restaurants that have smaller rooms than some people’s dining rooms I’ve been in… so… it’s a little contradictory the way this manual states it. Basically if you’re gonna use one indoors, I would just suggest opening a window on both sides of the house (one in the room you’re in) to get an air current going, maybe turn on a fan. This is how we did it when I used mine. I know these are used commonly by Asian families indoors, and like Nami said, you don’t really hear of people dying from this, but the heavy warnings in the manual do make me feel uneasy, so I vent the room as a precaution. If it’s too worrisome, you could just take it outside. Definitely not worth taking the enjoyment from your meal if it concerns you.
Electric burners or induction heating ones are a safe alternative, but you can’t use donabe (earthenware pot) with it. Well, maybe you can use it on the metal coil type, but I don’t think it is recommended.
Hi nami. My name is pervin and I live in singapore. I really enjoy trying out your recipes, thank you. I spent twenty two years in kobe, japan, and my husband and I love japanese food. Thanks again, have a happy weekend!
Hi Pervin! So you’re back in Singapore after 22 years in Japan. This is my 20th year in the US. 🙂 Hope you can get good Japanese food in Singapore (I’m sure you do!) but it’s great that you can cook Japanese food at home. 🙂 Thank you for your kind comment!
At my household, when school session is in progress (5 times a week), Chanko Nabe is always served in the morning. The children are nourished so they can go through a rigorous day at school. My version of Chanko Nabe consists of chicken and assortment of vegetables. The broth is either homemade chicken broth or dashi based sauce (dashi, mirin, shoyo, and dash of sugar.) Koreguso is optional. The children like a boilded egg added as well.
For those of you interested in viewing how Sumo wrestlers prepare (and eat) Chanko Nabe, here is a two minutes clip: www3 (dot) nhk (dot) or (dot) jp/nhkworld/en/tv/sumo/sumopedia_5 (dot) html
Enjoy Chanko Nabe as my family does!
Hi Steve! Chanko Nabe is served in the morning?! I want to be your kid! My family might tag along with me. 🙂
Thanks for sharing the NHK world link! We love that channel.
I just ordered the cookbook because I never have luck with contests whoohoo! Cant wait to get it!
Hi Lori! You’ll enjoy this cookbook. 🙂 Most winners always respond to me saying “I never won anything before!”. 🙂 It might be you next time!!!!
Wow – this dish looks amazing!!!! I love that you can substitute ingredients based on what you want or like as well! Thank you for sharing!
Hi Jennifer! Yeah Chanko Nabe is really easy to adapt! Thank you for reading my post! 🙂
Hi Nami,
I really love your recipe but I have a question. Can I use Saba fish or Mahimahi instead of Cod? and will it effect the flavour of the soup…..
Thank you
Hi Ve! Thank you so much! For hot pot, cod or usually white fish is used. I think mahimahi works, although I’ve never tried in hot pot. Saba has specific taste, and if you don’t mind, that’s okay. 🙂 If the fish is flaky, like cod, make sure to keep the skin on. 🙂
I have not been able to find cod with skin on where I live. The only trustworthy fish in the middle of the US is frozen. I’ve had WAY too many times buying “fresh” fish from a seafood dept., only to get home 20 minutes later and it stinks up my house before I even get it in the fridge (the one exception is Whole Foods, they seem to be the only grocer with consistently safe fish storing practices, but can be pricey).
I looooooooove salmon and can buy those frozen with skin on. Maybe I will try it with salmon next time. My cod filets did get pretty flakey and broke apart somewhat in the chanko nabe since they had no skin.
“If you **don’t want to try this dish,** but you don’t have a gas burner, you can cook the stew on the stovetop, transfer it to a large bowl, and serve it family style.”
Huh?
Hi JJT! Thanks so much for letting me know my error. I erased that sentence. I don’t know what I was thinking… probably I was half falling asleep when I was writing this… xD
i want have more recipe from you mam to learn…thankz for the recipe you shared…..
Hi Mary Jane! Thank you so much! Please subscribe to my newsletter (it’s free) so you will get notified when I publish my new recipes. 🙂
https://www.justonecookbook.com/subscribe/
Tried this dashi tonight with a more traditional nabe of pork, beef as well as
chicken dango and it was a real taste treat! No fish but all the same a great warm feast on a cold wet night. Thanks for this!!
Hi Don! I’m happy to hear you enjoyed chanko nabe! Thank you for your kind feedback. xo
I can’t wait to make this, and I actually have the cookbook too. We just had chanko nabe at the sumo stadium last weekend (at the Japanese restaurant on the 2nd floor, not the basement level), and it was SO flavorful, yet made even moreso by a miso/garlic paste that came with it. Do you know how to make that paste?? I think I’d put it in everything!
Hi Janelle! What a timing. I just finish photo shooting a miso recipe that will be posted next week. It’s miso, sesame, and garlic sauce and it’s really good. I can imagine using this sauce for this chanko nabe recipe… stay tuned!
Thank you Nami! You have brought tears to my jp husband’s eyes. I am a Canadian girl, and he feels I finally understand him! 🙂
Aww thank you so much for trying this recipe and I’m so happy to hear you two enjoyed this recipe together. 🙂
Tried this recipe for today’s dinner. We all loved it. Even my child who is not too much into Nabe.
It says 4 servings but it is enough for 8 ???? well eat out of this twice!
Hi Kessia! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe, even your child! 🙂 Thanks to your feedback, I changed it to 6. I think the original recipe says 4, and I’m always afraid someone would complain it wasn’t’ enough food for the specified amount, but I agree, I think it can feed 6 servings for sure. 🙂
I agree. It was so much food! This is for 6 hearty appetites or 8 more modest ones (or if some are children) as long as you serve at least rice with it.
Can anyone tell me cook times for the possible add ins? Like how long do I let the pork belly or chicken thighs cook in the stew
Hi Caleb! In general, 10 minutes in the nabe, covered. 🙂
Thank you so much for this recipe. Do you think it would be possible to convert this into an Instant Pot recipe?
Hi Martin! So you’re trying to put all the ingredients in the pot first and finish cooking instead of cooking as you eat? Hmmm… when there are different types of ingredients like this recipe (different food, different texture, different cooking time etc), it gets very tricky to cook in a pressure cooker. So… I don’t feel comfortable saying yes… unless you modify somehow with simpler ingredients. 🙂
After watching the anime Hinomaru Sumo, I was dying to know what chance tastes like.
My boyfriend and I are vegetarian, I made this without any of the meat… STILL DELICIOUS!!
I have taken the meat products out of your recipes before and they all still taste fantastic. So for anyone who is wondering how it takes vegetarian, its addictive! It will definitely become a weeknight staple.
Thank you for great recipes.
Hi Erica! How wonderful! Thank you so much for your kind feedback, especially for my vegetarian readers! I’m happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe! Thank you!
good
Thank you Ingrid! 🙂
This is so delicious! I didn’t read all of the recipe before I decided to make this, so I didn’t know this was one you cook as you eat. I thought it was a simmered dish like Oden. :T
My original plan was to make it all at once and have leftovers (because I’m on a high protein diet and wanted to save time preparing a bunch of meals at once), so that’s what I ended up doing anyway, but wowie, that was a lot of ingredients at once. I followed the recipe and it wouldn’t actually fit in my donabe. D:
Mine is a size 9 (11 inches). You might need a size 10 (11.8 inches) if you plan to cook all of it at once on the stovetop. Otherwise I think you have to do two batches , or lower the recipe size to 4 or 5 servings.
The chicken meatballs are SO good! Perfect! My favorite part. The broth is also amazing. I noticed you added some decorative carrots in the pictures but didn’t mention it in the ingredients. It would be great to see that listed in the ingredients as optional. I didn’t see the pictures when I was making my shopping list so I didn’t have them this time, but they seem like a nice addition.
Also, it would help a lot if you could add a clarification about ginger juice. I looked for it everywhere and could not find it, before finding out from another website that you can make it by grating ginger on a ginger grater and squeezing and straining the juice. Worked like a charm, but definitely added time to preparation.
Thanks for the recipe! I will definitely try it hot pot style with friends next time.
Hi Lion! Thank you for trying this recipe! Glad you enjoyed it.
Hot pot dishes in Asian cooking is always “cook as you eat”. Besides the pot in the middle of the table, ingredients take up the tablespace, and as you cook, you remove the empty platters away (and finally you have a breathing space!). Same for hot pot restaurants and at home. Fresh ingredients are controlled by how much you and others want to eat, so you will not leave the wilted veggies in the pot. So as meat, you only add as you eat, so it won’t overcook.
This is Amy’s recipe (the review from the cookbook), so I didn’t make changes to her original recipe as I didn’t get authorized prior to the post. However, I made a few changes this time, without altering her original recipe/method. 🙂
Yum! I used to eat this in Japan. Great recipe.
Thank you, Adam! 🙂
Love Chanko Nabe. Had it in /toky0. iT IS SO GOOD! Never go to the noodles.was to stuffed.
Hi Suzan! I’m so happy to hear you got to experience chanko nabe in Japan!
These recipes are so great! I have made the Shabu Shabu many times and it has been a hit. I look forward to trying all these recipes because it makes my mouth water just reading them!
Hi Mary,
Thank you very much for your kind feedback! We hope you will enjoy this Chanko Nabe!
8tbsp of miso is too much – I had to chuck out the whole batch and make to taste 🙁
Hi Mikaela, Thank you very much for trying this recipe. We are sorry to hear this recipe didn’t turn out well for you.😔
Miso has many different types and brands, and they all taste a little bit different. Depends on what type of miso or chicken broth is used, this stew may taste overwhelming. Please feel free to adjust the miso amount for your liking next time. Thank you for your feedback.