How to Make Chinese Hotpot at Home in the UK (Beginner Guide)
How to Make Chinese Hotpot at Home (UK Beginner Guide)
If you’ve ever had hotpot in China — or even in a decent restaurant — you’ll know it’s not just about the food. It’s noisy, slightly chaotic, very social, and somehow you always end up eating more than you intended.
Trying to recreate that at home in the UK can feel… optimistic at first. We certainly didn’t get it right straight away. But the good news is: it’s actually much easier than it looks.
Once you understand the basics — and avoid a few early mistakes — you can get surprisingly close to the real thing.
What Is Hotpot (and Why It’s Different)
At its simplest, hotpot is:
- A pot of simmering broth
- A table full of raw ingredients
- Everyone cooking their own food
That’s it. No complicated recipes. No perfect timing. No pressure.
You just:
- Put things in the pot
- Wait a bit
- Take them out
- Dip and eat
Repeat until you’re full (or until you realise you’ve massively over-ordered).
What You Actually Need (UK-Friendly)
You don’t need anything fancy to get started. Here’s the basic setup:
1. A Pot (and Heat Source)
At minimum:
- A normal saucepan on the hob works fine (my wife sometimes makes a sinple hotpot for 1 using this method)
Better:
👉 This is one of the biggest upgrades you can make, but not essential for your first attempt.
2. Soup Base (This Matters More Than You Think)
This is where most people go wrong. You have three main options in the UK:
- Pre-made hotpot soup base packets (best option for beginners)
- Stock + added ingredients (acceptable, but less authentic, though we like a Chicken stock base as well)
- Trying to make it from scratch (don’t do this yet)
Look for:
👉 Most Asian supermarkets in the UK will have these. Amazon is killer for this.
3. Ingredients (Don’t Overthink It)
This is where hotpot becomes fun.
Start simple:
Meat (thinly sliced is key):
- Beef
- Lamb
Vegetables:
- Pak choi
- Spinach
- Mushrooms
- Lettuce (surprisingly good)
Carbs:
- Noodles
- Rice cakes (if you can find them)
Extras:
- Tofu
- Fish balls
👉 You do not need 30 different ingredients. We made that mistake early on. Not that it was a terrible mistake, it just meant a Sundayhotpot turned into a 4 days worth of hotpot as we couldn’t get through it all…
4. Dipping Sauce (Quietly Essential)
This is where you customise everything. A simple starting point:
- Sesame paste or sesame oil
- Soy sauce
- Garlic
- Coriander (if you like it)
Mix it to taste. There’s no correct recipe — which is both helpful and mildly frustrating.
How It Works (Step-by-Step)
Once everything is on the table:
Step 1 — Heat the broth
Get it simmering, not violently boiling.
Step 2 — Add ingredients gradually
Don’t throw everything in at once.
- Meat cooks quickly
- Vegetables vary
- Noodles need a bit longer
You’ll figure this out faster than you think.
Step 3 — Fish things out and eat
Use a ladle or chopsticks.
Dip → eat → repeat.
Step 4 — Keep it going
Top up with water or stock if needed.
Hotpot is not a “serve and finish” meal — it’s ongoing.
Common Mistakes (We Made All of These)
❌ Buying random ingredients without a plan
You’ll end up with too much of the wrong things.
❌ Ignoring the soup base
This is the foundation — don’t cheap out here.
❌ Overcooking everything
Not everything needs to sit in the pot for 10 minutes.
❌ Trying to make it perfect
Hotpot is meant to be a bit messy.
Where to Buy Ingredients in the UK
Your best options:
- Local Asian supermarkets
- Chinese grocery stores
- Online (if you know what you’re looking for, again, Amazon is very useful here)
Most UK supermarkets are… not great for this. You might find basics, but not the things that make it feel right. But don’t let that put you off, it is still a nice place to start, but the real stuff does make a big difference.
Why It’s Worth the Effort
Once you get the hang of it, hotpot becomes one of the easiest ways to:
- Feed a group
- Try new ingredients
- Turn dinner into something more social
We’ve had friends over who had never tried anything like it before — and it turns out people are far more open to it than you might expect. It’s just a shame most people’s experience of “Chinese food” in the UK starts and ends with the local takeaway.
Where to Go Next
If you’re just getting started, focus on:
- Getting a decent soup base
- Keeping ingredients simple
- Not overthinking it
From here, we’ll get into:
- The best hotpot equipment you can buy in the UK
- Ingredients that are actually worth tracking down
- How to build better dipping sauces
Because once you’ve done it once, you’ll almost certainly want to do it again — just slightly better next time.