Hakata Mizutaki Recipe: Cloudy Chicken Broth and Eating Order

Hakata mizutaki is a chicken hot pot built around a rich, cloudy broth. Unlike a light kombu-based hot pot, the Hakata style simmers chicken bones and bone-in pieces, tastes the broth first, then adds meat and vegetables before finishing with rice porridge.

This four-person recipe includes a traditional long-simmered broth and a shorter version using drumettes. Ingredient names are included in practical terms so visitors and foreign residents can shop in a Japanese supermarket.

Recipe at a glance

Choose the traditional or quick version according to the ingredients and time available.

Ingredients for four

• Broth: 2–3 chicken carcasses, 600 g bone-in chicken, 3 L water, 100 ml sake, green leek tops and optional ginger.
• Hot pot: 400 g chicken thigh, cabbage or Chinese cabbage, two leeks, mushrooms, one block of tofu and mizuna or shungiku.
• Table: ponzu, chopped spring onion, yuzu kosho and optional grated daikon with chilli.
• Finish: two bowls of cooked rice and two eggs, or champon noodles.

Make a cloudy chicken broth

Rinse blood and residue from the carcasses. Blanch the bones and bone-in meat for 2–3 minutes, discard the water and rinse again. This reduces odour without removing all the flavour.

Add the cleaned bones, meat, water, sake, leek and ginger to a large pot. Bring to a boil, remove the first foam, then keep a gentle but active boil for 2–3 hours. Add hot water when the level falls. The movement emulsifies fat and gelatin into the cloudy broth.

Strain the broth and season only lightly with salt. Ponzu is added at the table, so an aggressively salty soup loses the Hakata-style progression.

Faster version with drumettes

Blanch and rinse about 800 g chicken drumettes. Simmer them in 1.8 L water with 80 ml sake, leek and ginger for 40–60 minutes. A small amount of unsalted or lightly seasoned chicken-paitan base can add body.

A pressure cooker can shorten the broth stage, but follow its maximum-fill and cooling instructions. Never open it under pressure.

Hakata eating order

• Taste a cup of hot broth first with a little salt and spring onion.
• Eat the fully cooked chicken with ponzu and yuzu kosho.
• Add tofu, leek, mushrooms and leafy vegetables in batches.
• Skim excess fat, then finish with rice and egg or champon noodles.

Food-safety notes

Keep raw chicken utensils separate from tableware. Cook every piece through to the centre, refrigerate leftovers promptly and reheat the broth to a full boil before eating again. Imported ponzu and stock bases may contain wheat or soy.

Understand Hakata hot-pot culture

Learn the dish’s background or compare another Fukuoka hot pot.

• What is Hakata mizutaki?
• What is Hakata motsunabe?
• Hakata motsunabe recipe