Chicken Steamboat Soup Recipe

This dish is named after the traditional utensil in which it is cooked. In Asian (particularly Chinese and Thai) restaurants this is often brought to the table so that guests can cook their own vegetables in the base broth (see the image below). In essence, it's a cooking pot with a funnel in which a burner sits. You can think of a steamboat as a fondue pot with a central funnel and a surrounding moat in which the food is cooked. Electric steamboats are available today and a traditional fondue pot will work for this recipe as well.

Chicken Steamboat Soup Recipe

Ingredients:

6 dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked for 30 minutes in enough warm water to cover
1.5l (6 cups) chicken stock
2 tsp rice wine or dry sherry
225g (1/2 lb) lean pork, thinly sliced
225g (1/2 lb) rump steak, thinly sliced
1 chicken breast, skinned and sliced thickly
2 chicken livers, trimmed and sliced
225g (1/2 lb) raw, peeled, prawns (shrimp)
500g (1 lb) fish balls (make your own, or buy from Asian supermarkets)
115g (4 oz) fried tofu, each piece halved
a mix of baby bok choi, Chinese leaves, spinach and watercress cut into 15cm lengths
225g (1/2 lb) Chinese rice vermicelli noodles
8 eggs
1/2 bunch spring onions, chopped
salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
a mix of sauces for dipping (should include soy sauce with sesame seeds, soy sauce with crushed ginger, chilli sauce, plum sauce and hot mustard)

Method:

Drain the mushrooms (strain and retain the soaking liquid). Cut off the stems and discard then slice the caps. Pour the stock into a large pan along with the rice wine (or sherry), sesame oil and the reserved mushroom soaking liquid. Bring this mixture to a boil then season to taste with salt and freshly-ground black pepper. Reduce to a gentle simmer and set aside to keep warm.

Arrange the meat, fish, tofu, vegetables and mushroom caps in separate bowls and place on the table. Soak the vermicelli in hot water for 5 minutes then drain and divide between eight warmed soup bowls. Crack the eggs into small bowls and set one for each diner. Arrange the sauces in separate bowls.

Now add the spring onions to the stock and bring to a boil. Pour this liquid into a lighted steamboat in the centre of the table. Each guest should lower a few chosen morsels of food into the boiling stock, using chopsticks. After 1 or 2 minutes cooking the food item can be removed and eaten with the dipping sauces.

When all the ingredients on the table have been cooked the stock will be concentrated down and enriched with the food cooked in it (add boiling water if it's reduced too much). Now ladle the hot soup into the soup bowls over the noodles. Slide the egg into each bowl, stirring until the egg cooks in the soup base to form threads.

Eat the soup!

For hundreds more classic soup recipes, see the Celtnet Soup Recipes page with over 1000 recipes for different soups from across the globe.

Below are some other classic Chinese recipes on this blog that you can use in conjunction with this recipe to produce a complete Chinese meal or banquet:

Soups and Starters

Chicken Steamboat Soup

Wonton Soup

Main Dishes

Spicy Szechuan Pork (Meat)

Xinjiang Lamb Casserole

Fish and Seafood Dishes:

Deep-fried River Fish with Chilli Bean Sauce
Stir-fried Scallops with Asparagus

Vegetarian Dishes:
Chinese Vegetable and Coconut Curry

Szechuan Fried Aubergine (Vegetarian)

Noodle Dishes:

Sour and Spicy Pork with Noodles

Seafood Chow Mein (Seafood)

Accompaniments:

Perfect Steamed Rice

Egg Fried Rice

Desserts

Rice Pudding with Dried Fruit

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