Mizutaki is the Hakata chicken hotpot. A whole chicken is simmered in water and salt for six hours; the collagen breaks down into a creamy yellow broth served with ponzu and yuzu pepper.

Mizutaki traces to the late-19th-century Meiji era in Hakata, when Western influence brought the practice of simmering meat for stocks. The form codified at Suigetsu, founded 1905 in Hakata, and now runs through Toriden and Hakata Mizutaki Hanamidori. The cook is single-product fine dining: a whole chicken plus water and salt simmered six to seven hours, served with the broth as the first pour and the meat as the second course. Zosui rice porridge closes the meal. Today the dish is a Fukuoka winter signature though Toriden and Hanamidori run it year-round.

Where to eat Mizutaki in Fukuoka

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Make it at home

Serves 46 hrIntermediate

Ingredients

  • 1 whole chicken (around 1.5kg), brand-chicken if possible
  • Sea salt
  • Spring onions, green parts only
  • 30g ginger, sliced
  • Cabbage, garlic chives, mushrooms, tofu, daikon: 800g vegetable mix
  • 400g Japanese short-grain rice (for zosui finish)
  • Yuzu ponzu and yuzu pepper, for serving
  • Eggs, for the zosui

Method

  1. Joint the whole chicken into 8 pieces. Reserve the carcass.
  2. In a stockpot, cover the carcass plus drumsticks with 3.5L cold water, two pinches of salt, spring-onion tops and ginger. Bring slowly to a bare simmer, skim, then hold at 90C for 6 hours. The broth must not boil hard, only quiver.
  3. Strain. Return the broth to a clay pot or shallow casserole over the table burner.
  4. Add the breast and thigh meat to the broth, simmer 6 minutes. Skim. Lift the cooked meat to a side plate.
  5. Add cabbage, mushrooms, daikon and tofu to the broth. Simmer 8 minutes. Add garlic chives at the close.
  6. Serve broth in cups first as the appetiser, then chicken with ponzu and yuzu pepper, then vegetables. For zosui, finish with cooked rice and beaten eggs in the remaining broth, cook 3 minutes.

Editor tip. A bare simmer at 90C is the difference between mizutaki and a chicken stew. Use a thermometer and never let the broth boil.

Common allergens: Egg, Soy.