Kiritanpo Nabe (Akita-Style Grilled Rice Stick Hot Pot)

Quick answer

Total time: 60 min
Level: Hard
Servings: 4 servings
Ingredients: 8

About this dish

Kiritanpo nabe is a rustic hot pot from Akita Prefecture in northern Japan, built around grilled mashed-rice sticks simmered in chicken broth.

Freshly cooked rice is pounded in a mortar until partially smooth and sticky, then wrapped around cedar skewers and toasted over charcoal until the surface develops a light char and a faint smokiness. The broth begins with bone-in chicken thighs cooked until the stock is rich and clear, seasoned simply with soy sauce and mirin, then loaded with burdock root, scallions, mushrooms, and Japanese parsley. The kiritanpo sticks are cut into segments and added to the simmering pot, where they absorb the rich broth and soften into a chewy, dumpling-like texture while still holding their cylindrical shape. Akita's harsh mountain winters gave this dish its purpose as a calorie-dense, warming meal built entirely from locally available ingredients. The faint smokiness from the charcoal grilling carries through into the finished broth, and this subtle background note is what distinguishes kiritanpo nabe from similar rice-cake hot pots made elsewhere in Japan.

Ingredients

servings

IngredientAmountUnit

cooked rice500 gg

chicken thigh300 gg

chicken stock1000 mlml

burdock root80 gg

scallion2 eaea

soy sauce2 tbsptbsp

mirin1 tbsptbsp

salt½ tsptsp

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Instructions

Read the steps as a cooking flow: prep, heat, seasoning, doneness control, and finish.

6 steps

1

Prep

Place 500g warm rice in a large bowl and pound with a mortar or wooden spatula until the grains are half-mashed and the mixture becomes cohesive.
2

Step

Divide the pounded rice into 4 portions and shape each into a 3cm-diameter, 15cm-long cylinder.

Press firmly onto skewers so the rice adheres without gaps.
3

Control

Heat a pan over medium heat with no oil and grill the kiritanpo on all sides until lightly browned with a faint toasty aroma.
4

Control

Combine 1000ml stock, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp mirin, and 0.5 tsp salt in a pot.

Bring to a boil over high heat and skim any foam from the surface.
5

Control

Cut 300g chicken thigh into large pieces and add it with 80g diagonally sliced burdock.

Simmer over medium heat for 10 minutes, then check that no raw pink remains in the center of the thickest chicken piece.
6

Control

Remove the grilled kiritanpo from the skewers and cut into 3 to 4cm pieces.

Add to the pot along with 2 diagonally sliced scallions and simmer for 5 more minutes until the kiritanpo fully absorbs the broth.

Practical Cooking Checks

The cues that matter most while cooking.

Key technique: Mashed rice grilled on skewers absorbs chicken broth in the pot and turns chewy in Akita-style Kiritanpo Nabe.
Finish cue: Remove the grilled kiritanpo from the skewers and cut into 3 to 4cm pieces.