Sichuan Hotpot: A Complete Guide to Broths, Dipping Sauces and Etiquette

How hotpot works

A pot of simmering broth sits on a burner at your table; you order raw ingredients — paper-thin sliced beef, tripe, potatoes, lotus root, greens — and cook them yourself, a few pieces at a time. Everything is timed in seconds or minutes, which sounds fussy until you try it once and realise the rhythm is the fun. The classic Chengdu pot is the nine-grid (九宫格): one broth divided into nine sections of different boil intensity, each grid meant for a different ingredient — the calm centre for tofu and brains, the roaring corners for quick-cooking meats.

Choosing your broth

• Hong tang (红汤, red broth) — beef tallow, dried chillies and a fistful of Sichuan pepper. The definitive taste; expect real heat even in the mild version.
• Yuanyang (鸳鸯, half-and-half) — a divided pot, red on one side, milky bone broth on the other. The standard order for mixed groups and first-timers. See our Chengdu food guide for the spice-level scale.
• Qing tang (清汤, clear broth) — mushroom or tomato bases, genuinely mild and full-flavoured. No apology needed for ordering it.
• Zijia guo (自惹锅) — dry-pot style served in some chains, stir-fried rather than simmered. A good daylight alternative.

Broth refills are free and constant; the pot only gets stronger as the night goes on, because evaporation concentrates the tallow. Ask for jiā tāng (add broth) whenever you like.

The dipping sauce is the real secret

In Chengdu the default dip is simple: sesame oil with minced garlic (香油蒜泥). It cools each bite, rounds off the tallow, and lets the broth speak. Self-service sauce bars (usually ¥6–10) let you improvise — oyster sauce, coriander, a spoon of the pot's own broth for spice lovers. Northern-style sesame paste (麻酱) is available in some chains but marks you as an out-of-towner, which is fine too.

What to order, in what order

• First round, quick-cooking: sliced fatty beef (肥牛), lamb rolls, tripe (毛肚 — swish 10–15 seconds, "seven up, eight down"), duck intestine (鸭肠).
• Second round, slow-cooking: potato slices, lotus root, winter melon, dried tofu sheets — these go in the calm centre grid and simmer while you eat.
• Ballast: noodles, rice cakes or a bowl of white rice at the end, when the broth has reached maximum intensity.
• Drinks: cold soy milk or suanmeitang (sour plum drink) — dairy and plum drinks calm chilli burn far better than water.

Etiquette: what locals actually do

Use the chopsticks on the table for cooking and the serving chopsticks for raw meat — every restaurant provides both. Don't fish in someone else's grid. It is completely normal to cook for others before yourself; if someone places food in your dip bowl, it is courtesy, not pressure. Taking a break mid-meal is fine — hotpot is a two-to-three-hour sport, not a race.

Practical notes for visitors

Expect ¥100–150 per person at a good mid-range place including drinks; neighbourhood spots run cheaper. Aprons and phone pouches are usually offered — take them. The smell clings, so schedule hotpot before laundry day, not after. Solo travellers can try chuan chuan xiang (串串香, skewer hotpot) where you pay by skewer count. Our local guides handle ordering and spice calibration, and any Chengdu tour can build a hotpot night into the itinerary.

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