MUZIChinese Matrix
Cantonese Hotpot · FFET10127
Same-day beef cut by part, swished in clear broth for seconds to minutes and dipped in satay sauce.
A shallow stainless-steel pot holds clear beef-bone broth, with bright red, thin beef slices fanned on a white plate beside it, a few beef balls and brown shacha sauce in a small dish, with chopsticks angled across it.
The Cantonese hotpot: a light broth in which seafood, sliced meat and vegetables are cooked at the table.
Chaoshan beef hot pot uses beef slaughtered the same day, cut by part, swished in clear broth and dipped in satay sauce. It began in Shantou as an improvement on the older beef stove, known there in the 1930s. Gas burners later replaced charcoal, the broth became clear and satay sauce became a dip. A May 2026 photo feature records more than 2,000 beef hot pot and beef ball businesses in Chaozhou in 2025, using about 90,000 head of cattle a year. The historical account appears in a 2021 article that does not identify its source texts; no dated text naming the dish or official heritage listing was found.
Chaoshan beef hot pot uses beef slaughtered the same day, cut by part into slices such as diaolong, chiren, bo ren and wuhua zhi, swished in clear broth for anywhere from seconds to a few minutes and dipped in satay sauce, with hand-beaten beef balls alongside.1
Chaoshan laborers encountered satay in Southeast Asia in the late Qing, and the beef stove was known in Shantou in the 1930s. Gas burners later replaced charcoal, the broth became clear and satay sauce became a separate dip. Television in 2014 spread the dish across the country. These historical claims come from a single January 2021 article that does not identify its sources; no dated text was found to check them against.2
Chaoshan beef hot pot began in Shantou and is popular throughout the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong. A May 2026 photo feature shows the beef trade in Chaozhou.1,3
The beef is sorted into over 10 categories, including xuehua, diaolong and chiren. About 35 percent of a cow suits direct swishing, and the rest becomes hand-beaten beef balls. The pot holds a clear broth of beef bones or plain water, each cut has its own swishing time, and the dip is satay sauce.1,3
The cattle are slaughtered the same day, and the cut and swishing time follow the part. Satay sauce was brought back from Southeast Asia and adapted by returning migrants, who used less peanut and added dried flatfish and shrimp.1,2
Chaozhou raised and sent to market about 3,200 head of cattle of its own in 2025, yet more than 2,000 beef hot pot and beef ball businesses use about 90,000 head a year, over 90 percent brought in from Inner Mongolia, Yunnan, Ningxia and elsewhere. A Teochew Beef festival and skills demonstration was held in Shantou on April 26, 2023.3,4
No tale about this food has been found.
Grandma Li
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
This is the simpler way I make it at home. I cannot get beef slaughtered the same day or the full set of Chaoshan cuts, so I use thin-sliced beef from the store, a clear beef-bone broth and ready-made satay sauce. I always cook the beef until no red is left; that is my rule at home. The amounts and timings are my own choices, informed by two published recipes.
Allergens: peanut, shellfish, fish
Grandpa Li
Picks come from public lists and guides and were checked on the dates shown; places can change, so confirm before you go.
Chaozhou, Guangdong
Order: Beef hot pot
The Xinhua photo feature on Chaozhou's beef trade, published May 18, 2026, names this restaurant, and the photos were taken on May 13 and 14, 2026. If you want beef hot pot in Chaoshan, this is one to consider.
Checked on 2026-11-02
Chaozhou, Guangdong
Order: Beef hot pot
The same May 2026 Xinhua report names it as well. If you would like to try a local beef hot pot restaurant in Chaozhou, this is a place to try.
Checked on 2026-11-02
