"Fat-Burning Chicken Soup" with Chicken Meatballs and Daikon: A Record of a Test Batch That Switched from Ochazuke Seasoning to Chicken Broth

At the start, Ryuji suggests that a fat-burning soup made with ochazuke seasoning would be easy and should be guaranteed to taste good. He chooses the fillings from what is on hand: tofu left over from a shoot, ground chicken right at its best-before date, mushrooms, and vegetables in the fridge. Going with things that seem to suit ochazuke seasoning, he settles on komatsuna, oyster mushrooms, daikon, and firm tofu. He uses firm tofu because it holds its shape. Silken is fine too, he says, but firm tofu doesn't turn mushy.

He uses the whole bunch of komatsuna, about 200g. Sand tends to collect at the base, so he washes it well, and he keeps the root ends because they are edible. He cuts it into lengths of about 3cm. Ryuji explains that komatsuna is cheap to buy because its price fluctuates less than other leafy greens.

For the daikon, 200–300g is a rough guide. Ryuji cuts it by eye and lands at around 200g, and the extra piece he adds is also about 55g, almost exactly what he was aiming for, so he ends up at 250g. Since he wants it to cook quickly, it's fine to leave the skin on. He slices it about 5mm thick and then cuts it into thin matchsticks. For a hot pot, thicker pieces would be fine, but for soup, thinner is better, he says. In one moment, A-ko says she dislikes the squeaky sound daikon makes when it's cut, which surprises Ryuji.

Between steps, the conversation turns to the filming style. Ryuji says this framing feels the same as cooking at home, so he can just be himself. Because the camera is close to the subject, he doesn't have to raise his voice or force his energy up, which makes it easy. He also reveals that he has been cutting back on alcohol lately because he drank too much for another project.

The firm tofu is cut into cubes and added. The aim is protein, but adding too much would make it a tofu soup, so he keeps it to about half a block. These days you can also buy packs of about 150g, which are fine to use, he says.

He tears the oyster mushrooms apart by hand, one by one, to give texture. Mushrooms are a healthy ingredient, so Ryuji says nothing but healthy things have gone in so far. There's an idea to add a touch of red at the end with shichimi for color, but they conclude there's no need to force it in. As reasons, he notes that more ingredients make the recipe harder for viewers to make, and that too many fillings would turn it into a hot pot rather than a soup.

To add a bit more protein, he adds ground chicken. This time it's thigh meat. Ryuji says breast meat would be healthier, but honestly the calories aren't that different, so it's an option for very strict dieters.

At first he intended to add the ground meat as is. But A-ko loves tsukune, and he felt it would be a waste to just use the meat loose; tsukune are also satisfying to eat, and chewing stimulates the satiety center. So they decide to make tsukune. The method is simply to add 2 pinches of salt (about 2g) to about 200g of ground meat and knead. Ryuji says this is the tsukune he arrived at as the very best. A-ko says she has made these tsukune about 10 times. She also reveals that she has made the mizutaki released at the start of this year about 5 times, eating it with kuzukiri added. Ryuji adds that the mizutaki is also a weight-loss recipe.

The tsukune are rolled small and dropped into the pot. Ryuji seems convinced that if you have a 200g pack, making tsukune is more satisfying.

When it's time to add water, Ryuji changes the plan. He has about 1L in mind and actually adds 900cc. At this point, he decides that since the tsukune release a lot of flavor into the broth, there seems to be no need to bother with ochazuke seasoning. Since he hasn't made a chicken-broth fat-burning soup before, he says he'll just make it a "fat-burning chicken soup." He tells viewers he'll make the ochazuke-seasoning soup separately another time, so they should forget what he said at the start, and says this video is about "showing the development process."

Since it's a chicken meatball soup, the flavor is salt-based. But Ryuji explains that it's hard to give 1L of water a chicken flavor with just 200g of ground chicken, so he adds 1 tablespoon of Marudori Gara Soup chicken stock. He also adds a little Hondashi (1 teaspoon). A chicken-only soup would work, but a little dashi adds depth, he says.

No garlic goes in, because the chicken broth comes through strongly. According to Ryuji, chicken alone tends to taste flat, but this time there's the umami of the soybeans in the tofu and the umami of the mushrooms in addition to the chicken. Mushrooms release their umami more easily when heated from cold water, so he put them in from the start. If he added anything, it would be pepper at most, and he would absolutely not add mirin. The vegetables are sweet, and flavor is coming from them, he says.

Simmer for about 10–15 minutes. The daikon was cut into matchsticks so it wouldn't need long cooking, and overcooking makes the chicken meatballs tough too. Ryuji compares it to how daikon in miso soup is also simmered for only about 5–10 minutes. He adds that the earlier mizutaki worked with chicken umami alone because it had a large amount of chicken with the skin on, and it's hard to get that from only the amount of chicken used this time.

It's better to skim the scum, but not right after it starts boiling. The most comes out around the time the meat is cooked through, he says. In practice, there was a lot of white scum from the vegetables, and a little from the chicken too. As it boils, it gathers at the edges of the pot, making it easy to remove. Skimming gives a clearer, better-looking soup. It's not a dish that needs to be simmered with a lid, so no lid is necessary.

While it simmers, they also talk about behind-the-scenes production. This video is filmed at the same time as a short, and A-ko handles filming and editing the shorts. Ryuji says A-ko is good at framing shots, and she's the only one who can film the shorts. According to A-ko, she checks the screen in real time, correcting it every time the pan shifts position while also keeping up the conversation, so it takes more brainpower than a regular video. She says the shorts' view counts have been growing lately, which makes it rewarding, and she's happy to get comments from viewers who know she makes them.

When it's nearly done, Ryuji adds 1/3 teaspoon of salt. He says he just likes a strongly salted flavor, so people who prefer milder seasoning or are cutting back on salt don't need to add it.

A-ko asks whether it would still taste good with low-sodium Hondashi instead of regular. Ryuji's answer is "I think it'd be fine." Low-sodium Hondashi just has less salt, so adding more salt to make up for it gives the same result, he says. Ryuji further explains that when salt goes in, the saltiness comes before the umami, which makes the flavor come together better. Honestly, Hondashi alone has too much umami, so he prefers adding a little salt.

Finally, sprinkle on about half a teaspoon of sansho to taste. Ryuji likes plenty, but it's delicious enough without it, he says. No oil is used at all.

The finished soup is clear in color, and Ryuji says that a chicken soup is one where you add almost nothing extra. Replacing one meal a day with this should help you lose weight, and the standard approach is to make a big batch and eat it over several days. He also says he often hears "I lost weight" from people who have made his fat-burning soups.

At the tasting, Ryuji stresses that the little bit of Hondashi is the key. A-ko says making chicken meatballs was the right call. The vegetables and mushrooms are all healthy ingredients, so adding meatballs with some texture creates contrast, she says. A-ko goes on to say it might be her favorite of all the fat-burning soups so far, and that it feels like eating a regular, tasty soup side dish rather than a diet soup. Ryuji agrees that it doesn't feel like eating diet food.

To change up the flavor, they use yuzu kosho, a combination he also used in an earlier sansho hot pot. A-ko dips a chicken meatball in yuzu kosho and says it completely changes the taste.

From there, the talk expands to ways of eating it. Since sansho loses its aroma, one idea is that it might be better to skip it at first and enjoy the soup itself, then add sansho or yuzu kosho from the next day on. Ryuji says people tend to get tired of fat-burning soup around day three, so everyone seems to come up with their own tweaks.

From talk that glass noodles would also work, Ryuji says it's not good to cut out carbs completely even on a diet, and you should eat a small amount. So they decide to try adding the kuzukiri A-ko loves using in mizutaki.

Ryuji didn't know the difference between Malony and kuzukiri, but A-ko says they're "completely different," explaining that kuzukiri are more jiggly. A-ko usually puts them straight into the pot, but neither of them is sure of the proper way to rehydrate them. Ryuji decides to add a little more water, since the kuzukiri will absorb the soup. The amount is about 20g, which Ryuji estimates at about 60 kcal, so it's no problem. They're hard unless cooked until translucent, so they simmer them for about 10 minutes.

When they taste it, Ryuji is also surprised by the difference in texture and acknowledges how good kuzukiri are. A-ko says that with mizutaki too, the kuzukiri are so good that she gets full and has never made it as far as the ramen to finish. The two say that kuzukiri absorb liquid and swell, making them more filling, and at around 20g they don't add many calories, so adding just a little is a good approach.

However, there's also a moment where they laugh together, saying "that's not the idea," after eating more than half of a soup that was supposed to be eaten over several days during the tasting alone. Ryuji wraps up by saying it turned out to be a really delicious soup, and urges viewers to try the combination of fat-burning chicken soup and kuzukiri. The fat-burning soup made with ochazuke seasoning remains promised for another occasion.