“Hot Pot! Hits the spot! What foodie magic is this?
So yummy, for the tummy. When it’s cold, it’s bliss.”
Uhh…OK I’ll stop now. Sorry, there’s nothing like a good hot pot on a cold winter’s day; it’s the kind of relaxing meal that feels better at home than out at a restaurant, you know? Although the long lines of young Asian kids at the popular place in our town tells me the dish is still king around this time of year.
Zojirushi sent me their YinYang Hot Pot skillet just in time for the holidays so I jumped at the chance to use it and show everyone what it can do. Just like at the restaurant, the divided pan allows you to have two kinds of hot pot at the same time, so that’s what I put to the test.
Yosenabe vs. Sichuan
This was so much fun from beginning to end—we all went out to shop for the ingredients first, and for the most part they were the same for both dishes. You can see them laid out here. My wife and daughter both like the spicy Chinese kind, but I prefer the Japanese kind, so this was perfect for satisfying everybody. The one ingredient that they used that didn’t go into my side of the pot was cilantro. Sheesh, cilantro in a hot pot?
If you’re new to hot pot, just go to any Asian market and buy the pre-packaged bags of soup stocks. They come in dozens of flavors and all you have to do is pour it in your pan, boil it and start cooking. And when I say dozens, I mean it—anything from traditional Japanese styles like yosenabe to traditional Chinese tomato-based style. There are also kimchi flavors, curry flavors, miso flavors and yes–vegan options too. They make it so easy these days.
Just a word on how to use your Yin Yang skillet; the pan is made fairly thick so it took almost 10 minutes to bring the stock to boiling. When you start to add the ingredients it cools down so you’ll have to find the temperature you prefer cooking at. The temp dial works well, but the response time is gradual so allow for that. You can literally cook with the pan over an open flame, so you know it’s durable.
This was a lot of food—the pan is deep! We had plenty of leftovers so we added the udon and had it for lunch the next day.
Jalapeño Corn Dip vs. Meatball Marinara
Just in case you thought this kind of skillet can only be used for Asian dishes, you would be wrong. If you wanted to do a fondue for example, you could easily do two different kinds and have your party guests choose whichever they preferred, like cheese and chocolate. Or like we did, make one side party dip and the other side meatball appetizers.
The great thing about the Yin Yang Hot Pot was that the temperature-controlled heat kept them warm all the time.
The Jalapeño Corn Dip recipe is an American favorite and easy to make with minimal ingredients. We used this one from the NY Times, but there are so many of these on the internet. Once it starts to bubble you can immediately turn the heat down. And every once in a while you might want to stir it up so the bottom doesn’t brown from the pan.
We used the other side to make meatballs in marinara sauce that could be eaten with bread. Who doesn’t love meatballs, huh?? Seriously, if you think about the fact that both of these appetizers can be made and served in the same pot, you’d have to admit it’s genius.
There are some features of this skillet that I should point out that make cooking with it easy. The fact that it’s nonstick is of course great, but we liked that it’s ceramic enhanced, which means the surface is BPA free. That’s important with cookware these days; you don’t want toxins getting into your system. The other feature that’s kind of subtle is the angular hex shape of the knob. My wife thought this made it very easy to grip for smaller hands like hers, and the flat sides actually keep the lid from rolling around when you lay it down. Pretty cool.
So whaddaya think, guys? Know anyone that might want an awesome Christmas gift?
Products used in this post: Gourmet d’Expert® Electric Skillet for Yin Yang Hot Pot EP-PFC20
Please note that these recipes were not tested by Zojirushi America
All images by Bert Tanimoto ©2025
Leave a Reply