Enjoy hearty Ozoni (Japanese New Year Mochi Soup) for New Year’s Day breakfast. This version with clear broth hails from the Kanto region in Eastern Japan. Ozoni is one of the most popular and important dishes of Osechi Ryori or traditional Japanese New Year foods.
Ozoni (お雑煮) is a mochi soup that we eat along with Osechi Ryori (traditional dishes) on New Year’s Day in Japan. The preparation for ozoni varies both by household and region.
I’ve shared the Kansai (western Japan) style Ozoni recipe before, so this year I’m sharing Kanto (eastern Japan) style Ozoni.
Table of Contents
The Kanto Style Ozoni
Unlike white miso-based Ozoni enjoyed in western Japan (Kansai, Shikoku, and Kyushu regions), clear dashi-based soup is the mainstream in Tokyo and eastern Japan (Read this post to learn some of the differences between eastern and western Japan.).
The soup includes toasted mochi, chicken, and komatsuna (小松菜) – Japanese mustard spinach, usually harvested in winter months.
How to Make Kanto-style Ozoni
The Ingredients You’ll Need
As each family has their own recipe, there are often colorful ingredients added like fish cakes (kamaboko), dried shiitake, and the carrot that is cut out in a pretty flower shape (here’s how to make it).
Some of the key ingredients for ozoni – such as komatsuna, yuzu (citrus), and mitsuba (Japanese parsley) – can be hard to find outside of Japan and you might need to substitute or skip.
If you’re in the U.S., first check out large Japanese supermarkets like Nijiya, Mitsuwa, and Marukai, where they are usually fully stocked for New Year’s ingredients.
The Kansai-style Ozoni
If you’re interested in Kansai-style Ozoni with white miso, check out the video and recipe with step by step pictures.
Living outside Japan, it’s hard to recreate an authentic Oshogatsu (New Year’s Day) experience; however, I do try my best to keep the Oshogatsu spirit going with Japanese New Year’s decorations around the house, otoshidama (monetary gifts), and food.
Have a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year! 良いお年を！
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Ozoni (Japanese New Year Mochi Soup – Kanto Style)
Ingredients
- 1 chicken thigh (5.6 oz, 160 g; you can increase the amount if you‘d like; skip for vegetarian/vegan)
- ¼ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt (for the chicken)
- 1 Tbsp sake (for the chicken)
- 4 stalks komatsuna (3.5 oz, 100 g; or use spinach)
- yuzu zest (optional)
- 4 sprigs mitsuba (Japanese parsley) (optional)
- 4 pieces Japanese rice cake (mochi)
For the Soup
- 4 cups dashi (Japanese soup stock) (I used Awase Dashi; you also could use a dashi packet, dashi powder, or Vegan Dashi)
- 1 Tbsp sake
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
Instructions
- Before You Start: Please note that this recipe calls for homemade dashi that takes a minimum of 20 minutes to make. Please see my recipe for How to Make Dashi. If you don‘t have time to make this Japanese soup stock from scratch, you can use a dashi packet or dashi powder.
- I recommend prepping this recipe the day before you plan to serve. The next day, reheat the soup and add the mochi just before serving. For more helpful tips on planning your Japanese New Year feast, please read my A 5-Day Osechi Cooking Timeline blog post.
- Gather all the ingredients.
To Prepare the Ingredients
- Cut 1 chicken thigh into bite-sized pieces (1 inch, 2.5 cm) and put them in a small bowl. Then, add ¼ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt.
- Add 1 Tbsp sake and mix well with your hands. Let the chicken marinate for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, blanch 4 stalks komatsuna (or spinach) in boiling water and cook until tender (do not overcook). Remove from the pot and soak it in iced water to stop the cooking.
- Squeeze the water out of the komatsuna and cut it into pieces 1½ inches (3 cm) long. Set aside.
- Make a knot in the stem of each of 4 sprigs mitsuba (Japanese parsley) (optional). Set aside for garnish. Next, peel 2–3 thick strips of yuzu zest (optional).
- Flip the pieces over and remove any white pith. Then, slice the strips of yuzu zest into very thin julienned strips. Place on a small dish and set aside to serve as garnish later.
To Cook the Soup
- Add 4 cups dashi (Japanese soup stock) to a large saucepan or pot and bring it to a boil. Once boiling, add the chicken pieces.
- Cover to cook for 5–7 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken pieces.
- Once the chicken is cooked, skim off the foam and fat from the surface of the soup with a fine-mesh strainer.
- Add 1 Tbsp sake, 1 Tbsp soy sauce, and 1 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt. Stir well and keep it covered on a simmer.
- Once the soup broth and toppings are ready, place 4 pieces Japanese rice cake (mochi) directly on the rack of a toaster oven and toast until puffy. You can also toast the mochi over an open flame, under a broiler, or in a frying pan.
To Serve
- Serve the chicken and soup in individual serving bowls. Add one piece of toasted mochi on top of the soup in each bowl. Top with the komatsuna, mitsuba (optional) and yuzu (optional). Enjoy immediately.
To Store
- Remove the mochi and store the leftover soup in an airtight container or in the pot; keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. I recommend toasting and adding the mochi to the soup just prior to serving.
Nutrition
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on December 26, 2015. It’s been republished on December 25, 2023.
I made this ozoni tonight despite being out of season, it was amazing and the broth was great!
You can substitute collard greens instead of komatsuna; it’s a little thicker and more bitter but not all too different.
Only thing I’d do differently is maybe use storebought kirimochi next time. I used homemade mochi and they melted in the oven and made a mess everywhere lol. Don’t use a wire rack like in the picture!
Hi Kyle! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and sharing your cooking experience with us!
We are sorry to hear your homemade mochi made a mess in the oven. It works better if you air-dry the homemade mochi for a few days before baking it in the oven.
We hope this helps!
Is there a particular mochi recipe that you would use to put in the soup? I have mochiko flour…
Hi Tiana! Thank you very much for reading Nami’s post and trying her recipe!
Nami has a recipe for Mochi, but it is made from sweet rice, and it’s not in powder form (not made with Mochiko Flour): https://www.justonecookbook.com/how-to-make-mochi-with-a-stand-mixer/
If you like to make Kirimochi like a store-bought, you can try mixing the Mochiko flour and hot water (1:1.2 ratio). You can also mix them well and let them dry.
We hope this helps!
I bought kirimochi for ozoni this year but I could only get a big bag…do you have other savory recipes that use it? i’m not really a sweets person! any suggestions would be much appreciated 🙂
Hi Ella! Thank you very much for reading Nami’s post!
Here is a list of recipes that uses Kirimochi. We hope you find something you can try.😊
https://www.justonecookbook.com/#search/q=kirimochi
Happy New Year to you and your family, Nami! Made this for Japanese New Year 2020 – my first time celebrating New Year Japanese-style : ) Really enjoyed learning about ozoni and making it, and friends who saw a photo of it said they were impressed by how elegant and healthy it looked! I made your namasu recipe too. Next year, I might be more ambitious and try to make more osechi ryori dishes : ) Thank you so much for sharing with us your knowledge and expertise, Nami!
Happy New Year J! I’m so happy to hear you tried this recipe! Thank you for your kind feedback. 🙂
Hi Nami-san!
Happy New Year! Which dashi do you recommend for the following:
Kansai ozoni
Chizuzeni
simmered shrimp
Thank you for your help!
Yuko
Hi Yuko-san! Happy New Year!
1) Kansai Ozoni – kombu (I have the recipe here: https://www.justonecookbook.com/ozoni-zoni-japanese-new-year-mochi-soup/)
2) Chickuzenni – I use Awase Dashi (kombu + katsuobushi)
3) Simmered Shrimp – I use Awase Dashi (kombu + katsuobushi)
I use awase dashi for all recipes unless I state otherwise. 🙂
Forgot to mention… no komatsuna here, but I substituted it with stalks of arugula and it tasted very good, if people are looking for other substitutions to try. I have done this for shabu shabu as well. :3
That’s a wonderful suggestion, and thank you so much! I would also suggest to use any green, instead of skipping it. It’s important to look appetizing with the green color in it. 🙂
I’m here from the future! Lol (just commenting again 2 years later). I wanted to say, I made this today in the middle of summer, out of season, and so I tried lemon instead of yuzu zest to see how that would taste. I don’t recommend anyone to do what I did. It was not good! 🤣 Stick with yuzu or just leave it out. It’s fine without.
Hi Lion! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and sharing your cooking experience with us!
Yes. Lemon has a much more acid taste than Yuzu.😉
Hi Nami. I LOVE this recipe. It was my favorite part of our osechi ryori (out of everything! I made 12 different dishes!) This is just perfect. I am very fond of soups with a clear dashi broth and the chicken in this is so soft, the toasted mochi is so delicious, and the yuzu zest adds such perfect flavor. I made the kansai style ozoni last year but I’m afraid to say that kanto style is my favorite by a mile. For me, there is no contest, but I also prefer osuimono to miso soup on a daily basis, so you can see my bias. :9 Also, there is currently a typo step 13 that says “mocha” instead of “mochi”, just so you know. Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Lion! You made 12 different dishes!!! WOW!!!! Mr JOC will agree with you. The white miso is not his thing, but that brings so much nostalgic flavor to me. I didn’t get to eat Kansai style on the new year in Japan (It was another regional style, clear soup too), so I was thinking of making Ozoni just for me and kids. 😀
I can see why you like the clear soup ozoni too. The broth is amazing, simple yet complex flavor. And you got the fresh yuzu too!
Thanks for letting me know the typo. In Mac, mochi becomes mocha or Mochi with capital, and I added to the dictionary too! Thank you!
Thank you for being so dedicated to sharing your recipes, at this time I’m taking them in, my husband is Japanese, we’ve been married for 45yrs. I make some very simple foods but now I want to do more, you inspire me! Thanks for the Ozoni recipe .
Hi Estelle! Thank you for your kind words. I hope my recipes will inspire you to cook more Japanese food. 🙂
Hi! Have been following your recipes for quite a while now! 🙂 I noticed you love in the Bay Area also and was wondering where you have been able to find fresh yuzu? Is it seasonal? Thanks!
Hi Christine! Yes I live in Peninsula. I go to Nijiya and Suruki for Japanese grocery. I think Yuzu is about $2 in Nijiya and $3 in Mitsuwa (San Jose). 🙂
Hi Nami! Wishing you a happy new year!! Is the Mochi use
Hi Barbara! Happy New Year to you!
I’m sorry, but your question was cut off… let me know if you have a question about Mochi. 🙂
Thanks for sharing another kind of ozoni—I haven’t decided which recipe I want to make for the New Year’s yet because both look delicious. 🙂 Hope that you and your family enjoy the trip to Utah!
Hi Kimmi! Thank you! I grew up eating Kansai style (sweet white miso one), but I enjoy making both as my family get tired of eating Kansai ozoni after a few times. 😀 Thank you so much for your kind words. Utah is SUPER cold! 11F…..
I love ozoni soup! just s pitty I have to substitute for some ingredients, but OI enjoy it my way!
Can’t wait to try the osechi ryori recipe!
Have a happy new year Nami
Hi Genus! I know, I wish Japanese ingredients are more easily accessible outside of Japan. Happy New Year to you and your family, Genus! 🙂