How to Make Stock from Chicken Feet

Name: How to Make Stock from Chicken Feet
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 360 min
Total time: 375 min
Yield: Makes approximately 2 quarts
Ingredients: 2 pounds of chicken feet; 2 large carrots, cut in half; 1 onion, cut into wedges; 2 celery ribs, cut in half; 1 bunch of fresh thyme; 1 bay leaf; 10 peppercorns

How to Make Stock with Chicken Feet — Elise Bauer

The other day my father announced that he missed chicken feet. (What?!)

His mother, my grandmother who was born in 1899 and lived to the age of 97, used chicken feet when she made her stock and my dad could always tell when a soup had been made with stock from chicken feet.

Chicken feet have their own unique and wonderful flavor, and the added gelatin from the feet give whatever dish is made with the stock a luxurious feeling when eating it.

Making stock from chicken feet has been a human activity for thousands of years. Most of our grandmothers or great grandmothers used feet in their stock as a matter of fact. Stock made from chicken feet is fabulous, and incredibly good for you with all that gelatin.

After a lot of digging, I found a few old recipes. All recipes call for boiling the feet first, and then draining the boiling water. I think the point of this step is to get most of the extra protein and impurities to leave the feet and come to the surface.

Another step that all the old recipes take is to cut off the claw tips. I'm not sure why, but I'm guessing that by cutting off the tips of the toes, it's easier for the marrow and therefore the gelatin in the bones to come out.

Expect to get a lot of stock out of the chicken feet. A pound of feet will yield about a quart of stock, pretty much a bargain at $1 a pound for feet. Where to find chicken feet? Probably the best place to look is in Chinese or Asian markets.

How to Make Stock from Chicken Feet

Prep Time 15 mins

Cook Time 6 hrs

Total Time 6 hrs 15 mins

Yield 2 quarts

2 pounds of chicken feet
2 large carrots, cut in half
1 onion, cut into wedges
2 celery ribs, cut in half
1 bunch of fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
10 peppercorns

Boil chicken feet initially for 5 minutes at a hard boil:

Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil. Put the chicken feet into a large stock pot and cover with boiling water. Boil for 5 minutes.

Elise Bauer

Elise Bauer
Drain, rinse, and cut off and discard the tips of the claws:

Drain the chicken feet completely. Rinse with cold water so that the feet are cool enough to handle.

Using a sharp knife, chop off the tips of the claws and discard. They should cut easily if you cut them through the joint. If any rough patches of claw pad remain, cut them away with a paring knife.

Elise Bauer

Elise Bauer

Elise Bauer

Elise Bauer
Simmer the chicken feet for 4 hours:

Place chicken feet in a clean large stockpot. Fill with cold water to cover the feet by an inch. Add carrots, onions, celery, thyme, bay leaf, and peppercorns. Bring to a simmer and immediately reduce the temperature to low. Partially cover, leave about a half inch crack or so, and keep the stock cooking at a bare simmer, for 4 hours. Occasionally skim any foam that may come to the surface.

Elise Bauer
Uncover and continue simmering:

Uncover the pot and increase the heat slightly to maintain a low simmer with the pot now uncovered. Continue to cook for an hour or two. At this point you are reducing the stock so that it is easier to store.
Strain the stock:

Strain through several layers of cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer (ideally both) into a pot.

Elise Bauer
Pour into quart-sized jars.

Let cool for an hour or so before storing in the refrigerator. When your stock has cooled, it should firm up nicely into a gel.

Elise Bauer

Links:

Why did the chicken cross the road? - "So you wouldn’t wack off its feet and make chicken stock!", Just the Right Size cooks up a batch of chicken feet stock

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