Recently 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.
It has its 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.
The “Eww” factor of chicken feet I think comes from the fact that chicken feet look a lot like our hands. Silly eh? Especially when we consider that 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. They would laugh at us today to see us cringe. 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
PrintIngredients
- 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
Method
1 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.
2 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.
3 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, 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.
4 Uncover, 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.
5 Strain the stock through several layers of cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer (ideally both) into a pot.
6 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.
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Delicious! I also enjoy eating the remaining cartilage off the bone, as it has a gelatinous texture.
I make my chicken stock in the pressure cooker. I put two pounds of chicken feet with onion, celery and carrots in the pot and just enough water to cover the contents. I cook on high pressure for 50 minutes and strain. The result is very gelatinous and flavorful stock. (I do not cup off the toes. Maybe the pressure helps to extract the collegen)
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Do you peel the feet first? I get my feet fresh from the farm so I’m inclined to peel them for sake of cleanliness.
I come from a family of great cooks, and my brother was a chef before he had a family. He cooks in the traditional French style, and frequently says “fat is flavor!” He also had to start taking a statin drug at age 35 for his outrageous high cholesterol! My mother, another great cook, got her BS in Nutrition, a master’s degree in Public Health, is a Registered Dietician, and a Certified Diabetes Educator. Needless to say, she cooks much leaner! I try to cook like her, and one of my greatest thrills is getting thickened, creamy, more healthful soups, stocks, and sauces without having to add cream. YAY for the lowly chicken paw!! I just crave that unctuous texture in good soups that can only come from stock saturated in gelatin.
I find inexpensive, great-aunt chicken feet at my local Mexican supermarket. Usually I’d be making Korean-style spicy chicken feet, but I had to give this a try! One thing I noticed right away is the difference in the aroma of the broth, as opposed to using a simple carcass or other parts. Mmmm. I’m going to save the spent parts for a “soft” version of spicy chicken feet! Thank you so much for the recipe.