Chicken feet – gnarly, repulsive and disturbing – make for the very best stock. Devoid of little else but tendons, bone and cartilage (sound appetizing yet?), chicken feet produce a fine golden broth that’s rich in all those obscure nutrients that make a good stock so nourishing: glucosamine chondroitin, collagen and trace minerals. Moreover, a chicken stock is an excellent source of calcium without . Understandably, a stock made from chicken feet gels beautifully just as a good stock should.
Saturday morning, I pulled out a bag of chicken feet and as I peeled the yellow membrane from the feet and hacked away the talons, I couldn’t help but reflect upon my relationship with food. Dear God, I thought, I was a vegan once! I used to gag at opening a package of lunch meat, and now I can peel and hack my way through a bag of chicken feet with nary an ill feeling That is until my 4-year old tapped me on a shoulder with a disembodied claw. Eeeew! Then there was that time when I accidentally left a bag full of chicken feet fresh from the farmers market in the fridge at the office.
Chicken feet can be difficult to find – that is, until you know where to look. They don’t come packaged on little Styrofoam trays, wrapped in plastic. Ethnic markets – those last bastions of traditional foods – often carry chicken feet, heads and other miscellaneous parts that are forgotten in conventional cooking. Farmers markets can be another source. Most importantly, your local farm offering pastured poultry may also have a stash from the latest harvest. If purchasing your chicken feet at a market, they will usually run you $1 – $2 per pound; however, if you purchase your whole chickens farmer-direct they will often throw the chicken feet in the bag at your request. These chicken feet came from a local, family-run farm that also specializes in grass-fed lamb.
Preparing Chicken Feet for the Stock Pot
In many cases, the chicken feet will arrive already prepared, more or less; however, if you receive them directly from your local farm you may need to dress the chicken feet yourself. This is easy. First, you’ll rub them with salt and scald them briefly in boiling water followed by an icy bath. This practice enables you to more easily peel the yellow membrane on the foot. After peeling the yellow membrane from the feet, chop the talons off at the first knuckle. Some cooks prefer to leave the talon on the foot. In the above picture, you’ll see chicken feet in the three stages of preparation: 1. fresh, 2. peeled and 3. declawed.When blanching the chicken feet, take great care not to blanch the feet too long or you will overcook the feet, fusing the yellow membrane to the foot and activating the gelling process. Moreover, overcooking will also cause the tendons in the feet to contract, making peeling virtually impossible. Be brief.
Once the feet are fully prepared by cleaning, blanching, peeling and talon removal, they’re ready for the stock pot. A stock prepared from chicken feet, like any stock, is widely variable and can be seasoned based on your personal preference. Preferring a mild-tasting broth in most recipes, I usually season my broth with vegetable scraps including celery leaves, onion and carrot peelings; however, from time to time, I like to change the flavor of the stock a touch and heat it up with chilies, ginger and other spices. The stock recipe detailed below is very well-suited to Asian-inspired dishes and perfect for cold and flu season when a nourishing, mineral-rich broth infused with chilies and spice can help clear the sinuses.
Asian-inspired Chicken Foot Stock
Prepared from chicken feet and no other bones or meat, this stock produces a solid gel. One pound of feet will produce approximately ½ gallon of well-gelled stock. Its aroma is faintly reminiscent of Top Ramen, no joke. Even if you prefer to season your stock with a mild combination of onion, celery and carrot or herbs of your choice, follow the same method as outlined below.
More on Stock & Broth
Ingredients
- 1 lb Chicken Feet, Peeled and Talons Removed
- 1 2-inch Knob of Ginger
- 1 Star Anise
- 3 – 4 Fresh Cayenne (or other) Chili Peppers
- 1 Bulb Garlic, Peeled
- 1 4-inch Stalk of Lemon Grass (optional)
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to your stock pot.
- Add water to cover.
- Simmer for a minimum of 4 hours and up to 12, adding more water as needed or desired.
- Skim any scum that rises to the top.
- Strain solids from the broth through a fine mesh sieve or cheesecloth.
- Bottle and reserve the stock.
- Serve in Asian-inspired soups and dishes.
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I do remove the membrane, but rarely de-talon. If the talons are clean, why would that be necessary? I was thinking that the claws would probably add keratin to the final product.
Thanks for this! I think I can handle it since you take the membrane off first, I didn’t know about that.
I am so pleased to read this recipe – nobody believes me when I tell them I used to eat chicken feet when I was a little girl – everyone goes UGGHH. But my mother and father had home grown chooks, and every part of the chicken was used – if there were any eggs inside in the process of being laid (e.g. without shell) they also went into the soup pot. I can still close my eyes and remember the taste of that chicken broth.
And here I thought I was ready to try the feet in my stock. I had no idea you had to do anything to them to get them ready! Now, I’m not so sure I can go peeling and hacking away….
Great post though! I stumbled it.
So why cut off the talons? Or do you throw them into the stock too, just separate so the bones have a little exposed marrow? My chicken lady prepared a few for me, scalded and skinned, then froze them for me. I tried adding one to my chicken carcass stock, no gel (cooked for about 30 hrs in crock pot). Does it take a whole pound to get the gel? Thanks!
You cut off the claws/nails so not to add in what they have been scratching in. You get the idea.
I find that when peeling the feet the outer dirty nail/claw comes off leaving just the soft part of the foot that the claw grows out of. No cutting required!!
I’ve never cut off the claws. They always seem pretty clean to me. In fact, I never peeled my feet before either, but I think they might have already been peeled.
Oh, and sometimes I get lots of gel. It seems like I need to include more feet, however. The last batch I did I had one chicken carcass and about 6 feet and no real gel. Very odd.
No, you don’t have to cut off the toes. the outer part of the claw just pops off when you’re peeling the skin. Just bend the claws backward and they pop off. Most of you probably get chicken feet that have already been peeled/popped.
I also didn’t know about the peeling part. I don’t consider myself a queasy person normally, but am not sure I can stomach doing that. In part maybe because of our hens in the back yard who are as much pets as they are egg-layers.
I had no idea you were supposed to remove the yellow membrane. Although the time I got chicken feet (attached to the rest of a chicken from a family farm), I don’t remember them being that yellow, so maybe they were already peeled.
The little feet make me feel sad
The rest of the chicken doesn’t look so much like a chicken any more, with the feathers gone. But the feet still look like they could be walking around.
I can see why you would remove the talons — I remember finding those little claws floating in my stock, and if I was squeamish I would have been totally grossed out!
Katie -
The chicken feet you came across may very well have already had the yellow membrane removed. In my experience, it’s more common to find them already cleaned and ready to go than to find them with the membrane intact. It was faintly disturbing to see the chicken feet with all their flexibility ((shudder)), but, man, they made some darn good soup.
- Jenny
Kelly -
You really don’t NEED to cut off the talons. In fact many folks leave them on. I prefer to cut them off because I find that I have to skim the scum off the surface of the stock considerably more often if I leave them in. Moreover, they sometimes fall off the rest of the foot and float around the soup pot which isn’t at all appetizing.
While I get a good solid gel from nearly all my stocks, I still can’t figure out what makes the difference between a stock that will gel and one that won’t. Some folks I’ve come across say it has to do with the amount of water used, but that hasn’t been my experience and I think there may be another factor at play. Even if you don’t get a solid gel, you still reap the rewards of LOADS of minerals and other goodies.
- Jenny
Chicken feet are also one of my fave dim sum morsels. I know they’re not to everyone’s liking. But what great flavor and texture they have!
Thanks for the good info! Maybe I’ll be brave enough to pick up the bag of feet next time I’m at the ethnic market. Interestingly enough, I used to work at an engineering firm that did work at a processing plant for a national brand of chicken. It was rumored the feet were the most profitable part of the bird. Every chicken foot was shipped to China, where I presume home cooks are making stock just like yours!
Whoa dude. I had no idea I might have to “prepare” the feet from the farm. I’ve been pining for chicken feet to make stock ever since I read about the gelatin factor. I showed my husband these pics and he said, “I’ve think you’ve gone too far.”
I’ll have to hide the feet from him if I ever get my hands on some! 
Katie
Too funny, Katie! I received a gift of duck feet last week from co-workers. I was so excited – hubs was so grossed out! I believe the exact words were “you have finally flipped”
Well….the feet are hiding in the freezer for now until I can sneak ‘em into a lovely stock…
- Kathy
That’s too funny! I have to hide them from my husband too. And when I’m making my stock, I push them under everything so he can’t see them.
Thanks for the post–it was educational and entertaining! When I saw the first photo I realized what you meant when you mentioned that “chicken feet can be a little disturbing”. Yes, they are. But once I got over that I appreciated the tutorial on how to prepare them and make a rich gelatinous stock. I hope I can find some in the area. Nope, I ain’t gonna find these at the local Stop and Shop on a styrofoam tray wrapped in plastic. He He
My friend gave me some feet from her ‘franken’ chickens. The ones bred to grow fast and meaty. Although they were truly pastured, the feet seemed too deformed to cope with. I used one (did blanch it) then threw the rest…they just grossed me out. Now your pics make me want to find some normal chicken feet and try again. Thanks for the great tutorial!
We are lucky as the farm where we get our chickens does have the option of getting the feet with them (for a charge). I forgot to request them this year when I ordered and the owner emailed me and said that she knew I usually got feet with my order and did I want them. What wonderful customer service. I love knowing my farmers!!
We put a few feet in each pot of stock and I think it does help the stock to gel!!
I am glad ours come all cleaned and ready to go, I don’t know if I could do that peeling part of the prep.
Lisa
AHAHAHA! I know what you mean Jenny! I often look back at my long years as a vegetarian and vegan and just marvel at the changes I have made to my diet! I will be sure to ask for the feet the next time I buy my pasture raised chickens!
Is the purpose of peeling the membrane to reduce impurities? Or what?
I have heard that feet from factory farmed chickens will not yield much gelatin in a stock – has anyone else heard of this or know if it is true?
Great photos! The spice mix looks interesting. I’m not sure I’m brave enough to spice my stock; I just love having lots of plain stock to work with.
Funny how we have very different reactions to chicken feet. I find them to be very sweet looking, and I feel a little sad, though grateful, when I use them.
I have bought chicken feet from Berkeley Bowl, in Berkeley, CA, and a butcher shop in the Ferry Building in San Francisco. Here in Mendocino County I was able to buy some whole chickens from the farmers market (now closed for the winter) that had their feet intact. I just cut them off and popped them into the freezer along with other bones I was saving, and they got used the day after Thanksgiving along with the turkey carcass. Not that much gel, but a rich stock nonetheless.
Never have I every done any preparation of the feet whatsoever. I didn’t know about the yellow membrane; maybe it was already removed for me? And I certainly didn’t declaw them. Everything gets strained out. You’re working too hard!
It’s true there is nothing like the feet to gel things up. I wish I could get a steady supply where I am now. I’ll try a Mexican market, but the problem there is no way to know (given my level of Spanish) how the chickens are treated.
Thanks for another lovely, informative post.
I actually do get chicken feet on a styrofoam tray! I wish I didn’t because I’m not fond of styrofoam, but put up with the environmental guilt so I can have the wonderful stock.
As for skimming, it used to be my downfall. I could never get it off, I’d forget, or I’d let it boil back in. Yuck. Then a friend of mine who grew up in rural China taught me her trick: she pours boiling water (or runs hot, hot water from the sink) over the chicken feet before putting them in the stock pot. I don’t need to skim like crazy anymore! I can even do it in my crockpot!
I ran out of chicken feet last month and asked our local chicken gal if she had any extra feet. She laughed and said few people even want them so they don’t even keep any extra than what she uses(!!!!) She did have a couple extra birds in the freezer I could take, though. It was about a week until I could stop by and get the birds. When I did, she had a HUGE bag (10-12lbs) of turkey feet for me for FREE. They raise pastured turkeys on their organic farm and had just done the last Thanksgiving butcher. I am planning on throwing a couple into every batch of broth. The feet look huge compared to chicken feet, can’t wait to spook the husband with those babies!
In my experience, the quality of ingredients directly affects the gel (including water quality!)
Your broth recipe is very similar to that of a traditional Vietnamese Pho…a culture near and dear to my heart.
Your posts are so helpful! I have always been a little leary of chicken feet. Haven’t quite dove into them, but your pictures made me wade in the water a bit, and I am much closer to trying!
Thanks for all you do and share!
Warmly,
Molly
Organic Spark
Awesome! I’ve always wondered what to do with chicken feet (I’m strangely obsessed with all things “not normal” in food and cooking). Definitely going to get some!
Jenny, I love this! I was able to actually visit one of my family farms this year and help them process 100 chickens. I came back with loads of feet! On the farm, I was taught by a fellow Latino to put the feet right into the fire for a few seconds, the outer skin peels right off. If I ever buy them I’ll definitely blanch them. I have a question. I have had no luck at all getting my chicken stock to gel. I did have a lady comment on my stock post that she breaks up the bones before adding them into the pot. Do you have any suggestions?
Thank you!
I once made chicken *head* stock. When I stirred the pot and had a few heads roll up and “look” at me, I felt like a witch. I was too chicken (ha! pun intended!) to eat the stock after I made it. Which is sad because I went through a lot of trouble to get the heads and it gelled very nicely.
Next time I’ll use one head at a time and add to my regular batch of bones. I’ll definitely try adding some feet too, now that I knwo how to prepare.
Thanks!
Great article. Once I saw a little girl in a Chinese restaurant gnawing on what what was obviously chicken feet. It totally grossed me out. But I have matured and am anxious to try this nutrient dense stock. Thanks for the article. And I have a local farmer who will sell me feet! Here goes.
I bought some feet and heads from the Amish at the WAPF conference last month. (I met you there on Saturday and we had a great chat.) I had fun showing them to my kids. I’m not sure if my local source for pastured chicken sells feet & heads. I have an ethnic grocery near me, which I am pretty sure sells chicken feet and other stuff. Is it worth it to buy factory farmed chicken feet?
Oh my what a great post. I’m not normal by my own admission and I love chicken feet. When I was a little girl my great grandma would kill chickens and make a stew from the feet and the unborn soft eggs. It was my favorite meal. In the last few years I’ve become reacquainted with the little “feets”. I live on an island in Hawaii so finding them is a chore. We did have a local farm but they closed so now my grocer gets them from another island. I stew them like grandma did or use in broth for pho. I also feed them to our dogs who are “raw fed” and love the crunchy morsels. Much mahalo for the posting. You are a brave and out of the box lady. I enjoy all your writings.
I make my bone broth with mostly chicken feet, and I never clip off the claws. No need, I’ve found, and a lot easier too!
~LMAO~ Chicken feet have a long history of funnies stories with me and my hubby, started by a chinese acupuncturist and dim sum in Las Vegas – but as it pertains to stock – I so need to find a new sorce! but I do have to say – I feel like I am butchering a childs hand – creeps me out to know end.
Ah! Why did it take me so long to find you! I ‘ve been looking for a great site like this! I just bought some chicken feet yesterday to add to my pho ga (chicken pho) recipe. I can’t wait to try it and savor the rich broth. Such a comfort food, even for this corn fed white girl.
My kind of cook! I have raised and butchered my own chickens, and always clean and use the feet. I dip them in hot water, and take off the outer part of the talons. You want to that because a free-range chicken’s feet have walked through a lot of muck that you don’t want in your soup. With luck the rest of the skin peels off easily, like taking off a glove.
I was able to find chicken feet at my local wholefoods. I think the butcher peeled off the membrane… it didn’t look so yellow. I could barely look at the feet when I put them into the pot though… with the nails all intact. I don’t think I could really touch one, let alone hack the talons. So I put the whole feet in there and used a spoon instead of actually touching them. Maybe in time, I’ll get used to it.
I received your email with this post back in November shortly after after we processed our first batch of chickens. So when we went to process the second batch I had my husband bring home the feet. Just wrote a post about my experience. Glad I did it, not sure if I would do it again. Thanks for your post- it was what I needed to try it myself. http://sogkonniteliving.blogspot.com/2010/01/chicken-feet-stock.html
An excellent tutorial. Thank you! I had no idea I had to skin those feet. I’ve used feet in my stock for quite a while now and it still never gels.
I printed your tutorial back in November and stuck it under the cover of my NT book. I am finally going to make another batch of stock. I usually make a couple of gallons at a time and just use about two pounds of feet along with lots of leftover carcasses and heads. I will peel the feet this time and hope it makes a difference.
Your instructions say “be brief” when blanching the feet. I’m not sure what that means. Do I bring a pot of water to a rolling boil and then dunk them in, wait 10 seconds and take them out? Or do I wait 30 seconds? 1 minute?
I am enjoying your site very much.
Why do you peel the feet, remove the talon, etc. ? Why not just wash the feet well and then cook them?
We make broth from the carcasses of the organic chickens we buy locally. No feet. But the broth of bones simmered all day makes a solid gel just like the gel in your photo.
Our chickens don’t come with feet. I’ll ask the farmer what they do with the feet. Bet we can get a bunch.
I know a woman from China who loves chicken and duck feet. She just cooks them a bit and munches away happily.
Hey, I was a vegetarian for 30+ years. Two years ago I learned to hung and shot a doe. Used all but the bones. Made soap with the tallow.
Thanks,
Shivani
Shivani -
I peel the feet first and remove the talons because I find that I don’t need to skim the broth as often and it lends itself to a much better flavor. I’ll bet that if you ask your farmer, they’ll give you the feet. You might ask about acquiring the heads as well because they lend themselves to a good stock too.
Take Care -
Jenny
At one lucky, lucky time in my life, I had easy access to chicken feet and they made the BEST stock I’ve ever tasted. I never even put any onions/carrots/celery in it…just pure chicken-y goodness.
I’m working to get in touch with the local growers in my new area, but it’s a slow process. I’m crossing my fingers that someone will have feet for me.
Oh, seeing those pictures of feet sure brought back good memories.
Kitchen Stewardship referenced this post recently. Thank you so much for posting this info! I didn’t know about the prep work either. Everyone’s comments were helpful as well!
Thanks again!
Not all chickens have yellow feet, just a little FYI for those wondering.
we have alot of wonderful dim sum houses in the san fran by area.when im with my caucasian friends and they get squeemish about eating chicken feet with black bean sauce and chilies,i like to ask”you eat the drumstick?this is just a little bit lower on the leg’!”. they try it and love the texture,flavor and working the skin off the bones with their tongue and teeth. when mom is with me she has to have a extra order. she has said making this dish is better left to the restaurants but we have always thrown in chicken feet for broth at home..from sharkfin soup to everyday soups with veggies it adds the dif of a so-so broth to a very deep flavored broth..
I’m doing it now! I ordered a 10 pound bag of pastured, organic chicken backs and necks, and a 5 pound bag of feet from my local organic delivery service. I threw 16 feet in with the 8 carcasses, since I figured that was a natural ratio.
I still have 31 feet left. I don’t think I’m brave enough to make a feet only stock, but I have no problem throwing them in with other bones.
The feet I received look clean and are flesh colored, so I assume the membrane was already removed. Now reading that not all chicken feet are yellow in the comments has me a little worried. Hopefully it will be OK! I did remove the claws, which was a bit disturbing. It helped knowing the health benefits to my family will be huge.
Thanks Jenny!
I make mine in the pressure cooker with the seasoning of my choice for about one hour; if not
totally tender, I put it back some more minutes. (Please, don´t try if you have no experience with
pressure cookers.)
They get very tender and all the joints separate letting out all the gelatin.
I strain it through a fine colander. When it cools off I put it in the refrigerator for some hours
until it gets very cold so I can clean the fat that will come to the surface; I don´t need the
cholesterol.
Does someone knows if the nutritional value diminishes with this process?
And, yes, you can make chicken stock with other parts of the chicken, but the result is totally
different and if you want the gelatin, the feet of the chicken is what you need. I use it to treat
my osteoarthritis.
It’s my understanding that the high heat associated with pressure cooking will denature the proteins, so I tend to avoid both pressure cooking and pressure canning.
Incidentally, I’m actually a big fan of cholesterol and dietary fat – they both play a vital role in cognitive function and general health that is heavily and unjustly ignored by the current prevailing dietary dicta. Have you read The Cholesterol Myths? Or this is a good article on the subject: Myths & Truths about Cholesterol.
Thank you. This is exactly the level of instruction I need to make my first batch of stock using chicken feet.
You have no business using shark fins. Your country men painfully slice off the fins and through the living shark back in the water to drown or be eaten alive. It is a reprehensible act of torture and if you are buying fins you are equally at fault. Sharks are necessary for the health of our oceans and they are being killed for the most stupid of reasons… ego based bullshit soup.
Please do not do this again, and change your perspective to improve the health of our oceans and our marine inhabitants. Relinquish the idea of eating the fins of our sharks who are being slaughtered at record numbers.
Be a savior of the seas, not a murderer.
We raise our own meatbirds and this past fall I had my dh keep the feet. We feed them to our dog for snacks. Since we follow the prey model diet for our dog or raw food diet she gets these as a treat. She loves them and they look so funny when she is gnawing on one. But perhaps I will have to share this with my dh for the next time he wants to make some soup!
We just processed our first chickens last weekend and my stock with chicken feet is beautiful and smells heavenly. I was really worried about the whole process b/c I came from a Vegan background also. But it was surprisingly peaceful and now our freezer is filled with meat and stock! But I will admit to throwing out the heads, I was a little too squeamish to put those to good use. I will be trying this Asian-inspired chicken stock recipe, it sounds wonderful.
We raise and sell pastured chickens – I have huge bags of feet, our folks haven’t caught on yet. I do not clean my feet – the broth strains fine and I typically add one or sets of feet to each carcass I boil, so I haven’t noticed a taste difference.
Somes I’ll make a huge pot of just straight chicken feet broth, and then I’ll freeze it in icecube trays – great to add to soups without the fam noticing. Or to cooking water for pasta, potatoes or veggies.
And to the woman who mentioned the ‘franken chickens’ – we raise the hybrids, but because we limit their feed and force them to forage, they don’t get feet issues. It really depends on how the chickens are raised.
Great article, thanks so much,
Rosalyn
You made me giggle with that “used to be vegan” comment. Same here, I’m often amazed at the things I do for food now, that used to make me gag or cause me to spin off in some kind of quasi health and morality rant. Ha ha good times.
But we seem to be on the same wavelength lately. I’m making chicken stock this weekend. And yes absolutely chicken feet are awesome in chicken stock. I discovered them in my butchers freezer a while back and thought hey why not, and bonus they’re cheap. And what resulted was absolutely the best stock we ever made.
Recent vegan (family of 5)for 11 +/- years and we’ve turned to raw milk and poultry as we became allergic to soy. Few questions …..why do you want gelled soup?? It doesn’t sound good at all! I am not squeamish and can cut/ hack up a whole chicken ( learning to cook as a carne is totally different…especially when adding 15 years of vegetarian to the mix!). I think ill stick with chicken fried in fresh butter and coconut oil. I even go a heart attack point extra and make gravy out of the drippings ….its SOOOOOO GOOD!
WHY gel?
Honey
According to the Weston Price Foundation (who in turn seem to have gotten this info from the experiments of Dr Francis Pottenger), the gelatin in a broth such as this (or beef broth with knuckle bones, etc…) aids in digestion due to its hydrophilic nature. Supposedly cooked meat is hydrophobic (may repel your digestive juices), therefore eating gelatin with cooked meat makes the meat more digestible.
I have not found any other research on this topic one way or another. All the research I’ve found on gelatin focus on its nature as a protein rather than a digestive aid. However, in my personal experience, I’ve noticed that any meal I eat that includes a rich gelatinous stock sits very well. I sometimes wake up with an achy stomach if I didn’t eat well the day before, but if I ate a dinner that included a good stock my stomach has never hurt the next morning (even on occasions when the rest of my diet that day was quite subpar).
Hope that helps!
Inspired by this post, I was able to obtain ~2lbs of chicken feet. Since this will be my first attempt at stock of any kind – is there a particular type of container that is best suited for storing the prepared stock? And can I just freeze the stock?
I realize this is an older post ~ but thank you! I have friends who are so grossed out that I’m going to make broth from the feet of the chickens I butcher this summer. Why should anything go to waste? If it can be used in a productive manner, I believe it should be used!
It’s chicken processing time on our little farm and for once the chicken feet are coming into the kitchen, destined for the soup pot. The dogs and the pigs are so sad! They love the special treat that chicken feet are.
Blanched up my first batch before seeing this post – a 30 second blanch and I could only get the skin to peel to the first joint. Threw them back in the pot of boiling water for a good 2 minutes – this time the entire skin/membrane peeled off, leaving the bone and meat and ligaments intack. Hmm. Did not look like the chicken legs I had been eyeballing in the oriental grocery store earlier this week (which did come shrinwrapped on styrofoam trays, btw) but figured the denuded legs would be fine stock making nonetheless. Glad to find your guidance here, just in time for the next batch of fresh legs to make their journey this way.
I’ve read that cooking any chicken-based stock for too long breaks down the gelatin – that there is a window of opportunity that results in great gel. Too short or too long, not so great gel.
Just spent the afternoon making soup stock with chicken feet –grew up on a wonderful Mennonite farm where there was an abundance of ” la feet” –my mom always used them !! Today I added 4 cups of fabulous organic chicken broth –great flavor–very low sodium –bought from the local supermarket.
I read at the beginning of this website that chicken feet were not available in styrofoam covered with plastic in the store. Well fortunately here in Edmonton, Alberta ..approx pop of 800,000 to 1,000,000 –we have the large supermarkets with just that—and they are completely cleaned and ready to go !!
…………..now cows feet just don’t seem to work the same way ………..or have I missed something?? Ha Ha !!
I became the *Awesome Mom* to my pre-teenage sons some years back, when I used the chicken feet for greetings to Halloween trick-or-treaters in the neighborhood, then the next day they went into the stockpot.
Hi Jenny,
I know this was an older post but I’ve got a question. I bought about 50 feet from a local farm…don’t think that the chickens were totally grass fed, but everyone of my feet has black rough spots on the bottom and a little black spot on some back near the cut. I’ve tried to research this and haven’t come up with many answers on it. Have you ever had black spots on yours? Do you think it would be ok to make a broth with? Some sites I found said about just cutting off black spots and some said it was a bacterial infection and shouldn’t be consumed or made into broth.
thanks,
Toni
Can you post a picture?
Hey Jenny,
I will try to post a picture but it may be next week…this week has been busy with home school evaluations and also my girls ballet recital on Saturday.
Thanks,
Toni
Hi,
Its an interesting note on chicken feet. Just found this while i was searching some info about chick feet. One of my friends running business like this and having an issue regarding to that. Does anybody know what we can do to the waste or the skin peeled off from the feet? my friend is looking for a simple safty method to handle that waste. According ot him it takes long time to decompose, so having problems with his workplace. If anybody knows a way to biodegrade it soon or re use it for some other purpose please let me know. Thanks.
Ru
Chicken feet vary in color, depending on the breed of chicken. I have yellow, green, and gray/black feet. When I scald them, the water is just below a boil, and I count to ten and take them out. Longer and they start to cook.
I love love love this post! I was vegetarian/vegan for at least 10 years and I started feeling like something needed to change! I preface with that tidbit because I, for the first time, helped my mom butcher a couple of her chickens that she has raised with the good stuff, you know, good food, bugs, grass, and the like : ) The best part, aside from spending good time with mom, was that I knew I needed to save those nasty feet because I came across this post the other day! I am so grateful to our Lord for you and all you have to share with the world! I pray that God will use you more!!!
I added one pound of chicken feet to my soup chicken and had a marvelous chicken stock. If you want to get more calcium in your diet, adding chicken feet is a good thing to do. I strained my stock after many hours of simmering and today I had a pleasing gelatanous stock! I will do this every time from now on. Those little feet were cute too, I must say but I did snip off the toe nails before throwing it into the pot!
Hi, Jenny. I was wondering – do the chicken heads also provide gelatinous texture to the stock, or should one omit them from the stockpot?
Thanks.
That was really funny about your 4 year old tapping you on the shoulder with the claw!!
so, can i use chicken feet, without any preparation, for perpetual stock?
If I’m not able to make an arrangement for purchase chicken feet from a local grower, is it really safe to get them from an Asian Market? I’m wondering about where they get their’s from. I saw packages of them when I was shopping in there with my son last year. He spent a year in Thailand and so we needed to get the real goodies for a few dishes he wanted to make for us.
I’m just wondering how different their feet would be from any ol’ package of Pilgrim’s Pride or Purdue chicken I’d find in my local grocery store.
To have a liquid gel when cooled, you needs lots of gelatin. In this instance, chicken feet are small so the amount feet you need will be much greater. Also, since it is covered by a very tough skin, the connective tissues within the joints and especially the ball where all of the toes meet are protected from the dissolving power of water. You will need to expose these tissues to maximize the formation of gelatin. So then you will have to increase the amount of feet and also to bifurcate the feet, lengthwise ideally. Try msking a pork stock with a pound of bigs feet. Once the pigs feet starts falling apart, you’ll realise what is neccessary to achieve a jiggly stock.
I want to try this but I don’t know where I could find these in the UK. I get gelatinous stock enough from just bones, but chicken foot stock would be most effective for making portable soup, which I make a lot. I also think that one of the main reasons I really want to try this is to completely freak out my kitchen-mates (I share a kitchen with 4 other people in a student acommodation). It’s a pretty quiet kitchen (they all just use the microwave), and so I mostly have it all to myself; bu I lovewatching people’s reactions to all my fermentation jars, crockpot, and various bags of organs, shellfish and bones in the freezer (you should have seen one guy’s face when he walked in on me skinning a beef tongue). I wonder how they’d react to chicken feet lying on the counter. If I get my hands on some, I’ll make sure to leave them next to the microwave! MUAHAHAHA!
There was a question concerning chicken feet with black spot on the bottom.It stated it could bacteria. I had this 2 days ago and cut the black off with my felay knife and made stock.The stock tastes ok , but I only ate about a cup full last night and today. Am I in any danger to continue eating it and eating the feet? I thank you in advance for for your quick responce. GY
George, you’re safe, assuming you boiled them. Bacteria dies in boiling water. Those are the calluses on their feet; just like the ones on your feet.
When I do my chicken feet stock, I just throw them in there. I don’t peel them (although next time I might), or snip the toenails. When the stock is done, I run it through an old linen pillow case and it strains out all of the particles and I get a lovely broth.
You DON’T have to cut off the toes. The outer part of the claw pops off easily. After you scald it and peel the skin just bend the claws backward and they just pop off.
WOndering why one would consider this asian inspired?
There are definately NO asians in my North Dakota area, loads of Germans, Native Americans and Ukrainians and all make chicken feet stock.
It is a bit racist to call such a wide spread food asian inspired.
Really?
The seasonings she uses in the recipe; ginger, star anise have an asian flair. Didn’t you read the whole article before you flipped?