I use wings, backs and feet to make my simmered chicken stock. I don't think it makes my stock any more gel-like then without the chicken feet. However, it is a richer stock with the feet and the color is wonderful.

Isn't chicken stock more gel-like if you roast the bones first?

Michelle

Have you ever read Watch Out for the Chicken Feet in Your Soup by Tomie De Paola? It's a very cute kids book all about this very topic!

Here is a link that might be useful: Watch Out for the Chicken Feet in Your Soup

I also toss the feet into my stock pot. When we have "stewing hens", aka hens that are getting old enough that they don't lay regularly, a local Amish farmer slaughtyers them for me and packages them whole, one bird per package. He includes the liver, the gizzard, the heart and the feet. Everything except the liver goes into the stockpot and I make chicken broth then can it.

Even when I get young fryers, I use the wing tips, the backs, the giblets and the feet for broth, just like Grandma taught me. She'd be disappointed if I wasted those perfectly good feet, LOL.

The liver is the cat's treat. I love 'em, but the doc says it's bad for my cholesterol level, so they are a very occasional treat for me.

The broth does "gel" when cold, but melts right back into broth when warm. My can stuff just thickens, it doesn't gel, because it stays at basement temperature in my "storage facility". LOL

Annie

I'm gonna do it! I know of a couple Asian markets in my area that sell them, plus it gives me an excuse to poke around at the other interesting stuff found there.

I'll post my results...stay tuned!

I saw that when I got the newsletter..but the bowl of feet just sent me over the edge..I couldn't go further. LOL

I've eaten chicken feet or duck feet with Chinese meals a couple of times. They are very soft and gelatinous. No cartilage that I can recall. But of course you have to spit out those tiny bones. The widest possible variety of textures are considered desireable in Chinese cuisine whereas in American cooking only crispy-crunchy, juicy, flakey and a couple of others are appreciated.

I had not thought of using chicken feet for broth. That is an excellent idea. It's the gelatin (collagen) that makes a good broth. It's the same with ham hocks. They make a good broth for cooking things like dry butter beans. If you use the smoked ones, it's all the better. Probably pigs' "paws" would work well too.

I would hate to waste wings on broth (except for the tips). Those are for Buffalo wings, the hotter the better. Yum!

Jim

And, of course, fans of the late B. Kliban (of sneaker-clad cat cartoon fame) will remember that there's always this application:

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1491202}}

I started using chicken feet and neck when I learned how to make a vegetable potage the local way after arriving in Spain years ago.

I've told this story many times...(sorry) but when in the market the butcher would ask me if I wanted the feet, and when I said "si" she would ask if I wanted "una manicura".....a manicure....or did I want the nails whacked off. I did. My daughters used to grab the feet out of the grocery bag when we arrived back home and chase each other around the house with them.

The feet and neck add more flavour and gelatine to the pot. They still sell chicken with the feet on in the main city market, and in some supermarkets here but I don't use them any more, as I buy the stripped carcasses to simmer for stock.

SharonCb

LOL, Arley

I used to use them until they became scarce. I just saw them in a local supermarket recently and will buy some next time I make soup (I have a bit frozen on hand already).

I wanted to be a chicken butcher when I was a kid; I'd go with my mother to the one in our town. It was called the Chicken Nest, as I recall. I was fascinated. The chickens were already dead, but I loved to watch the butcher cut them up, remove innards, and unborn eggs.

I know, some of you will find that hard to picture, Bubbe the Butcher.

I don't know if I could do chicken feet. I do chicken wings but not the feet.

Interesting about saving the carcass of Costco chicken. I need to do that. Thanks for the tip!

I eat the chicken feet when I go for Dim Sum. They're very good, though something of a pain to eat. The Chinese, with their centuries of droughts and starvation have learned to eat just about any edible portion of an animal. When I lived near Oakland Chinatown, I used to do a great deal of y grocery shopping there. Nice fresh fish, and good quality meats.

One of the stores had a "specialty" meat counter tucked into the back of the store. I remember taking a friend of mine in there and having her about pass out when she saw the trays of pig snouts, ears & feet. I discretely stood between her and the package of bull penis slices...honestly, I did not make that up...and they looked just about how you'd imagine they looked. :D

When I was a child my mom used to make soup (chicken) that contained (skinned) chicken feet. They were actually really awesome and we (kids) would quickly grab one if we could and moan to mom if we couldn't get one !

Yeah....chicken feet make the broth a nice color....but that's why they make food coloring...or put some carrots in your stock pot...or onions with the skin on. I don't do chicken feet...nope...not me.
And no, maryanne, roasting the bones does nothing to increase the gel factor of the broth. It's the stuff that cooks out of the joints and the skin that makes it gel...it's collagen.
Since I used the last of the frozen broth in the onion soup....guess I better replenish my supply...
Good thing to do on a snowy blowy day.
Linda C

Has this become another "wierd food" thread? hehehe

I admit I never developed a craving for chicken feet. I would order them at dim sum if anyone would share with me. But I don't want a whole portion by myself and there are things I like better.

BTW, thanks arley. LOL! I had forgotten that one.

Jim

Depending on which farmers' market I shop at that week, if it's one where my poultry vendor sells feet, I like to use a few in making chicken broth. If it's a market that doesn't have them, the broth is fine with backs and necks but I do add some onion skins to get that golden color the feet add.

I also like to add 1/4 lb. of chicken hearts midway through the simmering. They add a subtle depth of flavor and all the poultry stalls sell hearts, livers and gizzards by the pound.

Add a yam, shssssss, don't tell anyone but that adds color and another subtle flavor...I, too, use the onion skins.

I use a big pot and a lot of chicken backs, wings, legs, as well as whole chicken. The trick is to use a large ration of poultry to liquid. A 20 Qt pot takes 12 plus lbs of chicken and yields me about 7 net Qt.. of soup. You can walk on it when cold.

When we were in Canton China, there were chicken feet in my food. I have to say finding those cartilaginous pieces in my mouth grossed me out. I am making a face right now thinking of it. Cleaved appendages will do that to me. Yuck. Found it difficult to eat calamari tentacles too.

Chicken feet scalded, peeled, added to the soup pot, then removed (not eaten) do wonders

I can't get chicken feet here or I would definitely use them to make broth. Then I would remove and discard them. I know how to clean them no matter what they have walked in/on. Even if I have to use bleach. That's better than letting a dog lick my face or kiss me because I know where his mouth and tongue has been.

changeling wrote:

When I was a child my mom used to make soup (chicken) that contained (skinned) chicken feet.

How the heck do you skin a chicken foot??

Spread some of that gel on your chicken sandwich! Takes the dryness out of a chicken sandwich. When warmed in a microwave the gel soaks back into the meat making it moist and flavorful.

My dad fondly recalls his grandmother frying him chicken feet. Never tried it.

One of those old cookbooks called for 5 lbs of beef bones, a pound of veal, and a old hen for making one meals worth of broth. I think some bone is critical as the marrow adds a wholesome flavor. Cartilage don't bother me none. I love chewing the ends off my chicken bones. Some of my better off friends have looked rather frightened when I eat the chicken right down to a clean bone. I don't eat the cartilage because I'm poor I do it because it tastes good... with an excellent crunch! And pea soup... you throw the ham bone in and where does the cartilage go? No you can't start a sentence with a conjunction and speak to yourself in third person.... um there I go again.

Soup anyone?

: )
lyra

who me?... drinking?

I forgot to add that here we can buy hens (gallinas) for stock pots which are commonly used more than younger roasting or frying chickens. The older female birds have a stronger flavour. The undeveloped eggs are also included in a soup or stew.

SharonCb

lyra,

DH chews his chicken bones the same way, gnawing it right down to splinters. Of course he is restricted to at home dinners for two. LOL

Bones, bones, bones, gimme dem bones

I made stock last week of veal knuckle and marrow bones. Cooked until I pulverized and free of any cartilage; marrow floating in it. So rich. I added a pint of it to browned meaty beef shanks (cut osso bocco style) and made mushroom, beef, barley soup in a pressure cooker. So rich, when cold, it was gelatinized.

Oops, were were talking chicken feet. My mother would wash, dry, and singe the feet over a flame to loosen the outer yellow scaly skin, peel that, then wash again.

Onion skins are a natural yellow dye so they would color the stock a tawny yellow. Dandelion flower is a bright, sun yellow.

When I was teaching I taught my students about natural dyes. We would dye eggs, like Easter eggs, with things gathered from the school yard and adjacent wooded area. it was always a fun project and my students enjoyed it.

Michelle

Michelle,

Dandelions? Great idea, but not so much in Northeast winters. Can I get them dried?

Beverly, LOL...I agree with you about the dog kisses!

Bubbes, I'm not sure dried dandelions would work or even if they are available commercially. Sometimes, hot house flowers do not have the dye strength that wild flowers do. This summer you could try freezing some dandelion blossoms and then see if that works. I would just pick the petals out and freeze, discard anything that is green. It is surprising how strong some natural dyes are and anything included in the pot, stems and leaves, can produce an unexpected color. For instance dandelion root produces a pinky red color and I think the dandelion leaves produce another color too but I can't remember what it is off hand.

And sometimes boiling flower blossoms will produce a honey flavor too, not sure if dandelions do or not but it's a consideration if your thinking of adding some dandelions to your chicken stock. I've made clover honey with my students. Make a cheesecloth bag and fill it with clover blossoms...I'd say at least 2-3 gallons of blossoms. They easily compact so just stuff the bag as full as possible. Put cheesecloth clover bag in a stock pot with about 2 gallons of water and 5 lbs of sugar and simmer and reduce to a thick syrup. Makes delicious honey flavored syrup and my students loved it.

Make sure that the area where you are harvesting has not been treated with any chemicals.

Michelle

This has been one of the most entertaining bunch of postings I've read in a long time. Broke me up! Thank you!

* Posted by rachelellen (My Page) on
Fri, Feb 8, 08 at 0:36

changeling wrote:

When I was a child my mom used to make soup (chicken) that contained (skinned) chicken feet.

How the heck do you skin a chicken foot??
-------------
rachelellen, I realize it might sound gross to some but this was how I was raised, you eat the way you do because of how you were raised.
It's no different than eating pigs feet, tripe, chit lings, Liver, Pate, etc,. There are hundreds of things that one thinks they wouldn't eat for personal reasons, however the truth is most people eat these things every day around the world, including the grand old USA with out even knowing it.

Yes, I ate and still will chicken feet in a stew or whatever dish calls for it, somewhere I kinda remember that the feet/wings/gristle contain a substance called collagen which instills a tremendous amount of flavor in dishes that would otherwise be unattainable!
Thats why they use it to make a chicken/beef/boulion/crystal base to those items you use to maximize the taste of 99 % of all dishes. Yes, all those items and more are used in the production of the above.
There is not one thing wrong with that, other than manufacturers have the habit of adding MSG and other stuff. Thats why the top cooks/chefs in the world make there own soup base/stock/whatever by using the natural ingredients as identified above, so like it or not everyone the world over eats "Chicken Feet" in one form are another.
You can use them to make a really great "Base", or you can throw in a couple of those little cubes.
Difference: Natural vs the same with things I can't even pronounce, except MSG, your choice.

Oh, in answer to your original question, how did my mom skin those chicken feet, I didn't pay a lot of attention, sorry to say, but I think she just put them in boiling water for X amount of time and just peeled off the outer layer/skin.
I'm very sure some of the ladies on this forum could tell you exactly how.

Whoops, forgot to add, the feet were added to an entire batch of soup which was usually made with two whole chickens plus frozen parts, NOT just a chicken foot soup/stew, LOL!
Changeling

I agree with PWM. This is a great thread. I've been amused and learned a lot.

It seems we have just scratched (sorry) the surface of of this topic. That substance (collagen) they are rich in must be useful in countless ways.

Ever had dandelion wine? It has a bit of a perfume taste, sort of like cheap bubble bath LOL!!
Actually marigold petals were used for cheese and butter and years ago for tinting margerine. I used to have an old bottle of marigold coloring with directions on how much to add to your butter to make it nice and yellow. Pot marigolds were what were used, we know them as calendula.
Linda C

Al-righty then, let me get this right:

Michelle, I am to go outside in the summer, and, before the mowers get to the house that week I am to collect 2-3 gallons of clover flowers (just how big a bag is that?), and steep it in a pot with 5 lbs of sugar and 2 gallons of water. And Arthur and I get to eat this for how many years? heheheheheeeee.....

My bad! I thought, somehow in my derangement, that you were suggesting dandelion flowers to color soup. You were so knowledgeable and authoritative that I took it literally.

I must have mad chicken disease.

Denny Crane

Bubbe....I think Michelle WAS suggesting that you use dandelion to color your soup if you didn't have chicken feet, onion skins or a yam.
Where I got lost was with the clover....my kids heard about that somewhere and were collecting clover blossoms, but before they got even as many as a pint they began to turn brown, tha they wisely gave that up. I told them they could have real honey!
As a kid we would pull a floret out of the head of red clover and suck on it to see if we could taste the nectar.

Denny, the recipe for Clover Honey is for a large amount. I made it during the summer when I worked for the Park and Recreation Dept. I had probably 40 kids on any given day and sent them all out to pick clover blossoms. It took them all morning to pick the blossoms and they had a great time and we never had any bee stings either...LOL. I would make toast and the kids spread the clover honey on it for a mid day snack and many of the students would bring a small jar to take some home. We made clover honey several times during the summer as it was a favorite. Come to think of it we did many things with food...LOL!

Lindac, I was thinking maybe Marigold for a more true yellow dye but wasn't quite sure. My natural dye days were LONG...LONG ago and I've forgotten so much. My Grampa made Dandelion wine every few years and it was the most gorgeous golden yellow color too. I remember the wooden barrels in the basement.

Michelle

ROFL about dog kisses. Why do dogs lick themselves? Because they CAN.

My mom LOVED dim sum and LOVED chicken feet. She also put them in her soup. I'm too chicken, pun intended.

Another childhood memory that you all brought up for me is putting the 'unborn' eggs in chicken soup. Another delicacy.

Speaking of bull penises (remember the pizzle thread on the Pet forum?), the swap is coming up (pun intended again).

Changeling, I think you must have missed another post of mine, the one where I talk about how much I like chicken feet when I go for Chinese Dim Sum. I just didn't know they needed to be peeled/skinned! I guess the ones I've seen for sale in the Chinese markets have already been peeled/skinned. I remember that I've found bits of that yellow skin on chickens I've bought from the grocery store, but never having butchered one myself, I guess I just never really pictured in my mind a skin that had to be removed...I dunno what the heck I thought the remnants were!

No, I would never disparage the eating habits of other cultures/times/countries, because I was introduced quite young to a lot of Asian foods that many people who have not eaten them would think "icky", but that which I learned to love.

If it's eaten by people somewhere on this earth, I'll at least taste it...except that I draw the line at anything that is still alive and moving. I could not handle having something move in my mouth. :O

Y'all see what I was missin:? Â(¿Â)Â

Geeze Louise, it's been way too long!

So happy to be back home.

Bubbe

OOooo SharonCB- that brings back memories - when I grew up in Bridgeport CT my Nonna would buy a chicken from the live market and it would have the eggs just like that picture! She would stew it and I remember it being so good (thought the plucking stage was awfully smelly!) My mom loves chicken feet - guess that was a delicacy during WWII in Sicily....Sorry but no feet for me. -maria

maria, for those of us who haven't been there...I'm curious, just how does one pluck a chicken? I have vague ideas about boiling water and feathers flying around one's feet, probably gleaned from a novel sometime.

A friend of our family when I was growing up always wanted the chicken legs and feet that we discarded when my aunts and uncles were killing chickens on one of the family owned farms. Their whole family were just plain weird to me. They were big, heavy set Polish people, from Poland. He was an IBM engineer and they weren't ignorant or anything like that, but she made food out of the legs and feet. She wanted necks too, and all sorts of weird things.

Once, the man was quite tweaked on beer and was at our house for a barbeque and he told all of us kids how he liked to put beef hearts from freshly slaughtered cows on a stick and roast them.. and, chicken and duck and geese hearts were good too! oh my god, I almost fainted.

To this day, the thought of that big huge man, all muscle and all brawn, roasting the freshly slaughtered hearts out of farm animals makes me want to just.. I don't know, but the vision of him is.. nasty.

I couldn't do chicken legs or any of those things. Nope. And, some of the horrific foods on Iron Chef get me too.. NO raw chicken for me! NO raw turkey! NO raw ishy brown gross lookin' stuff either.

Eeeeewwwwwwwwwwwww....

rachelellen - First the gutting (it would be killed by the shopkeeper) and the eggs would be pulled out and put in a bowl for the pasta. The chicken would be plunged into the boiling water by its feet which would help soften the skin for easier plucking. - I think one of the old Joy of Cooking editions may have instructions. - if you want to try it the Bridgeport Live Market still exists....-maria

Supposedly eating the chicken feet is tradtional in Portugal (at least on the Azores), too. Fortunately that is one thing DH has not asked me to learn to cook. I'm not grossed out by it, just don't have the patience for it.

Sharon, that is a very cool picture. Thanks for posting it.

Renee - there is a company called Mountain Rose Herbs that sells both dandelion and calendula blossoms (also rose and lavender...and a BUNCH of other kinds). Very good company; very knowledgeable staff.

Thanks guys!! I always wondered what I could use the chicken feet for. Never thought to use it for stock. I can get some feet at the Vietnamese market. I am going to get some this weekend and make stock.

DL

maria, there are any number of farms around here that have chickens...I'm sure I could come across a live one if I so chose. When we buy our place, I do want to have some chickens for eggs, and I figured that once they get past really laying, I'd have to slaughter them for use. My husband doesn't think I could do it, but I could...I just don't really know how.

I did wring the neck of a gull that I found once on a long hike, that was torn and bloodied, but still horribly alive. It took a surprising amount of strength.

So, when I get there, I guess I'll have to learn!

RachelEllen, I know you didn't ask me, and Maria's description is wholly accurate, but there is an easier way to pluck chickens if one is plucking several at a time:
Put a steel drum full of water on a brick platform and arrange a torch burner beneath it so the water comes to a rapid boil. Grab a (freshly killed) chicken by the feet with some loooong tongs and dip it in the boiling water for a few seconds, then fire up your plucking machine!

There are different configurations for plucking machines, but ours was a motorized horizontal cylinder with soft rubber fingers protrubing from the drum. One holds one's scalded chicken by the feet above the spinning cylinder and it ever-so-gently pulls all the feathers off as it rotates quickly. It's the only really fun part of the process to be honest. More than ten chickens can be plucked this way in the time it takes to hand pluck one.

As for slaughtering your own chickens, it can be done quickly and with dignity by just about anyone. Your best bet is to ask someone who has several (get a referral from the place that sells you your chicks) that need dispatching and ask to come help/learn.

During my childhood we used to raise and sell chickens. My parents were from Europe, and my Mom made soup using just about all of the chicken parts...including the feet and the cock's comb!! If I remember right, she would peel the chicken feet before adding into the pot.

Seeing the feet and the cock's comb going into the stock pot REALLY turned my appetite completely off and made me feel "queezy". Still does...YUCK!!!

However, I still love chicken soup, especially with escarole and homemade noodles in it. I always buy the packaged backs, necks, wings at the butcher's counter. As for gelatin.....if you can get a veal knuckle, have the butcher crack it for you and include that with the simmering chicken parts. Even without the knuckle, I find that the chicken parts with a 2-3 pound young chicken in the pot makes a hearty, full bodied, genatinous soup.

Wow, that machine sounds fascinating! It never occurred to me, but I suppose that if one buys a bunch of chicks, they're going to probably start slowing down at about the same time so even people slaughtering for only private consumption might end up doing quite a few at a time. I guess I had a mental image of sitting on a stump yanking hands full of feathers...probably from some old movie or something.

We're a while away from buying our place, but it will be such fun to learn all these things.

To pluck a chicken without buying a machine, like people do all over the world!

Bring a big pot of water to a boil! Dip the (deceased) chicken in the pot and lift completely out, holding the bird by the feet (2 or 3 times), grab hold of the feathers by the hand full and pull/rip from the back of the chicken towards the front.
The whole process will take about 5 minutes at the very most to completely pick a chicken, experienced people about 2 to 3 minutes!
However you won't have any of the broken bones or Purple bruises all over the chicken like you are used to from the grocery, It will just be plain white clean!
It also will not have crud stuck all over the inside/outside that the average house wife doesn't get off, because she doesn't even know it's there.

If you want to know more, just ask!

....I think Michelle WAS suggesting that you use dandelion to color your soup if you didn't have chicken feet, onion skins or a yam.

I was not suggesting using dandelion to color your broth. I was speaking only on natural dyes. Someone siad they used onion skins in their broth. Onion Skin is a natural dye as are many other plants or parts of plants. The dandelion comment was specifically on the dye quality and not a suggestion to use it in your broth. Dandelion might be too sweet for a broth.

Michelle

Michelle

Chicken butchering is shown in detail in the excellent illustrated tutorial linked below. It's very worthwhile to read this and to look at other backyard chicken sites before deciding to get into that. It might be more work than you bargained for.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chicken Butchering

It is a lot of work and it's extremely smelly work, especially when you douse the chicken, feathers and all into the boiling water and start plucking. While yard chickens taste much better than supermarket chickens, they are not worth the work and the odor to me.