Chicken Feet

[Pan]

I've found that white chicken feet are almost all fat. Why is that?

I love chicken feet and found the photo in the first post in this thread pretty appealing.

[SobaAddict70]

Wait till my mom sees eGullet and this thread. lol. Now I have to go ask her about chicken feet. I only remember having it once when I was a kid...and it wasn't a good experience.

Soba

[jschyun]

I also like the feet in black bean sauce at dim sum, but not the white ones. I think I've heard the white ones called "crystal" style or something like that.

I haven't had it in soup yet, not a Korean thing that I know of. But I'm guessing that I'll probably love it.

[Yuki]

I like the white one because it is not as soft as the steamed ones, and is more crunchy. Also, I don't really like the strong seasoings on some of the steamed chicken feet(I don't know if it is weird to say that I can't taste the feet with those seasoings.....).

[snowangel]

Ah, Lucy. The prep in your first post is my favorite, my almost any way will do. I love chicken feet. Imagine how my chest puffed up when at a recent EG dim sum event, when my 9-year old son, at a recent EG dim sum event, devoured 2 or 3 feet.

Further. When I was growing up, I spend summers on my grandparents farm. Several times a summer, my grandmother and I would go to a neighboring farm to get some chickens (this involved catching, killing and prepping them; I was 8 when I killed my first chicken). Nothing went to waste. Early on, my grandmother instilled a "it isn't chicken stock or broth if there are no feet" mentality in me. They add a richness that you can't get from just bones and meat. A succulent, sensuous quality to that stock.

[Chris Amirault]

You know, I think of myself as pretty securely high on the food chain and generally and qualm-free about food, one of those eGulleteers who not only eats anything but enjoys most that he'll eat.

I am not very squeamish, either. I have pointed at cute little rabbits, watched throats being cut and their skin being pulled off, and carried their warm, muscular bodies home with me; I have killed and halved lobsters, prying the still jerking raw meat out of the tail.

I'm no hunter and have never lived on a farm, but I like to think that I can't really be freaked out about food.

When I just saw this photo, depicting what those velvety, gelatinous chicken feet look like before they arrive on the dim sum cart --

←

-- I immediately had primal flashbacks to head-spinning, stomach-raveling moments during "Creature Double Feature" and embarked on an extended anxiety attack, with visuals, involving avian toenails.

Cool Multi-Culti Foodie-Man just left the building to dry heave behind a dumpster.

Ignominiously yours, etc.

[bleudauvergne]

I would be so happy if anyone had a recipe for the white cloud recipe, a marinade with vinegar and chilis - mentioned by Yuki! That sounds like it would really be good.

Can anyone come forth with recipes? My way is so basic, and I do remember having them served in wonderful dark sauces the few times I have had them in Cantonese restaurants.

[EdS]

That's a very disturbing photo.

The sickly green.

Ew.

[EdS]

I'm picturing a green chicken foot rising skyward from a mound of carrot foam.

Note to Self: Don't post on eGullet after four pints of Guinness at the pub on a Friday night.

Edited December 18, 2004 by esvoboda (log)

[bleudauvergne]

I'm glad it caught your attention. Poulet de Bresse have blue legs. Sorry if the photo is disturbing.

Now if anyone actually appreciates chicken feet and has any stories or recipes it would be really nice to discuss them. So far we have heard from a few different viewpoints, uding them in soup, different sauces for asian preparations, stories about how the feet have been involved in cooking from childhood - I'd love to hear about more.

[Luckylies]

love em. in the dim sum reddish brownish sauce, but only when their hot, at room temperature they are too gelatinous for me. I could snack through hundreds of them. ducks webs are a different story though. tried them the other day, and they bear no similarity to the goodness that is la pie de poulet (guess who speaks no french)

[Yuki]

Thai style chicken feet

Since it is in Chinese, I made a translation of the recipe

Cleaned Boneless Chicken Feet - 1 lb (Shouldn't be a problem if you use boned chicken feet but the cooking time might be different since prepared chicken feet is often cooked already)

Green Onion - 1

Garlic - quarter of it

onion - half of it

Bird Chili - 2

Sauce

Fish Sauce - 5 tbsp

Sugar - 6 tbsp

Lime juice from 1 lime

white vinegar - 3 tbsp

hot water - 4 tbsp

salt - a bit to taste

Instruction

1.) Boil the chicken feet for 5 minutes or until it soften a bit

2.) Put the chicken feet in ice water and store in fridge

3.) Meanwhile chop the green onion, garlic, and pepper. The onion should be sliced really thin.

4.) Add the sugar into the water and vinegar. Then add the rest of the ingredients from the sauce ingredients' list. Adjust taste.

5.) Strain the chicken feet really well and add everything in it

6.) Store in the fridge for at least 5 -6 hrs. It is best overnight.

[Luckylies]

I was at Western Beef (in nyc) yesterday...god I love that place. after reading this thread I saw chicken feet for four bucks and figured I'd try to cook them myself, for four bucks, even if they were inedible (hardly a word in my book) it would be interesting to try. I used some of the ideas from the recipes above and modifed them for what I had in my house (lazy, lazy, lazy). the feet turned out very good! Almost how they taste at dim sum, a little more kick. I might use less five spice next time and a little less chili sauce, but otherwise they were gone in an half an hour and really easy to put together.

Chicken feet

(1 lb) chicken feet

Marinade-

5 tbsp minced garlic

3 tbsp Chinese five-spice powder.

1 tbsp salt

1 tsp pepper

2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp ground ginger

1 tbsp white rice vinegar

¾ cup sriracha hot chili sauce

3 tbsp toasted sesame oil

3 tbsp vegetable oil or olive oil

Sauce

6 tbsp pre prepared black bean sauce (I used Roland)

5 cups water

5 tbsp of above marinade

Mix garlic, five-spice powder, salt, pepper, sugar, ginger, rice vinegar and sriracha chili sauce in a medium sized bowl. Add chicken feet, cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or more (up to twelve hrs). Reserve marinade.

In an small saucepot, brown chicken feet in small batches in the sesame and vegetable oil mixture, remove finished feet to a plate. Add black bean sauce, 5 tbsp of the marinade and 5 cups of water to the saucepot. Add the browned chicken feet and simmer over low heat for forty minutes or until the skin is falling off the bone and the meat is tender.

eat infront of the tv with cold beer, and content look on face.

[stephenc]

i only like it prepared the brown way

[bleudauvergne]

Wow that looks really good.

[bleudauvergne]

I was at Western Beef (in nyc) yesterday...god I love that place. after reading this thread I saw chicken feet for four bucks and figured I'd try to cook them myself, for four bucks, even if they were inedible (hardly a word in my book) it would be interesting to try. I used some of the ideas from the recipes above and modifed them for what I had in my house (lazy, lazy, lazy). the feet turned out very good! Almost how they taste at dim sum, a little more kick. I might use less five spice next time and a little less chili sauce, but otherwise they were gone in an half an hour and really easy to put together.

This looks like a great recipe, I'll use it the next time I have them. Thank you!

[davidthomas8779]

I'm the sort who will try anything once. I bought some feet on Saturday and cooked them with garlic, sake, and ginger in pot. Boiled them and then simmered for 90 minutes.

I didn't like them because although the flavor was good (I loved the resulting stock), the texture was way to gelatinous for me. It was like eating Jello on bones. My 7 year old agreed with me (no prompting from me--he always has to give his opinion first "This tastes good, but it feels weird in my mouth") My 8 year old daughter ran from the room to avoid vomiting at the sight of a pot full of feet. My wife tasted and agreed that they were too gelatinous.

All told, I'm glad to have finally tried them and will try them in some kind of dim sum preparation or fried in the future, but I am not going to make a pot of chicken feet for dinner at any time in the near future.

[AzRaeL]

I like them prepared thai style. Boneless, chopped in bits and in a salad.

I have a fear of reptiles...and by itself, chicken feet look too reptilian for my liking.

[spaghetttti]

I was treated to a pre-birthday dim sum lunch at Lucky Three, Bailey's Crossroads, VA and among all the scrumptious small plates, I got the chicken feet. They really pale in comparison to StephenC's (literally and figuratively). But I was very pleasantly surprised that they were quite tasty and flavorful, despite their bland appearance.

[Yuki]

Another way to cook chicken feet in my family is to cook them with abalone. Put the chicken feet at the bottom of the pot to absorb all the flavour from the chicken bones, pig pones, and roasted duck bones. In the end, the best part is not the abalone but the chicken feet which is now really soft and flavourful. To tell the truth, I don't like abalone but love the thick sauce and chicken feet.

[Blair P. Houghton]

Oh goodness no, the French don't eat the feet!

As I've always said, the Chinese will eat things even the French won't eat.

The only times I've ever had chicken feet, they were breaded and fried, then, unfortunately, served in a sauce that made them not so crispy as I'd have liked. I bet the skin is extra tasty when it's crispy.

Until I find it crispy-fried for real, another char-siu bao for me.

[AzianBrewer]

Sorry, I am going to pass on this one....

[marlena spieler]

Old-time Jewish Ashkenazic cookery also placed great, well, stock in the use of chicken feet — known as fiselakh in Yiddish — which contain lots of gelatin and thus serve to thicken the soup nicely.... Like calves' feet, chicken feet are today seen by most Jewish cooks as somehow primitive and to be avoided, and so the traditionally minded soup-makers must seek out chicken feet in the butcher shops and live poultry markets of immigrant groups more recently arrived, and less thoroughly Americanized in their foodways

The Forward article ...

←

oy, how i loved those fiselakh! my grandmother always put a few in her soup, and it gave it such a good flavour! we bought the feet at a butchers that did indeed sell live poultry, in a mexican neighbourhood, cause there were no jewish/kosher butchers in the area.

a few years ago in spain, we rescued a puppy, and as we were in the hills and couldn't nip down to the nearest village which wasn't so near, our neighbour came over and brought a bag of heads, feet, that sort of thing. she said: make soup for the puppy, chicken and rice soup: its what puppies eat!

well i thought: its what THIS puppy eats, too (thinking of myself and family--after all, how much soup could one little puppy eat?)). so i put it all into a big pot and simmered away, it smelled like my grandmothers kitchen. but when my daughters friend opened the lid on the pot to see what smelled good, she saw all the feets bobbing away in the soup, and she passed out in fright!

anyhow, all recovered, the soup was delicious, as long as no one mentioned feet.

marlena

Edited August 6, 2005 by marlena spieler (log)

[sassybat]

my mom always used to bring back the white marinated chicken feet and the soy sauce cooked duck feet. i always loved the duck feet, but passed on the chicken feet, until i hate them the reddish-brown dim sum way. now i always have to get chicken feet when getting dim sum.

[suzilightning]

lucy-

hope you don't need to have an xray taken and are suspected of cannibalism like this poor guy was here in new jersey

http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2004-...n-fingers_x.htm