Chicken Feet

[CharityCase]

When I first caught this thread a few months back it encouraged me to try feet at my next Dim Sum. The ones we were served closely resembled those in spaghettti's photo, and reddish/brownish sweet and hot might be my best guess at describing their flavour.

I wasn't put off by them but found them more work then they're worth...the texture is sort of novel but there's so much fat and bone, and not much flavour to extract. I dunno, I'd file them under frog legs and snails as something to have once in a while but not something I lust after.

Give me pho with tendon, give me braised pig's knuckle but leave the chicken feet at home

[LynDel]

I traveled with friends to Brazil (Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais) and her mother puts out this huge feast of food for lunch. In the middle of the table was a pile of fried chicken feet. The mother made them for her daughter, who adored eating chicken feet. The daughter (one friend I traveled with) cheerfully gnawing on a foot, tossed a few onto my plate and told me to eat up. Of course, the other Brazilians were at the table, just waiting to see if the "Americana" would eat chicken feet.

They laughed in delight as the daughter and I ate the chicken feet. I wished I had been able to watch the mother prepare them. I'd be curious to see how they were prepared and them seemed to be enjoyable. Though I laughed when no one else would eat them. The other Brazilians declared them as "food for dogs" and we were the only two eating them.

[I_call_the_duck]

My method of eating them is to first  pick the claws off.  I don't debone them, I like them better with the bones because there's some nice cartilage in them that adds texture in between the digits.  I always save the meaty pad for last.    The broth is lovely and nourishing.  I am eating these alone, as my husband does not particularly like chicken feet. 

I'd love to hear other's recipes and stories.  I know that chicken feet are not only eaten in China, but my father, who was a deep Southerner (U.S.), also loved them in his youth.  I have only had them prepared the Chinese way since we didn't carry that tradition along with us growing up.

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I haven't had that broth since I moved out on my own. In addition to the recipe you mentioned, my mom made another version (less medicinal) in which she added soy sauce. But my favorite preparation for chicken feet is just plucking them off a whole poached chicken. No sauce, no embellishments. BTW, I also start with the claws, proceed to the fingers next, then the forearm, and save the palm for last. (Of course, I don't know if a chicken would refer to those same parts, but you can imagine the equivalent.) Ahhh, memories.

[-sheila mooney]

i never saw chicken feet wrapped up just like, say, chicken thighs or drumsticks til i came to montreal, where my supermarket is close to china town. in paris, where i lived until a couple of years ago, chicken had feet...but just plain feet were not easy to come by.

i keep looking at the claws and will surely someday cook up a batch of stock with them -- but in the meantime the chinese ladies from the neighbourhood keep snatching the packs away from me!