Chicken Feet
When i was at my local asian grocery last sunday, chicken feet were on sale. I used to like chicken feet when I was younger (always order it when I go for dimsum), but now the novelty seems to have worn off. My wife on the other hand still likes to eat it so I thought why not try making it at home. It will be a good experience for me.I looked for some "authentic" recipes online and it wasn't hard to find them. All of the recipe requires deep frying the chicken feet. Initially I thought that deep frying was to make the feet taste better, but it turns out that it is required to loosen the skin. For the chicken feet lover, you know what I'm talking about. The skin on the chicken feet when we order it at a restaurant are almost falling off the bone. This makes the skin softer and easier to eat. One word of caution when deep frying, the chicken feet makes the oil "explode" from time to time and this caused my entire stove to be covered with oil. If you do not have a deep fryer, I suggest you don't fry the chicken feet. You won't get the texture like the ones served in the restaurants, but it will still taste good.
To prepare the chicken feet, use a sharp cleaver and cut the nails off the feet. Wash thoroughly afterwards. Some online recipe calls for salting the feet first before rinsing, I didn't see the point for this step so I skipped it.
I gave up on the deep frying method when the oil kept on splashing and my stove started to get covered with oil. I had to resort to a safer method of cooking: stewing. To stew them, I put some chicken broth and water in a big pot. I dumped all the chicken feet into the pot and cover until it boiled. Once the liquid boils, you will see some stuff floating on top, need to take these out. The chicken feet is cooked at this point, but it is still not tender (especially the ligaments attached to the bone). Put your favourite seasoning. I used dark and light soy sauce, oyster sauce, brown sugar, and salt (to make sure they are salty). Turn the heat to medium-low and cook for an hour or so until you can see that the liquid has reduced considerably. Just like in any dishes you make, I recommend tasting towards the end to make sure that they are cooked to your desired texture and consistency. Also taste the liquid(sauce) as this is what flavours the chicken feet. If you want to make it spicy, I recommend adding some chili flakes early in the cooking stage.
posted by carefreecooking @ 9:44 AM
4 Comments:
I am trying to be open-minded about this but it sounds really really gross to eat a chicken foot. What is there to eat? skin and bone? I better not think on it too hard. More power to you chef!
Since there is so much soy sauce put in this dish, you couldn't tell where the chilly flakes is. When you accidentally bit into one or two, you will for sure not miss it. Of course you mouth is on fire.
This is a chinese delicassy that's why it seems gross. You eat the skin and the tendons. I would agree at it does look gross if you haven't tried it before. I would say it would take a few tries before you get used to the texture. But after that, you can't get enough of it :)
I love chicken feet.
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