zombie chicken feet

2014-11-13

This was my 2014 contribution to Halloween: zombie chicken feet.

In the regular world this is known as chicken feet soup. This is the basic recipe for making a good strong chicken stock, one of the best. If you want to eat the feet, do not cook this long!

I made this during the time I raised my own chickens. When I fished those feet out of the broth, the first thing that came to mind was 'zombie chicken!' because the skin was falling apart and the bones were showing just like in those many zombie TV series nowadays. Not everyone appreciated the reference. :-)

Chicken feet may not look very appetizing—especially when they start falling apart—and the initial smell of the cooking may not be very pleasant, but they make a very good and concentrated chicken stock, especially when boiling these until they literally started falling apart. That is when you start getting the goodness from the bones as well.

The feet taste imo very similar to pig's feet, although they are less fatty and much skinnier. I enjoy them as an appetizer or small snack without anything else to go with it. You can of course always serve them with the soup, dressed in the appropriate halloween witch costume.  :-)  

INGREDIENTS

This is what you need for 5 quarts:

  • 8 chicken feet (or other bird)
  • S&P

optional:

  • vegetables of your choice
    (none here)
Pic1: those zombie feet still have some skin and meat on them...

Directions

Pic2: a very gelatinous and delicious chicken stock
Pic3: zombie chicken feet


This is very nice for chicken soup, the best!

However, I do not recommend boiling chicken feet until they fall apart if you want to eat them. I like them better when very soft, easy to pull apart, yet still holding together.

Once the meat starts falling off the bones, there's really not much to eat anymore. All the meat is just little pieces floating throughout the broth. Nice for the broth, not so nice if you wanted to make it into a meal.