CHICKEN FEET

Every time when i tell my British friends about eating chicken feet, they will look at me like I am crazy and grossed them out. My mum loves making soup from chicken feet. It was the richest, most flavourful stock one can imagine. Chicken feet are a lowly thing. It scratch in the dust and shuffle over crowded cage. In many European countries, chicken feet usually ended up being ground into parts or throw away. Chicken feet are a very common dish enjoyed by Asian, most often in braising, stewing or boiling as soup where we prefer the taste of meat on the bone. 

Braised Chicken Feet on Dim Sum

Chicken feet are actually very high protein and really taste superb if one can get over the "EWW" factor. The "EWW" factor of chicken feet comes from the fact that it looks creepy raw like witch hands, and to be frank it looks disgusting, even after cooked, it actually looks more human-like hands. Many of the Asian grandmothers or great grandmothers used chicken feet in their stock and as a matter of fact it has been a human activity for thousands of years. Stock made from chicken feet is fabulous and incredibly good with all its gelatine. It is also high nutritional value, rich in calcium and collagen. The gelatine gives it that special richness missing from using a normal chicken carcass for stock.

My mum would get freshly slaughtered chicken feet from the market just behind the back of our house when we still lived in Georgetown. I still remember very well how the guy killed those chickens. He caught the bird, turning it upside down, hold the legs firmly and with a firm and fast action, pulling the neck downwards. It will flapped its wings like crazy ! I would just sat at one corner watching the whole process while my mum choose the feet on the other corner.