Chicken Feet and Heads

[anthonyjames]

Can people out there tell me what they do with their feet? I see them in buckets of water while processing. I am guessing to keep flies away.

And what do people do with the heads?

I was thinking about giving the heads (frozen) to our local audabon society to feed their birds of prey. Same with our rabbit heads. Still can figure out what to do with the feet.

 

[Tala]

Chicken feet are full of nutrients and make WONDERFUL chicken stock!

I feed them to my dog too (she's rawfed) she loves them!

 

[anthonyjames]

Never thought about the stock or dog food. I feed my dog at least one rabbit a week. Didn't think the feet would be good for a dog. Thought it might hurt their throats.

 

[Tala]

I feed prey model --- raw meaty bones and all that. Chicken feet aren't any tougher than beef ribs

I fed her the head too, beak and all, I figured THAT might be a stretch since she's never had food that still um, looked like the animal....anyway, it took her about a day of playing with it, but she ate that too. And no she still doesn't associate the live chickens in the yard with the dead ones that she eats. As far as she is concerned, all food comes from the refrigerator!

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Sell them to make soup stock.... $2.00 / lb is a very reasonable price in todays market...

Heads sell for $0.50 / lb for raw food dog diets.

 

[Ibicella]

The feet make good soup stock.
The heads...well, this is going to sound utterly wrong, but we gave them to the living chickens for peckin' and they had a ball with them.

Gotta love the little cannibles.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

They will eat anything... but I just can't give them back the heads. LOL I could just see them running around the pasture with a head and one of my customers asking "what are after"...

Oh My.....

 

[bukbugack]

I'll use the feet and heads for stock. They're good to eat on their own, too. Have you ever tried steamed chicken feet in black bean sauce? Delicious! In the Chinese markets you can always find packages of just feet (they're usually next to the duck tongues and dressed silkies).

 

[Ridgerunner]

I guess the article is not longer available online, but I copied this line from a local newspaper article. It tells you what some commercial operations do with chicken feet. I think that was for the year 2008.

Among exports to China were 988 million pounds of chicken feet and paws worth $296.7 million to American processors.

No, I do not know the difference between chicken paws and feet.

I bury the heads and use the feet in stock.

 

[Big George]

The feet I par boil and remove the outer skin and toe nails. Then its all pretty clean. I freeze them and add a couple when I make stock. Gives stock a rich gelatinous quality. Makes me feel thrifty too. The heads I toss.