Chicken feet stew for Halloween! (Semi-graphic pics)

humblehillsfarm

Crazy chicken lady
Mar 27, 2020
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Southwestern Pennsylvania
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Wednesday we processed 19 Cornish X. Most birds weighed between 5.5 and 6.5 pounds when dressed out. Yesterday we tried chicken livers for the first time! We kept all edible parts, including the feet.

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Did you know chicken feet make some of the best stock? Chicken foot stock are full of collagen, which is essential for healthy hair, skin, fingernails, joints, bones, etc.. Some cultures consider the meat of the foot to be a delicacy for dining, but I decided just using the feet at all was an enormous step.


To use the chicken feet you must first skin them. I got up close and personal with some early Bumblefoot on a few of these birds. I got up close and personal in a lot of ways! Peeling chicken feet is extremely tedious. First you must blanch them for about 15 seconds and then dunk them in cold water. This loosens the skin and scales sufficiently to peel it off. Even the outer layer of the toenails will pop off.

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As I am breaking some of the chicken down to their respective parts, I’m also saving the bones and carcass. I plan on making 10 quarts of broth and will can nine quarts. I have a few freezer containers for freezing any extra, or jars that fail to seal.

I sautéed two onions, a head of garlic, a hunk of ginger, some diced celery, and a generous handful of fresh herbs. I added three tablespoons of kosher salt, a bay leaf, and some whole pepper corns as well. I through in six feet and three carcasses. Pressure cooked at 15 psi for ten minutes. I like to use reusable Tattler lids for canning.

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I went ahead and include other photos for processing day. I didn’t cry! Everything was bittersweet. I miss the presence of the meat birds, but they were becoming a lot of extra work. They certainly weren’t the same as my sweet laying flock!

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Happy Halloween!
 

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The whole house smelled incredible.
I wish my husband thought it smelled incredible. :rolleyes: I make it while he's at work.

FWIW, I needed some cream of chicken soup, but I'm gluten free, and all the Campbell's are thickened with wheat flour. I thickened bone broth with cornstarch, and it worked wonderfully!
 
I wish my husband thought it smelled incredible. :rolleyes: I make it while he's at work.

FWIW, I needed some cream of chicken soup, but I'm gluten free, and all the Campbell's are thickened with wheat flour. I thickened bone broth with cornstarch, and it worked wonderfully!

Campbell’s cream of whatever soups aren’t as tasty as what you can make out at home anyways. I bet your version was a million times better!! I think corn starch is a much more luxurious texture, too.
 
Wonderful photos!!!!!

I found that when I got the scald right the "socks" peeled right off inside out. That took some trial and error.

I make Crockpot Chicken Stock and if I have my own birds I certainly use the feet. Once chilled my stock can be cut with a knife.

My mother (who finds the idea gross), tells me that her sister-in-law, who is from China, loves chicken feet but I have no idea how to prepare them to eat rather than simmering them to fall apart in the stock.
 

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