Chicken Feet Bone Broth
pro tip — chicken feet are extremely cheap and yield fantastic bone broth
Chicken feet are the cheapest thing in the meat case because nobody in this country wants them. They are also almost pure collagen, which is the entire reason some broth sets like jelly and some stays water with chicken in it.
Two dozen feet is about three dollars and it will turn eight quarts of water into something that wobbles when you knock the bowl in the morning. Nothing else you can buy does that for the money.
Roast them first. It is the difference between a pale yellow broth and the deep gold one.
- Makes
- About 6 quarts
- Cost
- Roughly $3 of feet
- Hands-on
- 30 minutes
- Simmer
- 6–8 hours
What you need
The pot
- 2 lb chicken feet, about two dozen
- 2 lb chicken backs, wings or carcasses
- 2 onions, halved, skins on
- 4 carrots, snapped in half
- 1 head celery, leaves and all
- 2 heads garlic, cut across
- 1 tbsp black peppercorns
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 tbsp cider vinegar
- 8 quarts cold water
How it goes
1 — Clean the feet and trim the claws
Rinse them well and snip the tips of the claws off with kitchen shears. Some come already trimmed. It is five minutes and it makes the pot look less like a horror film.
2 — Blanch them for two minutes, then rinse
Into boiling water for two minutes, drained, rinsed under cold. This takes off the scum that would otherwise cloud the whole batch.
pro tip — If the outer skin is still on and looks yellow and loose, the blanch loosens it and it rubs off with a towel. Not essential, but a cleaner broth.
3 — Roast at 400°F for 25 minutes
Feet and bones spread on a parchment-lined sheet pan until they take real colour. Pale roast, pale broth — this is where the gold comes from.
4 — Everything into cold water with a splash of vinegar
Cold water, not hot, so the fat renders slowly instead of emulsifying and clouding things. The vinegar helps pull minerals out of the bone and you will not taste it.
5 — Barely a simmer, six to eight hours
A bubble breaking the surface every second or two and no more. Skim the grey foam in the first twenty minutes, then leave it. A rolling boil makes cloudy stock, every time.
6 — Strain, cool uncovered, then chill overnight
Through a fine sieve into whatever fits in the fridge. Let it come down to room temperature uncovered before you cover it, so it does not sit warm.
7 — The test: does it wobble?
In the morning it should be set firm enough to hold the shape of the bowl, with a pale cap of fat on top. That cap is schmaltz and it is better than any oil you own — lift it off in one piece and keep it.
8 — If it did not set
It will still taste good. Next time: more feet, less water, and check that it never came to a real boil.
Three dollars of feet. It makes soup for a week and it is the only thing in this file that is genuinely free. LFG.