As of late I've been obsessed with finding the perfect chicken stock recipe. One that produces a lovely, reliably gelatinous product. I've had a few successes, a batch or two that have resulted in a stock that when chilled, is the consistency of Jell-OTM. But it's been hit or miss. Some recipes suggest soaking the bones in water with a few TBs of cider vinegar first to help them begin to break down, some use raw bones, yet others use the carcass after roasting and picking all the meat off. I've tried it all, and as a sort-of sometimes scientist, have found no reliable trends in creating the holy grail of stocks. This vexes me greatly.
So when I heard that there may be a way to produce the lovely jelly-like substance with some regularity, my ears perked up. Chicken feet. Then I covered my ears and gagged a little. A few months later while browsing the frozen isle in a whole foods I discovered that they were now in fact selling chicken feet.
Seriously. How scary do those things look? Having been detached from the chicken I can easily imagine them once belonging to some sort of prehistoric, chicken-like dinosaur. Maybe they come to life, and reenact a scene from that creepy claymation from the 80's...
I buy them anyways resolving that on the next cold weather day, I will pop a few of them into my stock pot & just not look at it while it cooks. PS if you want to follow my method, make sure you buy PEELED feet. Yes, you have to peel them. And take the talons off. No, I didn't know that before I bought these. Thankfully WF took care of that for me, otherwise these terrifying appendages would've ended up in the trash.
In any case, barring the addition of the feet, I followed my normal recipe. Roast chickens are on sale at WF every Wednesday, so I typically buy one of those, peel off the meat & throw the carcass in a pot of water with celery, carrot, an onion, garlic, mushroom stems, peppercorns, a bay leaf, and a piece of kombu. I cook the whole thing until I go to sleep, then cover it and let it cool til morning. Once cooled, I strain out the carcass & the veggies, transfer to mason jars and chill it in the fridge before removing the solidified fat layer at the top.
So. What was the conclusion? Did the chicken feet provide some magical substance(s) that helped to form the elusive gel? Who cares! Chicken feet are WAY too gross to use them on a regular basis. This one foray will likely result in talon-related nightmares for weeks! Besides, I was vegetarian for 15 years, I have limits.
