A sweet and velvety soup, this chicken foot soup recipe is made with traditional Chinese ingredients. A super tasty soup that’s also good for you – rich in collagen, vital nutrients and minerals! Chicken foot soup is a definite must try recipe for those loving the benefits of bone broth. For me, it also brings back nostalgic memories of my mother’s kitchen.
What is chicken foot soup?
Chicken foot soup is simply a broth prepared using chicken feet and other key ingredients. The ingredients should complement the slightly sticky consistency of the resulting broth created by the collagen rich chicken feet. There are several kinds of chicken foot soup, with the Chinese and Jamaican versions being amongst the more well known ones.
What does chicken foot soup taste like?
Chicken foot soup has a mild, funky woody flavor. It tastes less “chicken-y” especially when only the feet are used in the soup. Oftentimes, to balance out that earthy flavor, sources of umami and sweetness are needed. Red dates and figs are usually added. For a traditional Chinese soup, chicken feet are usually paired with black eye peas and peanuts. This combination is most often served in Chinese restaurants and it’s also the way my mom used to make it at home.
Health benefits of chicken foot soup
Chicken feet is mostly collagen, a structural protein that provides shape, strength, and resistance to your skin, tendons, muscles, bones, and ligaments. Collagen is the main incentive to eat chicken feet and is also why there are so many collagen supplements on the market today!
Growing up, my Chinese mother and aunties would push chicken feet broth, beef tendons and bird’s nest into my bowl claiming it’s to keep my skin youthful and my knees strong. I’d smile and nod all the while doing an invisible eye roll as I dutifully downed my soup. To be honest, I think chicken foot soup is just so darn tasty but research does show it improves skin health and relieves joint pain. It also contains folate or vitamin B9 helping to prevent birth abnormalities in pregnant women.
The healthiest way to consume chicken feet is by making chicken foot soup. Although you can deep fry it and slather it with sweet sour sauce (it’s delicious!! I know), to fully reap the health benefits, a clean soup is probably the best way to go. Soup does make the flavor on full display and whether you love it or hate it, it’s important to use other ingredients to balance out the flavors.
Key Ingredients
Chinese chicken foot soup recipes vary from family to family so there isn’t really a “correct” one. There are definitely “base” ingredients which most Chinese families and restaurants use. They are:
Chicken feet
The star ingredient to amp up your collagen intake!
Black eyed peas
Rich in fiber and iron, black eyed peas have a sweet savory taste perfect to pair with earthy chicken feet. Not the same as black beans!
Raw Peanuts
Adds a nice nutty flavor to the soup. I use red peanuts and blanch them in water before using. Skinned or unskinned both work fine.
Red Dates
Adds a sweetness to the soup and helps with blood circulation!
Other soup add-ons
I like to balance out the base ingredients to make a super tasty soup. Here are some of my add-ons to try!
Pork bone: I think pork bone produces the most umami rich soup so I always add it any chance I get. This adds a lovely savory note to the broth. If you can’t find any in your local grocery store, feel free to leave it out. This soup is still plenty tasty!
Carrots: For sweetness and some vegetables for eating 🙂
Dates/Figs: Again for some sweetness to balance out the richness of the chicken feet.
Ginger: Adds some freshness and bite to the soup. A few slices is plenty and helps mute the funky earthiness of the chicken feet. My Chinese mom embraced the full chicken feet flavor so it’s totally optional to add.
Dried Chinese Yam (Dioscorea opposita): For the health benefits of yams I add it to most of my soups and is a “neutral” ingredient that doesn’t conflict with other Chinese dried herbs. Because the chicken feet are quite rich, you can’t really taste the yam flavor but I add it for eating with the soup.
Expert tips for success
Clean your chicken feet: Make sure your chicken feet are fresh and cleaned thoroughly before using. The skin should be intact and firm to the touch. You want to make sure there are no bruises or calluses that might indicate that the chicken feet were exposed to anything harmful.
Parboil your feet and pork bones: I usually parboil my chicken feet, pork bones (if using) and peanuts to remove any surface “scum”. This produces a cleaner broth with less floaty things inside.
Simmer your soup: Once your soup comes to a boil, always lower your temperature to a simmer or low heat. The water should be gently moving with minimal bubbling. This avoids too much liquid loss. Or you can put all the ingredients in an Instant Pot and select the broth option.
Simmer with a closed lid: This keeps the flavors and aromas to be trapped inside your pot producing a more flavorful soup.
Double boil your soup: Oftentimes I make a huge batch of chicken foot soup and refrigerate it overnight (ingredients and all). I usually reheat to the boil the next day. The overnight marination actually creates a more flavorful broth!
How to Make Chicken Foot Soup
Prepare ingredients
- Rinse and scrub the chicken feet to remove any dirt. Trim off the claws and tips with a pair of sharp scissors.
- In a bowl, rinse black eyed peas, chinese yams, dates, red dates a few times. Set aside.
Parboil ingredients
- Fill a large soup pot with water. Add chicken feet, pork bone and red peanuts and bring to a boil. Boil the pot for about 5 minutes until a film starts to form. Most bones will produce some sort of film when boiled so parboiling will help produce a clearer broth.
- Strain and discard the water. Rinse the feet, pork bone and peanuts to remove as much surface debris as possible.
Simmer Chicken Foot Soup
- In a clean pot, add back the chicken feet, pork bone and peanuts.
- Add in chopped carrot, black eyed peas, dried dates, red dates, ginger slices and chinese yams.
- Add water (or unsalted chicken broth) to the pot. Cover and bring to a boil.
- Turn heat to low and simmer the soup in a covered pot for at least 45 minutes.
- Add salt and chicken bouillon powder (if using) and simmer for another 10-15 minutes.
- Skim off the surface oil before serving. See serving tips below!
Serving Tips
I highly recommend using a broth skimmer for this soup. Because chicken skin is quite fatty, this will reduce the amount of fat in your broth. You can also use a spoon to skim the surface of the broth to make it less oily and also remove any surface debris.
Serve your chicken foot soup hot with the carrots and chinese yams (if using) and the chicken feet too if you’d like! The feet will be soft and will easily break apart. Chinese broths are usually served before the main meal. My family actually served it after (so we wouldn’t get full before eating our main meal!)
Check out my char siu chicken, black bean chicken and yu choy along with this soup for a simple traditional Chinese dinner!
Storing and Reheating Tips
Refrigerate any unused portions (ingredients and all) and reheat to a boil the next day. This actually creates a more flavorful soup! Chicken foot soup should be consumed within 2-3 days.
You can also store chicken foot soup by separating out just the liquid. I usually spoon out the carrots and yams. Skim off the fat and store it in an airtight container in your fridge.
Freeze soup in a freezer bag flat or in a freezer friendly container for up to two months.
Reheat your soup on the stove top by bringing to a boil. Chilled chicken foot soup is quite gelatinous and looks like cubes of jello prior to heating. That’s evidence of all the great collagen in it!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Chicken feet broth is good for increasing your collagen intake! Before collagen powder became a thing, Chinese ladies would drink chicken feet soup to boost their collagen for better skin, hair and nails. It also helps “lubricate” the joints as the Chinese used to say to help relieve joint pain. Chicken feet are also shown to contain high amounts of folate and vitamin B9.
Chicken soup is best made from an entire chicken – bones and all. This is also why chicken feet soup produces such a tasty soup!
Traditional Chinese Chicken Foot Soup
Equipment
- 1 large stock pot
- 1 instant pot (instead of a stock pot)
Ingredients
- 2 lbs chicken feet (claws removed)
- 1 lb pork neck bone (Note 1)
- 1 small carrot (peeled and chopped)
- ⅓ cup dried black eyed peas
- 3 Tbsp raw red peanuts
- 2 dried dates (or figs)
- 6 red dates
- 2 ginger slices (optional)
- 4 chinese yam slices (dioscorea opposita) (optional)
- 9 cups water (or unsalted chicken broth)
- 3 tsp chicken bouillon powder (optional)
- salt to taste
Instructions
Prepare ingredients
- Rinse and scrub (if needed) the chicken feet to remove any dirt. Trim off the claws and tips with a pair of scissors.
- In a bowl, rinse chinese yams (if using), dates, red dates a few times. Set aside. (Note 2)
Parboil Ingredients
- Fill a large soup pot with water. Add chicken feet, pork bone and red peanuts and bring to a boil. Boil the pot for about 5 minutes until a film starts to form. (Note 3)
- Strain and discard the water. Rinse the feet, pork bone and peanuts to remove as much surface debris as possible.
Make Chicken Foot Soup
- In a clean pot, add back the chicken feet, pork bone and peanuts.
- Add in chopped carrot, black eyed peas, dried dates, red dates, ginger slices and chinese yams (if using)
- Add water (or unsalted chicken broth) to the pot. Cover and bring to a boil. (Note 4)
- Turn heat to low and simmer the soup in a covered pot for at least 45 minutes.
- Add salt and chicken bouillon powder (if using) and simmer for another 10-15 minutes.
Serve Chicken Foot Soup
- Skim off fat and oil off the surface (with a spoon or broth skimmer). (Note 5)
- Serve hot. Cool and refrigerate unused portions.
Notes
Notes
- You can find pork neck bones in most Asian grocery stores. Pork hock or pork back bone works too. If you’re unable to find any of these, feel free to leave out.
- Rinsing Chinese dried herbs isn’t mandatory and you can skip this step. It ensures there isn’t any surface debris or dust just like you would rinse rice before cooking.
- Parboiling ensures a clearer nicer looking broth. Most Chinese soups that have pork bones call for parboiling for this reason. If you have a sieve and are short on time, you can skip this step. The resulting broth won’t be as clear and you will need to strain out all the little food bits.
- You can also use an instant pot instead of simmering in a pot. Simply choose the “Broth” option on your instant pot which will pressure cook for 45 minutes and will produce a more flavorful soup! Pressure cooking will break up all the soup ingredients and produce a murkier broth.
- Chicken feet broth is quite oily because there is a lot of chicken skin. Skimming off the surface oil will produce a cleaner broth.
Camille
I ended up adding loads of garlic, fresh cracked pepper and ginger. I like a STRONG broth. Also, the beans did not cook thoroughly in the 2 times I cooked it so next time I will soak them over night or cook in a pressure cooker first then add them to the broth.
This will be a long time staple in my house! Thank you