Peppered chicken feet (Chicken claws)

Chicken feet, chicken claws are very moreish, you can’t get away with eating only one. Just cook them until tender and you will be sucking and chewing for a long time. It is eaten in different parts of the world from Nigeria, Jamaica, South Africa to China.

In Nigeria, it is not served as part of a meal rather it’s eaten as a snack, kitchen scrap or left for the kids. It is also sold in some bukas (roadside restaurants), along with the head, and called ‘commando’ as in skull and crossbones.

There are so many ways to prepare chicken feet, all of them utterly delicious. You can fry, roast, bread and fry, etc.

Chicken feet have no muscles, they are mostly skin, tendon, cartilage and bone. They are high in collagen which is beneficial to the skin and helps the body metabolise fat, attention weight watchers. The broth is rich, nutrient-packed and highly gelatinous, it also contains glucosamine and chondroitin which is said to help slow or prevent the degeneration of joint cartilage. The gelatin in the broth has a gut-healing property.

Some people will bite off only the skin and discard the bones but the best way to eat chicken feet is to eat the skin and tendons, bite of the cartilages between the joints, crush the tender bones and suck all the juices and marrow out, then you discard the crushed, tired bones. It is an excellent gisting/movie watching snack.

How to clean chicken feet

Wash chicken feet thoroughly
Place in a bowl of very hot water to cover them
Leave to soak for 1 minute
Drain, peel off the scaly membrane as soon as they are cool enough to handle
Using a sharp knife, scrape off any stubborn patches
Cut off the nails with the knife or a strong kitchen scissors.

How to Prepare Peppered Chicken Feet (Chicken Claws)

500g chicken feet
salt
cameroun pepper
1/2 small onion (very finely chopped)
1 scotch bonnet, fresh pepper (optional)
1 teaspoon uziza seed
3 leaves Utazi

Clean chicken feet (see above).

Wash them making sure no outer skin (membrane) is left on them, check between the digits.

Scrape off any callous skin.

Chop onion, grind uziza seed and slice utazi leaves.

Put clean chicken feet in a pot, add about 1 cup of water, salt, pepper and finely chopped onions.

Boil for 10 minutes or more until meltingly soft depending on how tough the chicken is.

Add uziza and utazi.

Boil for 5 minutes until the water is very reduced.

Dish and enjoy with drinks (Virgin pina colada, Nigerian Chapman drink, Beetroot juice mocktail or Afterglow mocktail).

Soak up any leftover juice with some bread or just drink it.

Note

Do not add too much salt at the onset because you will have the broth reduced and concentrated.
Do not soak the feet in hot water for too long when removing the skin. If soaked for too long, you will end up activating the gelling process and fusing the skin to the foot and making it very difficult to peel.
As the Chicken feet broth cools, it gets sticky and gelatinous.