It can look a little strange, that is chicken foot souse. I hate chicken foot with a passion. You could put it in soup or in stew; the very sight of these things makes me feel sick. But put it in a souse and add a little pepper, onions and chadon beni and all qualms about chicken foot disappears. Like pigfoot souse, chicken foot souse is another “liming food” we Trinis love to eat and I have to stress on the “love to eat”.
Chicken Foot Souse Recipe
Wherever there is a lime or a football match or a fete look out for chicken foot souse. The vendors could be seen with their souse in a large “pigtail bucket“* stirring with a “pot spoon“** to get at the chicken feet that may have sunk to the bottom of the bucket, while they “organize” a cup for a customer or two.
Yes! a cup of chicken foot souse. This delicious souse is sold in styrotex cups, just like geera pork or geera chicken, and could go for about $5.00 depending on the size of the cup. I'm not sure where this idea came from with serving of these finger foods in the cups, but it seems to me that it is more common sense to serve it this way. Could you imagine in a football match your team scores a goal and you jump for joy with a plate of souse? All I could say is that it will be raining chicken foot on the pavilion…. So you see the practicality of using a cup: plus it is easier to dispose of easy; clean up.
A Few Point
A few points to note when you're making this recipe:
1. Try to get fresh meat. I find the frozen ones at the supermarket, from experience, tend to taste a little stale so get the meat fresh as much as possible.
2. Use lots of lime or lemon to wash the meat, especially if you don't like the fresh scent but note that if you're using lemon you may have to use more.
3. Do not put the souse in the refrigerator. It will thicken and the meat will get tough to eat. This goes for all souse. We once made pig foot souse and put in the fridge and when it was time to eat everything was one coagulated mess.
Well! I think I've said a bit on this souse to get you started and help you avoid some of my mistakes, so here's chicken foot souse.
CHICKEN FOOT SOUSE
Ingredients:
1 lb chicken foot
3 lemons
4 cloves garlic
1 large onion
20 leaves chadon beni
1 cucumber
salt to taste
2 pimento peppers
1 hot pepper
Method:
Cut up the onion, chadon beni and pimento and set aside.
Wash and cut the chicken foot, removing the toenails. Use 1 lemon to wash. Add salt and two cloves of garlic. Boil the chicken foot until tender.
Pour out the water when done and wash the feet again with water.
Do this about three times.
In the mean time puree the chadon beni and pimento in a blender.
Add the sliced onions and cucumber to the chicken feet.
Add a little water and the pureed chadon beni…
and juice of the remaining two lemons. Cut up a scotch bonnet hot pepper
Mix the ingredients and allow to marinate for about three hours. Adjust salt according to taste.
* pickled pigtail is imported in buckets that are recycled and used to store from water to dry goods like flour and rice in the home…also souse.
**A large spoon used when cooking.
Chicken Foot Souse
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken foot
- 3 lemons or limes
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 large onion sliced
- 20 leaves chadon beni
- 1 cucumber sliced
- salt to taste about 1/4 tsp.
- 2 pimento peppers
- 1 hot pepper
Instructions
- Wash and cut the chicken foot, removing the toenails. Use 1 lemon to wash. Add salt and two cloves of garlic. Boil the chicken foot until tender. Pour out the water when done and wash the feet again with water. Do this about three times.
- In the mean time, puree the chadon beni and pimento in a blender.
- Add the sliced onions and cucumber to the boiled chicken feet. Add a little water, the pureed chadon beni and lemon juice of the remaining two lemons. Cut up a scotch bonnet hot pepper.
- Mix the ingredients and allow to marinate for about three hours. Adjust salt according to taste.
Thanks for this. I’ve been wanting to try it for a while now but could not locate a recipe. I trust your cooking so I’m going to give this a try.
My friends and I really liked this article. It was very descriptive and worked out just like you said. Have you been to Wacanai.com(http://www.wacanai.com/intro). They have a bunch of articles on there. You can link your webpage to it so it drives traffic to your website to. They also give you a list of articles that have something in common with yours so you can get some new ideas.
Felix…did you know this recipe is being profiled on this website?
http://www.tasteslikehome.org/
I saw it and said….YEAH!…I love Simply Trini cooking! Great Job Felix…these recipes remind me of home, and how my mother, aunts,cousins and grandmothers used to cook.
I love you for posting this i’ll also be trying this for our labour day cookout next month
No problem. Wishing you the best for Labour Day 🙂
Felix my five year son saw me reading this receipe and he’s like mummy my favorite thing (chicken foot) go make that. So I guess I’m off to make this for him, he’s a real Triniamerican love the food.
Thanks for the recipe! Unfortunately, mine tasted NOTHING like those people in St. James… I’m blaming it on a lack of all the proper ingredients over here in London 🙁
To me chicken foot is essential for my stew, jus like the gizzards, liver and ‘oil can’. lol
Hey Hey lol!,
1)I can’t remember how long we left it. I didn’t time it but when you see the flesh and cartilage looks like it wants to leave the bone it is good. Use your discretion.
2) Souse is a same day dish. It never lasts that long especially at my home since everyone always want seconds……. or thirds 🙂
hey great recipe but 2 questions 1) how long do you boil the feet to get it tender? and 2) How do you store it if not the fridge, or is it a same day dish?
I followed the recipe tonight and it turned out great….I’m totally in love with “Simply Trini Cooking!!!”
Hello! I’ve been reading your weblog for some time now and finally got the courage to go ahead and give you a shout out from New Caney Texas! Just wanted to mention keep up the good work!
Thank you Marissa 🙂
Hey there! I just wish to give you a big thumbs up for a great recipe. I will be returning to your website for more soon.
Just returned from Trinidad where I had cow heel souse and pig foot souse. Amazing!! Going try this tonight!!!!
I am a Trinidad born, Florida resident. I just stumbled upon your website whilst cruising the internet for a chicken foot recipe. Recently, Chickenfoot has made its way into our farmer’s market… Now I am curious to try chicken foot despite the thought of eating it sounds cringing to me. I was amazed to find a Trini Chickenfoot recipe and more importantly, a slew of trini recipes. I am going to try your chicken foot souse recipe. As we do not have pimentos, I will be ‘subbing’ with sweet peppers. Regards Kay
“wash the feet again with water.
Do this about three times.” Are you washing the cooked feet with using room temperature tap water ? Are you not washing out the boiled garlic flavor?
yes you are washing with room temperature water. Don’t worry about the garlic flavour being washed out because more seasoning is added afterward. Thanks for commenting.
How kind of you to respond. Thank you Felix. I did make your souse. At first, I was recused to snip the nails, as it felt like chopping baby fingers 🙂 Nonetheless, I bravely followed your steps to create the dish to completion. When it was time to eat the foot, I got to admit, apprehension kicked in. In my dare, I carefully and slowly sunk my teeth into the tender, finger like, foot … Drumroll…What a magnificent treat Felix. Ah it reminded me of Pig’stail and all the superb foods of Trindad & Togabo. Thank you indeed. Simply Lovely!