How To Make Chicken Feet Bone Broth and Health Benefits

This Chicken Feet Bone Broth recipe is so easy to make and is an easy way to get extra nutrients into your family’s meal!

We love utilizing all parts of the chicken so that there is no food waste, and that includes the feet! Many people may shy away from using chicken feet, but they are so easy to use in bone broth and add so many amazing benefits. 

Why you should use chicken feet in bone broth

Chicken feet are a great addition to your homemade bone broth! You can make bone broth from just chicken feet, or add it in with other chicken bones. All of the connective tissue in chicken feet is a good source of collagen in bone broth. You can also add chicken necks as they contain a lot of connective tissue which is a great source of protein, collagen, gelatin, amino acids, calcium, phosphorus, chondroitin, glucosamine, and omega-3 fatty acids. These nutrients can help with bone health, joint health, skin health, and inflammation. We like to use a blend of chicken bones and about four chicken feet per batch of bone broth to get all of the amazing benefits!

Health benefits of chicken feet bone broth

Bone broth has so many health benefits and can actually act as using collagen supplements. Collagen can be purchased as a powdered supplement and can be mixed into drinks, but definitely comes with a heavy price tag! Making bone broth at home saves you money, and cuts down on kitchen waste! The collagen, essential amino acids, and other substances found in bone broth are great for your immune system and gut health, great for skin elasticity, and also amazing for those with joint problems, joint pain, or symptoms of arthritis. Additionally, the hyaluronic acid in bone broth promotes healthy skin. There is just so much goodness found in bone broth! 

Using quality bones

We think that it is important to use quality bones and chicken feet when it comes to making bone broth. We recommend using bones and meat from local farms that raise their chickens humanely and are fed a nutritious feed so that they have the highest quality nutrients. If you are local to Iowa, you can buy chicken, including chicken feet, directly from us at Pleasant Grove Homestead. 

No-waste method of cooking

To make bone broth, we use leftover bones from our roasted chicken and add roughly 4 feet per carcass. We love that making bone broth is a no-waste method of cooking because you are using the carcass that would otherwise be thrown away. To make a roasted chicken, we follow this Simple Roasted Chicken Recipe. With one time in the kitchen, our family can get multiple meals out of one bird. Then we use the carcass to make nourishing bone broth to use in soups. You can learn more about our meal prep method with chicken on our blog post here!

How to process chicken feet

If you are using whole chicken feet from birds you processed on your own, the first thing you will need to do is remove the skin. This is easily done by scalding them and peeling off the skin. Anytime your chickens are processed at a licensed (state or USDA facility) they are sold already peeled. The feet we sell are USDA-inspected, so they are ready to be tossed into the broth pot! If the skin on the foot still appears to be bright and scaly, it has not yet been peeled.

Why does my bone broth turn into a jelly texture?

High-quality broth will be very gelatinous at fridge temperature. This shows it has a high collagen content that has been extracted from the bones. But don’t worry, once you heat the bone broth, it will go back to its smooth liquid form! 

Ingredients for Chicken Feet Bone Broth

• Chicken Carcass + 4 Chicken feet – or if you would like you can make it out of just chicken feet. You will need about 2 pounds.
• Vegetables – Here we used celery, parsley, and onions. You can add them in or choose to leave them out.
• Herbs – Great options include thyme or rosemary.
• Salt + peppercorns – to season

How to make bone broth in an instant pot

If you would like to make the bone broth in the same day, you can make it in an instant pot and it will be finished in about two and a half hours. To do so, add all of your ingredients, including the raw chicken feet, to the instant pot and then set it to 120 minutes on high pressure, and then allow a natural release. The high cooking temperatures in the instant pot helps extract all of the nutrients in a a quicker time. This is a great method for small batches of broth. You can find the full recipe and instructions on this Homemade Bone Broth Recipe. This recipe is for using just a chicken carcass, but you can add chicken feet as well! 

How to make bone broth in a roaster or crockpot

Making bone broth in a crock pot or roaster are both great options because they are both cooked on low for a long period of time. The benefit of using a roaster is that you can do a bigger batch of bone broth at one time. 

To make the bone broth, first add the chicken carcasses to either your crockpot or roaster. Fill with water and add salt. Put crockpot on low or roaster at 200 degrees for 12 hours. Usually, I do this overnight.

In the morning, pick the meat off the carcasses (use this for a meal!), put it all back into the roaster or crockpot, NOW add 4 feet per bird and some chicken necks (use what you’ve got here! Feel free to use more or less). Add more water and leave for 6-8 more hours at the same temperature. 

If you want to add any herbs like thyme or rosemary, add them in the last hour, otherwise they may turn the broth bitter.

After the final cook, strain out the solids and use the broth. We like to add the broth to quart-sized mason jars to store in the fridge. 

How to store bone broth

The beauty of bone broth is that is can be frozen in cubes, canned, or kept in the fridge 5 days. Your storing method will just depend on how soon you plan to cook with it. 

We like the one cup reditaners for freezing. Since I make 2 or 3 batches of broth a week, we cycle through this quickly in the freezer. If I’m going to do a batch larger than eight carcasses, we will pressure can both the meat from the carcasses and the broth to easily use for a later time. If you want to learn more about canning, be sure to check out our canning course, Yes, You Can! 

Ideas for using homemade chicken feet broth

We love to make easy soups with our homemade bone broth, like our Flexible Squash Soup. But. bone broth is not just for soup! Use bone broth to cook rice, make soup, boil potatoes for mashing, add it to the instant pot for the starting water, or cook dried beans. Anywhere you would use water in cooking you can add essential nutrients by using a collagen loaded broth. Using bone broth is a great part of a healthy diet and helps boost the nutrient content of any meal!