Chicken Foot Souse
I hate chicken foot with a passion. You could put it soup or stew it; 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". 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. Chicken foot 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 chicken foot 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 points to note when you're making chicken foot souse:
1. Try to get fresh chicken foot. I find the frozen ones at the supermarket, from experience, tend to taste a little stale so get fresh chicken foot if possible.
2. Use lots of lime or lemon to wash the chicken foot, 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 make the chicken foot 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 chicken foot souse to get you started and help you avoid some of my mistakes, so here's chicken foot souse.
CHICKEN FOOT SOUSE
3 lemons
4 cloves garlic
1 large onion
20 leaves chadon beni
1 cucumber
salt to taste
2 pimento peppers
1 hot pepper
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 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.
* 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.
April 8, 2009 9:58 AM
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.
April 17, 2009 2:10 AM
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.
June 17, 2009 7:51 PM
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.
August 17, 2009 4:58 PM
I love you for posting this i'll also be trying this for our labour day cookout next month
August 17, 2009 5:08 PM
No problem. Wishing you the best for Labour Day :-)