Sichuan Cuisine · FFET10295
Pao jiao feng zhua (pickled-pepper chicken feet)
Chicken feet boiled and steeped in a brine of pickled chilies, salt, garlic and ginger and eaten cold for a sour, hot taste.
A round white porcelain plate holds pale chicken feet with ginger, red pickled chilies and garlic, with clear pickled-chili brine pooling beneath the chicken feet, with wooden chopsticks resting beside the plate.
The regional cooking of Sichuan and Chongqing, known for its wide range of flavour types.
Pickled-pepper chicken feet are chicken feet boiled and steeped in a brine of pickled chilies, salt, garlic and ginger and eaten cold. The dish is said to have originated in Chongqing and spread across the country. You You Food was founded in 1997 to make it as a packaged snack. This company date comes from a secondary company profile, not a record of the dish's origin; no date was found for the dish itself.
What
Pickled-pepper chicken feet are chicken feet boiled or blanched and steeped in a brine of pickled chilies, salt, garlic and ginger, then eaten cold, with a sour and hot taste.2,3
When
The founder of You You began running restaurants in Chongqing in 1992 and founded You You Food in 1997 to make pickled-pepper chicken feet as a packaged snack. These company dates come from a secondary company profile and do not establish the dish's origin; no date was found for the dish itself.1
Where
The dish is said to have originated in Chongqing and later spread across the country.2
How
The feet are cleaned, boiled or blanched, and steeped in a cooled pickled-chili brine for 1 to 2 days. The 2 recipes differ: the earlier one blanches them for 10 to 15 minutes, chills them in ice water and steeps them for 2 days in pickled chilies and their brine; the later one simmers them for about 1 hour (45 minutes for a crunchier bite) and steeps them overnight in a brine of salt and white vinegar, using fresh chilies rather than pickled ones.2,3
Why
The founder of You You ran restaurants in Chongqing, found that chicken feet sold well among his pickled-pepper dishes, and founded a food company in 1997 to make them as a packaged snack. This account comes from a reposted company profile.1
Impact and influence
The dish later spread across the country, and You You is seen as a Chongqing specialty.2
No tale about this food has been found.
Grandma Li
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
This is the simpler version I make at home: the feet are blanched, chilled in ice water and steeped in a cooled pickled-chili brine in the refrigerator. The amounts follow the earlier recipe, which is signed: 500 g chicken feet, 6 cloves of garlic, 2 tablespoons of rock sugar, 600 ml of water and 3 teaspoons of salt, with 10 to 15 minutes of blanching and 2 days of steeping. That recipe gives no amounts for the pickled chilies and their brine, so those amounts are my own choices. The later one is a blog post that names no author, uses fresh chilies and a white vinegar brine rather than pickled chilies, and I mention its cooking time just for comparison and do not use it below. Steeping them in the refrigerator is my own choice.
Ingredients
- Chicken feet 500 g
- Ginger, for boiling 2 slices
- Pickled chilies about 8
- Pickled-chili brine from the jar about 100 ml
- Garlic 6 cloves, crushed
- Ginger, for the brine 2 slices
- Rock sugar 2 tablespoons (about 30 g)
- Salt 3 teaspoons
- Water 600 ml
- Ice and cold water a large bowl
Steps
- Wash the chicken feet and snip off the tips of the claws.
- Boil water with 2 slices of ginger, add the feet and cook them for 10 to 15 minutes. I lift one out: it is done when the meat pulls away from the bone easily, and if not I cook them a few more minutes.
- Lift the feet out, put them into ice water for a few minutes straight away, and drain them.
- Heat the 600 ml of water with the salt and rock sugar until dissolved, then turn off the heat and let it cool.
- Put the pickled chilies, their brine, the garlic and 2 slices of ginger into a clean box with a lid, pour in the cooled salt and sugar water, and add the drained feet.
- Close the lid tightly, steep it in the refrigerator for 2 days, and eat the feet cold.
Tips
- The later recipe says to simmer for about 1 hour, or 45 minutes for a crunchier bite; I follow the earlier recipe's 10 to 15 minutes and then chill them in ice water.
- The later recipe uses no pickled chilies: its brine is a dozen fresh red chilies, 500 g of water, 35 g of salt and 35 g of white vinegar, and the feet steep overnight. Try it if you want a sharper taste.