chicken feet noodles

Braised Chicken Feet Noodles

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Braised Chicken Feet Noodles

This is our all time favourite. Braised Chicken Feet noodles aka 鸡脚面. I kind of got tired of the long queues at our favourite chicken feet noodle stall nearby our place. The queue has been unusually ridiculous. I waited for 45 minutes the other day. Terrible.

So I decided to make my own braised chicken feet noodles ala ho sim lang style. My challenge was to make it such that the chicken feet still retains the gelatinous strains and the chewiness of the meat but yet tender and full of flavour.

I don’t quite like the ones at the Chicken Feet noodle shop because they usually deep fry the chicken feet first before braising. That method kind of makes the feet puffy and wrinkly. I prefer them cooked my way.

Truth be told it was quite a tedious process, but totally worth it. The preparation for the chicken feet took almost a whole day to prepare. The noodles was the easy part.

Recipe

Ingredients

10 pieces of Chicken Feet (usually the wet market uncle would already pack them in packs of 10, very convenient)
5 pieces of Dried Shitake Mushrooms
3 thin slices of Ginger
3 cloves of Garlic
3 stalks of Spring Onions
1 piece of Star Anise
2 tbsp of Oyster Sauce
1 tbsp of Light Soya Sauce
2 tbsp of Dark Soya Sauce
1/4 cup of Shao Xing Hua Tiao Jiu
Sprinkle of White Pepper
1 tsp of Castor Sugar
Tomato Ketchup
Shin Ramen Noodles (Korean instant noodles)
Olive Oil
Water reserved from the soaking of mushrooms

Method

1. Soak the shitake mushrooms in half a bowl of hot water. After they are soaked, slice the mushrooms into halves. Reserve the water for later.

2. In a pot, boil the chicken feet until the water becomes oily. Reserve the stock for frying vegetables (eg. Mani Cai with Egg). Reserve the chicken feet for later.

3. In a claypot, add 2 tbsp of Olive oil, turn heat to medium, add ginger slices, crushed garlic (not minced), spring onions halves (about 4 cm lengths) and star anise. Saute until fragrant. Fragrant here means all the smells of the ingredients become one. Remember to leave some finely chopped spring onions for garnishing.

4. Next add the soaked mushroom halves and stir fry with the rest of the ingredients for a while before adding the chicken feet into the pot to stir fry as well. Do this for a few minutes. Add sugar and white pepper. Continue to mix.

5. While the ingredients are frying, prepare the seasoning mix of sauces in a small bowl. Once ready, pour the seasoning sauce into the pot and give it a good stir. Add the reserved mushroom water into the pot until all the chicken feet are covered.

6. Bring to a boil and then turn the heat down to a simmer with lid on. Continue to cook for at least an hour. After that turn the heat off and leave it in the pot to soak up the marinate. Boil with lid on again and leave it to marinate overnight.

7. After more than 12 hours in the pot, the longer the better and in my case, almost 24 hours later, I turned up the heat for one last time before assembling my braised chicken feet noodles for breakfast.

8. In a separate pot, cook the Korean instant noodles. You can use whatever noodles you want. I like the Korean noodles because they are quite filling and easy to cook. Once cooked, plate it. Add a little dollup of ketchup and mix with sauce from the braised chicken feet.

9. Give the noodles a good mix, assemble the chicken feet and mushrooms and a generous sprinkle of chopped spring onions. Serve hot.

Bon Appetit!

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Boil chicken feet until stock is oily.

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Soak shitake mushrooms in hot water

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Saute dry ingredients until fragrant

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Cooked chicken feet

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Chopped spring onions

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Braised Chicken Feet noodles

Chicken Feet Noodles (Review)

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Chicken Feet Noodles (Review)

I don’t usually review heartland delights, but sometimes these boutique cooks of local delicacies are so adept at their craft that it warrants notable praise. Sometimes they behave like artisan chefs much like the ones I recently met at DSTLLRY.

The only difference between them is that the heartland uncle and auntie working at the wanton mee stall spend, and also have, less time making small talk with their customers but spend more time churning out the food. But that aside, the intensity with which they operate is just fever-pitched madness if you think about it. Sometimes customer orders for their wanton mee can be 10 packets at a time. It’s an endless stream of noodles flying in and out of the strainer scoop. The signature whacking of the ladle against the edge of the cooking pot is also very telling – “the chef is making brisk bucks”. Okay I just had to say that.

So today, I decided to try their kway kar mee (read: chicken feet noodles) and it’s nothing short of oh-my-gosh awesome!

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The delicately braised chicken feet or kway kar was just simply delicious. I added an extra order of their fabulous wanton which I couldn’t get enough of. It cost me an additional 50 cents! Amazing value.

The way they make their meat dumplings just reminds me of those dim sum places, very Hong Kong style. You probably had better wanton noodles but for the price ($3 and if you add wanton it’s additional 50 cents) and the fact that it was within my estate, I thought it was a rare find and a gem. It is the same price for the kway kar mee, so that’s a major plus for me. Some places sell chicken feet noodles a little more expensive than the regular wanton noodles.

Here’s the postal code location for those die hard fans who would want to venture a kway kar mee expedition. Go ahead Google maps it, it’s chicken feet I’m sure.

Postal Code: 751313

Bon Appetit!