Chicken Feet and Wintermelon Soup
Soup Name: Chicken Feet and Wintermelon Soup
Traditional Chinese Name: 冬瓜雞腳湯 (dōng guā jī jiǎo tāng)
Introduction:
The feet of the chicken are one of the Chinese’s most interesting “unwanted” parts of the chicken (after the bottom parts). It’s so versatile that the Chinese use chicken feet in soups, stews, dim sum and other dishes. I remember back in the days when I was a young lad that my parents would go to the Western super markets and get chicken feet by the bags for a whole dollar. It’s definitely not as cheap anymore because of the influx of demanding chicken feet eaters, but still an affordable, tasty and collagen packed ingredient. This wintermelon soup is simple to make and if you’re a single gal (or guy) you can make it in a one person pot. My husband really liked this soup and gobbled all the feet. Thanks for the clean up job, sweetie!
Amount serves: 5-6 large soup bowls (around 300 mL each)
What Ingredients are required?
10 fresh (or frozen) chicken feet
3 fresh corn, quartered
1 large slice of wintermelon, sliced with skin on
70g fresh gingo biloba
70g dried lotus seeds
1 slice of ginger
2 L of water
How do I prepare it?
- Soak the gingo biloba and lotus seed in warm water for 10 minutes
- Rinse and cut off the nails on your chicken feet
- In a small pot of boiling water, blanch your chicken feet for 5 minutes
- Remove chicken feet from boiling water, strain and set aside
- Boil your soup water
- When the soup boils, throw all the ingredients together
- Boil on high (covered) for 30 minutes, reduce to a medium boil for another 30 minutes (you can continue to boil or use a thermal cooker to keep it hot, as some people love their chicken feet super soft)
- Serve and enjoy!
Any benefits?
- This soup is excellent for cooling down the body and heat from hot summer days
- Chicken feet is an excellent source of collagen and is low in fat
Any precautions?
- Women in their first trimester of pregnancy should avoid as it is an extremely cooling soup and may cause contractions (you can add more ginger slices to “heat” up the soup)
- Melon soups are best consumed within same day as keeping melon soups overnight or over an extended period will make the melons sour (and so will your soup!)
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