Nourishing Instant Pot Chicken Foot Broth {Whole30, GAPS, Keto, Paleo, AIP}
This nourishing Instant Pot Chicken Foot Broth is the #1 traditional food you need to be making! With amino acids, gelatin, and collagen, this gut-healing liquid gold is essential for maintaining health and vitality. Perfect for nose-to-tail eating!
It’s one of the most nourishing foods in the world, yet most people turn their noses up at it…
Chicken feet? In broth? And, I’m supposed to… drink it??? Uh, no thanks.
Sadly, in our microwave/fast food culture where most people don’t cook at home and have lost touch with where their food comes from, nourishing foods like chicken feet are discarded and labeled “gross”, “unusable”, “disgusting”, “something no one eats”, “waste”.
And yet, if you’re knowledgeable in traditional foods, you know that it’s such a waste NOT to keep the bones and offal of healthy animals! After all, using every part of the animal — from nose to tail (or tail feathers, as it were) — is the best way to s-t-r-e-t-c-h expensive pastured meats and honor the animal who gave its life for you to eat while nourishing your body in the most ideal way.
So… save those bones! And organs! And… chicken feet!
Nourishing Instant Pot Chicken Foot Broth
Bone broth is, in my opinion, the #1 nourishing food everyone should be making! When the bones, cartilage, and tendons of pastured animals are simmered in water for hours, all of the minerals, vitamins, amino acids, and good stuff (yes, “good stuff” is totally a technical term), turning plain ol’ water into liquid gold.
Bone broth has been used for centuries to heal the gut, boost the immune system, help folks get over illnesses faster, heal cavities, and more!
(Public Service Announcement: the cartons of broth or stock from the store do not have the same benefits as homemade broth made in your kitchen from [preferably local] healthy, pastured animals!)
Even if you’re not drinking it by the mug-full, bone broth is a no-brainer kitchen staple. And you can use it for WAY more than making soup! Yes, drink mugs of broth (it’s the #1 gut-healing food!). Yes, make lots of nourishing soups. Then, use more bone broth for:
- gravies
- sauces
- instead of water for cooking rice or beans or quinoa
- braising meats
- instead of water in any savory recipe
- in smoothies (yes, really! Just make sure the broth isn’t salted.)
Soooo… why feet??? I know it’s the question on everybody’s mind.
Well, chicken feet are made up of all the things that go into a good bone broth: bone, tendons, cartilage. When pressure cooked (like in your Instant Pot), all the goodness finds its way into the water.
So chicken foot broth is chock-full of amino acids, collagen, gelatin — all the nourishing things that our bodies need for optimal health.
See how absolutely stunning this Instant Pot Chicken Foot Broth is? The color is beautiful, and that gel? Enough to make us die-hard broth enthusiasts swoon!
You can add chicken feet TO your pot of other bones to enhance the broth, or you can make a nourishing chicken foot broth that stands alone as an ages-old superfood.
Where To Find Chicken Feet?
Assuming you’re not raising your own chickens and butchering them yourself, finding chicken feet can be a little tricky. Unless you know where to look…
Here are my best tips for finding high quality, pastured/organic chicken feet:
- Ask a friend/neighbor who raises chickens — IF they don’t keep them for themselves!
- Ask a butcher or meat market manager.
- Check EatLocal.org for farmers who raise organic, pastured chickens in your area. Do NOT get feet that come from a factory farm!
- Look at your health food store, especially “mom and pop” type stores.
- Do you have a food co-operative in your area? This is where I get my chicken feet, and they are already peeled and ready for my nourishing Instant Pot Chicken Foot Broth!
What?? Peeled?!
How & Why To Peel Chicken Feet
Luckily, I’m able to get chicken feet that are already prepped and ready for broth — meaning their tough, yellow outer membrane has been peeled off. If your chicken feet have a tough outer skin, you’ll need to peel it off before making your broth.
Why peel?
First, this outer membrane is almost always covered in poop, feathers, and/or dirt, which we certainly don’t want in our broth. 😛
Second, the outer skin can impart a bitter, almost over-cooked flavor to broth. Not appetizing at all.
So, here’s how you peel and prepare chicken feet for broth:
- Thoroughly wash the feet. Use a scrub brush to remove as much poop, feathers, dirt, etc., if needed.
- Place the washed feet into a saucepan or skillet and cover with water.
- Bring this to a boil and boil for about 10 minutes.
- Remove from the stove and drain off the water.
- When the feet are cool enough to handle, begin peeling the layer of outer skin off the bone/cartilage.
- Now, the feet are ready to pressure cook for broth!
Are you ready to make the most beautiful, most nourishing broth ever?! Let’s do this!
Nourishing Instant Pot Chicken Foot Broth
This nourishing Instant Pot Chicken Foot Broth is the #1 traditional food you need to be making! With amino acids, gelatin, and collagen, this gut-healing liquid gold is essential for maintaining health and vitality. Perfect for nose-to-tail eating!
Ingredients
- 12 to 16chicken feetpeeled and prepped for broth
- filtered water to cover
- 1/4cupapple cider vinegar
Instructions
- Place the prepared chicken feet into the stainless steel insert of your Instant Pot. (I used a 6qt. Instant Pot, but the 8qt. IP would work for this, too.)
- Add enough water to the pot to just cover the chicken feet along with the apple cider vinegar.
- Place the lid on the Instant Pot, seal the vent, and press the "Manual" button.
- Adjust the time to 90 minutes on high pressure.
- When it beeps, you can immediately release pressure or you can wait and let it naturally release. Totally up to you.
- Strain the broth away from the feet and use or store in glass jars.
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Have you ever made chicken foot broth or added feet to your broth? Do you use your Instant Pot?
The last time I made bone broth, I was not able to find chicken paws at the store. I substituted chicken legs. I also add a couple stalks of celery, some carrots, turmeric and sea salt. The broth turned out amazing. I feed it to my mixed breed dog who is 10 and was diagnosed last year with arthritis.
why do we need apple cider vinegar
The acid in the vinegar helps to release the minerals from the bones.
Hi! I’m excited to get this a weekly broth. I made some just now without seeing this blog and not sure if the feet are already skinned! I got from Mary’s organic chicken from my Co op group. The website says they are cleaned, scalded, then air cooled then frozen. Any thoughts?
The broth was delicious but was curious if it’s obvious to tell if they’ve been skinned or not?
It sounds like “cleaned, scalded” means they’ve been peeled/skinned. If your broth turned out and didn’t taste funny, they probably were!
Ah man! Here I was thinking I could just buy some feet in a non-see-through bag and close my eyes while popping them into the pot. Then you say to peel??!! (I love that you anticipated my response with; What, Peel!!?) Urg, I just can’t. My preference would be to buy prepped feet ready to go. Great article and I love that you mention that we are so removed from farm life reality that feet disgust us. It’s so true. Thanks for all this great info. I’m ready to cook!
You can buy ready-to-go chicken feet. It just depends on your source. If you find a grocery store or health food store that carries chicken feet, chances are high that they’re already skinned.
How much would you recommend drinking each day?
Depends on why you’re drinking it? Are you fasting with broth? Or just enjoying it? How much you drink is entirely up to you.
We add other items to our broth a big hunk of ginger, parsley stems, and parts of onions we have left over. When chop onions got the recipes the skins and ends get frozen for when we make bone broth. Had roasted chicken tonight so bone broth with chicken feet will be made tomorrow.
Amazing! I bet that gives it such great flavor and benefits!
Hi Lindsey, I love the Instant Pot…..I love that you don’t have to cook it for Hrs. on the Stove Top. I have been setting my Cook Time for 50mins, by reguest of my friend…I have been getting good results of Gelatin Chicken Bone Broth.
I see you are setting your cook time @ 90mins. I would like to hear your thoughts on the Cook Time…I set the Pressure Cook for 50mins on High Pressure…..
I look forward to hearing back from you.
Thank you, Lenore
Given that stove-top bone broth takes 12-24 hours, I prefer a longer pressure cook time for my Instant Pot bone broth to make sure I’m extracting all the collagen, minerals, etc.
Can I use white vinegar instead of ACV? Thanks!
Yes! Any vinegar will do!
I followed instructions but I cooked almost 2 hours. I also put a slice in the feet to make the good parts exposed. My batch did not gel. Is this why or is there another reason? Thank you!
Did you peel the feet?
Just wanted to let you know I have made this several times, to drink as a supplement. It comes out perfect! Thank you for sharing. I had a point where I had a difficult time finding chicken paws. What would be your next go to to yield a good amt of collagen?
Glad you’ve enjoyed this and that it’s turning out for you. I actually use a collagen supplement from Perfect Supplements. Here is a link and you can apply my discount code ALLTHETHINGS to save 10%! https://www.perfectsupplements.com/Perfect-Hydrolyzed-Collagen-p/ps-collagen.htm?Click=79360&a_bid=9c0630e5
I did not know to boil and peel the feet first. Chicken feet was my best joint (vs marrow) broth ever. I will definitely try peeling the skin off – thank you! I would be careful using acid (vinegar) in metal as it will leach metals into the broth. Often cadmium or nickel are used in stainless steel. We need some cadmium – we get plenty in our food if it’s grown in healthy soil. Nickel and other ingredients in stainless steel can lead to heavy metal poisoning – which is a severe immune compromiser etc. I use a certified… Read more »
Is this broth shelf stable straight out of the cooker into the jars or does it need to be processed for long shelf life
All bone broth has to be processed according to safe canning guidelines and cannot be canned straight out of the pressure cooker.
I live outside the US and it’s easy to buy chicken feet here. When I bought them, they look like the feet in the picture in this article (pinkish clean color). Does this mean the hard skin you talk about was already removed? If so, that would mean, I don’t need to do he saucepan quick boil, right?
That’s correct! If they look like my pictures, the hard skin has already been removed and there’s no need to boil and peel.
I have been making this for several weeks now but I use a whole chicken carcass from a chicken I’ve roasted and then I add about 5 to 7 chicken feet. It gels perfectly and has great flavor. Thank you for this recipe, it is so much easier and faster than the slow cooker.
Yay! Thanks for sharing!
I just made this and the gel is INCREDIBLE. I’ve had trouble with lack of gelling up until now so Im thrilled – thank you so much for the recipe. The taste is kinda awful (hahah) compared to broth I’ve made with a whole chicken – Im wondering if anyone has suggestions on what I could add next time that might over power the ACV/ chicken feet. garlic doesn’t seem to be cutting it. Thanks!
Glad you got the gel! What does it taste like? My chicken foot broth always tastes like regular chicken bone broth.