Sweet Chili Chicken Feet 鳳爪
By Michael · from our van kitchen
One of my favorite things to order at dim sum is chicken feet. So when we were in Arizona in January 2025, I wanted to try making them myself in the van. Before I started, I got on FaceTime with my mom and asked her how she makes them. This is her recipe, and it’s a pretty simple one.
We were staying three nights at the campground at Patagonia Lake State Park, which meant no thinking about where to go or where to sleep. A slow few days like that are perfect for cooking. Two days earlier, at a Chinese supermarket in Tucson, I picked up a pack of chicken feet and a bottle of sweet chili sauce for about $7. They sell chicken feet at Walmart too, so I guess people eat them.
You can watch me make it. The chicken feet part starts around 3:35.
Two flavors, two bags
I only had one big zip-top bag and one small one, so I made two flavors. More than half of the feet went into the big bag with the sweet chili sauce. I poured in the whole bottle. Once a bottle like that is open it has to live in the fridge, and in a van we don’t have a lot of fridge space, so I’d rather use it all at once than keep a half bottle around. The sauce smells really good. The bottle also works for other things, like chicken wings or pork. I’ve made pork chops with it before.
The second bag got a little salt, fish sauce, sesame seeds and a little water. I didn’t have sesame oil that day. It would have added a nice flavor, so if you have some, put it in.
Be patient with them
My mom said to leave them in the fridge overnight. I figured a few hours would be fine. That night at dinner, Rina couldn’t wait and pulled one out of the bag to try. I had to remind her: they’re not ready yet, mom said overnight. So follow my mom on this one, not me.
One thing I’d do differently is the pot. Our big pot was full of beef soup that day, so I used a smaller one, and it was too small for the whole pack. It overflowed a bit. Use a bigger pot, or blanch them in two rounds.
Another way I’ve made them
About a week and a half later, camping in Quartzsite, Arizona, I made chicken feet again a different way. I blanched them for about 15 minutes, then cooked them in a lo soy marinade with chicken wings and eggs. The marinade is a concentrate, so I started with about half of it in water, tasted it, and went from there so it wouldn’t get too salty. I let everything sit in it for about 20 minutes. The longer it sits, the more flavor it gets. We love chicken so much, we eat every part of it.
Ingredients
To blanch
- 1 pack of chicken feet
- Cold water, enough to cover
Sweet chili bag (I did more than half the feet this way)
- 1 bottle of sweet chili sauce
Fish sauce bag (the rest of the feet)
- A little salt
- Fish sauce
- Sesame seeds
- A little water
- Sesame oil, if you have it (I didn't)
Steps
- Put the chicken feet in a pot of cold water and bring it to a boil. Use a pot that's big enough. Mine was too small and it overflowed a little.
- Blanch them for about 10 minutes. Move the feet from the bottom up to the top as they cook so they all get a good boil.
- Drain them and run them under cold water so they don't cook any further, then clean them off.
- Trim the nails off each foot with scissors. I switched to a heavier pair, the kind you use for crab shells, and it was a lot easier.
- Split the feet between two zip-top bags. In the first bag, pour in the sweet chili sauce. I used the whole bottle.
- In the second bag, add a little salt, some fish sauce, sesame seeds and a little water. Sesame oil would add a nice flavor here if you have it.
- Close the bags and put them in the fridge. My mom says overnight. I think a few hours is good, but overnight is what she told me.
- Serve them as an appetizer.
Amounts are what I said in the video. Where I didn't measure, it says "to taste". Cook it your way.
