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Chicken gizzards: the poultry offal you need to rediscover

22 May 2024

Journalist

How to buy, prepare and cook chicken gizzards with recipes from African, Mexican, Korean, Japanese and Southern cuisines

Chicken gizzards are hard to find these days. Once a peasant food staple, the offal cut has fallen out of favour in recent years. However, we should think again about this peculiar chicken part, as it is full of flavour. A very versatile meat, the gizzard can act as a main course, appetiser, or amuse bouche, and is worth rediscovering.

What are chicken gizzards?

You may have heard the saying ‘as rare as hens' teeth’, obviously, because chickens don’t have teeth, only beaks, which they use to peck their food off the ground. So, without teeth, they need something to grind the grain up before it enters the digestive tract. That’s where the gizzard comes in: it’s basically a tough muscle within the stomach used for breaking down food.

How to cook chicken gizzards

The gizzard is very versatile and can be fried, stewed, minced or used in many ways. If they are cooked right, you get textured, tender meat with dark poultry, almost gamey flavour. If you don’t cook them right, they can be very tough and unpleasant to eat.

The trick to cooking gizzards is to simmer them for a long time before finishing them in the pan. Prepare the gizzards by removing any sinews or extra tough bits. Cut the gizzards open and remove anything that may have built up inside. Rinse them and clean them thoroughly.

Whisk plenty of salt in a bowl of cold water and place the gizzards inside. Leave to sit in the water for about an hour to allow the salt to start to break down the muscle. Place the gizzards in a pot of water and bring to the boil. Skim the foam from the top of the water and reduce the heat to low. Simmer for 40-50 minutes, strain and allow to cool.

You can also place the gizzards in buttermilk overnight to tenderise if you wish to skip the simmering stage, as is often done with squid. Resting in buttermilk will produce a slightly tougher, grainy, and tangy gizzard, which many people appreciate.

You are now ready to further cook your tender gizzards in any way you want. Here are some ideas on how to cook and serve your gizzards.

To sauté chicken gizzards

Chop shallots, mince a few cloves of garlic, and fry until soft and transparent. Add the gizzards and toss in the oil and onions for a couple of minutes. Add your preferred spices or herbs – try parsley and a squeeze of lemon, paprika, chilli for tacos, soy, or whatever else you like.

To stir-fry chicken gizzards

Simply soften chopped onion with sliced green or red pepper, add some grated ginger and a dash of rice wine vinegar and then add the tenderised gizzards and toss on high heat. Add two tablespoons of soy sauce, and then the leaves of either bok choy or napa cabbage and allow to wilt. Serve with fried rice.

For Southern-style fried chicken gizzards

These call for buttermilk-marinated gizzards, which should be drained of the milk but remain moist. Take about 250g of self-raising flour and mix with Everglades seasoning, salt, black pepper and smoked paprika. Add the gizzards and toss, making sure they are well covered with the flour mix. Deep fry in neutral oil for 4-5 minutes, remove and pat dry with kitchen paper. Serve with the hottest hot sauce you can find.

For Korean-style chicken gizzards (dak jong jib bokkeum)

Add milk-marinated gizzards to a large frying pan or wok and season with plenty of salt, garlic powder and onion powder. Cook until the liquid evaporates, then add about 10-15 whole garlic cloves, depending on the quantity of gizzards. Cook until both garlic and gizzards are nicely charred on all sides. Add red chilli flakes and black pepper. When serving, drizzle with sesame oil.

For West African-style stewed chicken gizzards

Add an onion, red and yellow bell peppers, Scotch bonnet, tomatoes, and 60ml of water to a food processor and blend. Sauté some chopped onion, add paprika and curry powder and allow to brown. Pour in the blended pepper and tomato paste, add some chicken stock and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the gizzards to the pan along with roughly chopped red and yellow peppers and simmer for a further 10 minutes.

For Japanese-style chicken gizzards (sunagimo)

Cook the gizzards in a wok until they turn brown. Add a glass of white wine and cover. Simmer until the wine has evaporated, remove from the heat, add salt and a squeeze of lemon and serve with yuzu kosho and wasabi.

For Dominican-style chicken gizzards (mollejas guesadas)

Add your tenderised gizzard with chopped onion to a Dutch oven and cook until the liquid has evaporated. Add chopped bell peppers, more onion and garlic, and cook for about five minutes. Add chopped tomatoes, olives, a teaspoon of oregano, and tomato paste. Cook on medium heat until the liquid has reduced by half. Add chopped coriander and serve with rice and black beans.

As you can see, chicken gizzards lend themselves to many different cooking styles and cuisines. Using them is a good way to minimise food waste, as they often get discarded. They are very economical, and delicious for humans or four-legged friends. Nutritious, low in fat, and high in protein, they can realistically be described as a healthy ingredient.

Often sold together with chicken hearts, the best place to get gizzards is at your local butcher or chicken specialist. Ask them to keep gizzards aside for you and ensure they are sourced from organic and free-range producers for the best quality meat.