Chicken livers, hearts, gizzards. Ideas?

[PreggieUBA2C]

Our butcher just put out a pile of each and we bought all of the livers. I plan to make pate with those, but don't want to use brandy or other alcohol. I know that cognac/brandy/wine gives a lovely rich flavour, but I don't want to spend our food budget on pasteurised commercial alcohol, yk?

I thought of adding some new (still fizzy) fermented apricot nectar and a bit of lemon juice instead. Does anyone have other ideas for bringing in a rich undertone that isn't from the liquor store?

I left the gizzards and hearts and now I'm regretting it. I'll go and buy them tomorrow if I can figure out what to do with them and I also wondered whether the gizzards are of special nutritional value, like the hearts and livers.

I don't have any ideas for preparing chicken hearts or gizzards. Does anyone else?

Oh, they are pastured chickens and the meat from the whole bird is fabulous and fatty, like duck. I am imagining that these parts will not fail to impress as well.

TIA!

[JaneS]

My new thing is making little organ meat bites wrapped in bacon and broiled on a toothpick... you know, like scallops wrapped in bacon.

[Magelet]

for the liver pate maybe white wine vinegar or red wine vinegar? I often use them instead of actual wine, since they keep longer.

I think chicken hearts are fine with regular heart recipes. I love the heart kebab recipe in NT. don't know about the gizzards, unless your making giblet gravy. I give emt o my cat somegtimes

[PreggieUBA2C]

For the bacon wrapped treats, don't organs like heart end up hard as rocks? I can see liver and kidneys, brain maybe, being still tender, but heart seems too tough for that. Have you done this with heart?

I would use wine vinegar, but I don't have any and don't make homemade wine.

I am making the liver pate today now because it was still frozen until this morning! Dense meat!

I'll report on how it turns out!

[JaneS]

No sorry haven't used hearts yet. I should b/c of the CoQ10 in it but haven't gotten there in my post v*gan journey....

[Magelet]

I'm going to give a try putting hearts in rice. It's sort of a dirty rice recipe (cooked in broth, with small peices of liver). I'm going to chop up some hearts real small too and pop those in as well. hope it's good.

[nerdymom]

If you don't like organ meats you can chop them with a food processor and mix them into ground beef and use the beef like normal.

[PreggieUBA2C]

I actually really love organ meats, but when roasted a chicken last, I didn't know that the heart was inside until I carved it for eating. Our friends just toss the heart, liver and kidneys into the cavity, but not in a bag, so when I had defrosted the chicken and felt around inside and rinsed it, somehow, these parts just stayed in there.

Anyway, the heart having been roasted with the chicken, which was juicy and fatty and not dry at all, surrounded by its own juices, the heart having boiled in those juices within the cavity, it came out hard like a rubber hockey ball.

From that I assumed that heart must turn out very tough without special preparation or really long cooking, but perhaps that isn't the case? I asked a chef who is also a cutter at the butcher we go to and he said that he makes them tender by just cooking them forever.

Perhaps I will try that too.

Btw, the chicken liver pate turned out really delicious. I fried some onions in butter and served it on the pate, on buttered toast with fresh leafy veggies and mustard (made with acv, so really flavourful). Yummmm!!!

[bagare]

I poach my chicken hearts in broth with carrots, onion, celery and a bit of garlic for probably a good 2 hours or so. You could do something like that if you wanted them whole, or just cut in half or quarters, poach for a while, till tender, and then toss in some rice and cook it up! Top off with some CO or yummy butter and sea salt!

My grandmother used to saute up her chicken livers with sliced onions and quartered mushrooms, deglaze with vermouth, course could just use broth, and tossed in a good healthy spoonful of sour cream or 2 or 3! and served it over rice with chopped fresh parsley! oh Yum! brings back wonderful memories... she lived till 103!

Tidbit--my step grandfather lived to 103 also, frying his bacon in lard, because it didn't have enough fat in it! Healthy as a horse till his last day, when he just went to sleep.

[durafemina]

we have no alcohol. . . and I don't want to buy any just to cook up the wee pot of chicken livers I have sitting in the freezer. . . can I de-glaze the pan with balsamic maybe? lemon juice?
and how does one make pate?

tia!

[amcal]

I add them to the water when Im making stock with the carcass.

[PreggieUBA2C]

Originally Posted by bagare

Tidbit--my step grandfather lived to 103 also, frying his bacon in lard, because it didn't have enough fat in it! Healthy as a horse till his last day, when he just went to sleep.

That's so wonderful to know! On one side of my family, my great grandmother and her dh both lived until 105 and 102 respectively, eating everything cooked with lard and butter.

Originally Posted by durafemina

we have no alcohol. . . and I don't want to buy any just to cook up the wee pot of chicken livers I have sitting in the freezer. . . can I de-glaze the pan with balsamic maybe? lemon juice?
and how does one make pate?

tia!

I didn't fo any de-glazing, so I have no idea.

I soaked the livers in milk overnight, rinsed and dried them, trimmed out the stringy tough parts, and then cut them into thirds.

I fried about the same amount by volume of onions in about the same volume of butter in a cast iron pan, making sure not to brown them, but just make them soft and transparent. The bitter flavour of browned onions comes out more than the sweet once its cold, and I don't like that.

I added the livers to the onions and butter along with a TBSP of chopped fresh rosemary, and some unrefined sea salt.

I cook mine through, but lots of people like it still pink when they take it off the heat.

Then I put some cream and peppercorns into the blender and ground the pepper into the cream, added the liver and onions mixture and a TBSP of acv and 2 TBSP of apricot brine (could use any marginally sweet nectar or alcohol if desired). I pulsed that until smooth and it looked like a meat smoothie, but once it set in the fridge it was like liverwurst.

This was my first attempt and it turned out very very well. I would add in cold butter to the blender next time in additon to what I already had, or chicken fat if I had any.

[Magelet]

for making yummy heart, I like it soaked in acid for at least a couple hours. it makes it taste less bloody. you'd think I'd like bloody but at least 3 weeks of the month, it tastes gross. the other...

[nerdymom]

Maybe this is too redneck for you all, but my mom used to give us breaded and pan fried chicken livers (think nuggets but with liver inside) and tatertots. We scarfed 'em every time! In fact I am ordering a pound of livers from the coop so that I can do exactly that, but with sweet potato fries instead.

[laohaire]

Any other ideas for "hiding" this stuff anywhere? I like the dirty rice idea. But maybe I'd like to run the cooked organs through the Vitamix and hide it somewhere. Good idea on mixing into ground beef, too, yeah, any other possibilities?

I am planning to help some farmers pluck chickens in May, and was hoping to score some chicken feet out of it Dunno if they usually stuff the cavities with the organs (another farmer I bought from recently did not), but if they don't, I might ask for some and keep these ideas in mind. Every time I get a chicken heart and liver (which is not often) I take a bite in hope of gaining a taste for it, but so far no luck. But I want to keep at it.

[nerdymom]

Originally Posted by laohaire

Any other ideas for "hiding" this stuff anywhere? I like the dirty rice idea. But maybe I'd like to run the cooked organs through the Vitamix and hide it somewhere. Good idea on mixing into ground beef, too, yeah, any other possibilities?

I am planning to help some farmers pluck chickens in May, and was hoping to score some chicken feet out of it Dunno if they usually stuff the cavities with the organs (another farmer I bought from recently did not), but if they don't, I might ask for some and keep these ideas in mind. Every time I get a chicken heart and liver (which is not often) I take a bite in hope of gaining a taste for it, but so far no luck. But I want to keep at it.

gravy? make a nice gravy for your potatoes then use a blender to blend it up?

[MountainMamaGC]

I know this thread is old but my mom is old school Hungarian and she makes the most wonderful paprikash with chicken hearts and gizzards.

-Fry some onions and the hearts and gizzards in some fat. When the onions become translucent throw about a tablespoon of paprika on it. Stir the mixture lots so the paprika doesnt burn. Frying the paprika brings the flavor out. You want to use good quality paprika.

-cover the mixture with water and simmer. Add chopped mushrooms and bell peppers. Simmer till cooked. Salt and pepper to taste.

-serve over potatoes, spoon dumplings, rice or pasta or a big hunk of bread.

This is traditional hungarian food.

[Sara Badger]

My dad alway pan fried them in honey and orange maralde(sp) They are my all time favorite dinner.

[StrongBeliever]

*DROOLING* I LOVE chicken liver. Just butchered a gob of chickens communally a few weeks ago and got all of the liver, as well as a few hearts and gizzards. So far I've made some pan fried(breaded) livers, fried in butter and bacon drippings. Best I think I've ever had. As far as the hearts and gizzards go... Kitty snacks. Gizzards are VERY chewy, and hearts just don't do much for me. But I am very proud of my big hearty 17lb cats.

[zeiter]

Originally Posted by Sara Badger

My dad alway pan fried them in honey and orange maralde(sp) They are my all time favorite dinner.

I would really like to try this! Could you please give me some measurements? Thanks so much!!