Gizzard is an organ that all birds have, as well as some reptiles and fish. They are a fibrous muscle, which performs the function of mechanically digesting food.
The shape of the chicken gizzards resembles a bag, in which the animal's food is processed and in birds there are also stones - they help the digestion process.
Along with liver, heart and others, they belong to the offals and are used to prepare delicious soups, appetizing dishes and appetizers.
Due to the fact, that they are a single muscle, chicken gizzards are hard and tough, so they require a specific heat treatment, which usually lasts longer than the time required for regular meat.
Before approaching such a culinary treatment, the gizzards must be perfectly cleaned, unless you have already purchased them cleaned.
They are split lengthwise in the middle and emptied of food residues and stones. The inner membrane, similar to soft cartilage, is scraped off with a knife and washed well. It is recommended that, before starting the culinary processing, they should be salted and left for several hours, up to a day and then washed and dried again.
Depending on how you want to cook the gizzards, you need to apply different culinary techniques.
In soups and stews, it is important to keep in mind, that they should be boiled for a minimum of 1 hour, or until they're tender enough. If you want to make a delicious appetizer with this delicious product and you want to fry it in butter, garlic, onions or stew with wine, you will necessarily have to boil the gizzards beforehand, so that they do not remain tough.
If, even after cooking, you find that the gizzards are tough, the reason is that they need more time and you will have to extend the culinary processing, until they are perfectly soft and are not tough when chewing.
At TastyCraze.com you will find many successful chicken gizzard recipes.
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