Chicken hearts -- what now?

November 7, 2007 7:26 AM

What do I do with chicken hearts?

I bought .35 kg of chicken hearts. I guess I was imagining using them in a soup, but internet searches seem to suggest that I should fry them. However, the information is very slim. They're a regular item in my grocery store, so I'll be psyched if this turns out to be a good resource. Can I make a soup of them if I add rice and vegetables? Should I fry them with squid? Should I stuff them all into a chicken with garlic cloves? Use them as pasta garnish? What would you do with chicken hearts?

posted by creasy boy to Food & Drink (22 answers total)

Well, I've always given the chicken heart to the cats, or used it as part of a giblet gravy or stuffing. I've never had to deal with a whole lot of them before. Joy of Cooking has a recipe for "chicken or turkey giblet ragout" for serving over rice; it also notes that poultry hearts "require long, slow braising in order to become tender."

Epicurious.com might have some recipes you can try.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 7:39 AM on November 7, 2007

I've never seen just hearts. Around here they sell hearts and gizzards mixed, mostly gizzards. I simmer them gently till the gizzards are soft enough to chew, 4 hours plus, then eat them with salt and pepper.

I think they'd be good in soup. In my experience they're a little more strongly flavored than the skeletal muscles, but not so strong that the flavor suggests organ meat.

They are tougher than skeletal muscle, but nowhere near as tough a gizzards. If I were to fry them, I'd do it very hot and very briefly, just to brown them before finishing with some low and slow cooking process.
posted by Bruce H. at 7:41 AM on November 7, 2007

They're really good grilled over charcoal.

Add about 20 more types of meat and you could have a Brazilian BBQ.
posted by bondcliff at 7:43 AM on November 7, 2007 [2 favorites]

Could they be used for making chicken stock? Another idea might be a pot-pie sort of thing: hearts, veggies and a nice pastry crust.

Apropos of chicken hearts, try to find a copy of Bill Cosby's 'Monster Chicken Heart' routine to listen to whilst preparing them.
posted by jquinby at 7:45 AM on November 7, 2007

You can make broth with them. Just put them in the water with onions and celery and salt and simmer it for half an hour or so. You can remove the hearts when you're done, if you wish. I don't know how edible chicken hearts are.
posted by koeselitz at 7:50 AM on November 7, 2007

Response by poster: Epicurious tells me to marinate them in soy sauce, sherry and garlic and grill them on skewers. That sounds fantastic, but it's winter.
posted by creasy boy at 7:50 AM on November 7, 2007

Hatsu Yakitori!!!

Grilled chicken hearts are awesome.
posted by atomly at 7:51 AM on November 7, 2007

I likes mine raw!

Just kidding.

Buffalo chicken hearts?
posted by ian1977 at 7:52 AM on November 7, 2007

What would you do with chicken hearts?

Call out the entire army. Blast these things off the earth!
posted by kittens for breakfast at 7:52 AM on November 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

Best answer: fried in batter:

sift 300g of flour, add 1/2 tsp of baking powder, 2 sp of vinegar and some salt. mix 150ml of sparkling water, 200ml of milk and 1 egg with a mixer. Slowly pour it into the flour and mix till you have a smooth batter. let it stand for 15 min. cut the hearts in half, flatten them with a meat beater, season with salt and pepper, dip in batter and fry in hot oil till golden.

or you could stew them with plums:

wash, clean and dry the hearts. finely chop one onion and some garlic, brown it in oil, add the hearts and half a cup of dry plums, let it simmer, add half a glass of red wine and let it simmer for 30 min. add bay leaves, salt, pepper, one spoon of tomato concentrate, add some water and simmer for another 15 min. thicken the sauce with one spoon of flour. serve hot with chopped parsley garnish.
posted by barrakuda at 7:54 AM on November 7, 2007

I put them on a kebab with red grapes: one heart, one grape, one heart, one grape...and so on. Then whap the buggers on a hot barbeque for a short while.

Absolutely gorgeous!
posted by Jofus at 8:06 AM on November 7, 2007

I spent a summer in Mexico City and I found them frequently in soups there. I don't remember any names and recipes, but I DO remember the first time I pulled my spoon out of the broth and discovered one!
posted by sherlockt at 8:12 AM on November 7, 2007

We used to give them a very light crumb coating and cook them in a hot oven (350-400 F) or so. Kind of roast/broil I suppose. We actually used our toaster oven. (I guess this is the low fat option.)

Avoid any that are much larger than a man's thumb, they'll be rather tough.

I like the garlic clove idea. Yum.
posted by robabroad at 8:30 AM on November 7, 2007

Personally, I throw them away. My mom, though, she uses them for awesome gravy, that I pick the chunky bits out of.
posted by mitzyjalapeno at 8:41 AM on November 7, 2007

Hearts are very chewy, there's not much you can do about that.

Put them in a pot (cut the big ones in half) and cover with a blend of about 3:1 water and soy sauce. Add smashed garlic cloves, a bit of chili pepper, maybe a shallot, and some star anise if you have it. Cover and simmer for a few hours.
posted by casarkos at 9:04 AM on November 7, 2007

I've been wanting to try this chicken gizzard risotto recipe from epicurious for a while but never got around to it.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 9:24 AM on November 7, 2007

Chop them up, salt, and then brown with a bit of oil. Then, you can use them as a pizza topping. Seriously.
posted by grumpy at 9:28 AM on November 7, 2007

Epicurious tells me to marinate them in soy sauce, sherry and garlic and grill them on skewers. That sounds fantastic, but it's winter.

I bet you could do them under the broiler.

They are also very good pan fried like fried chicken, dusted in flour with lots of salt, black pepper, dried oregano and garlic.
posted by oneirodynia at 9:38 AM on November 7, 2007

Mmmm.. Chilie fry.

Dice onions, ginger, garlic, green chilies (habaneros if you can stand them), salt to taste, few sprigs of cilantro, chopped.

Make a paste of the ginger and garlic.
Dice/chop the hearts, wash, sprinkle with salt, cover and keep. Saute the onions and when they're clear, add the ginger + garlic paste and chopped green chilies. When you sneeze from the fumes, add the chopped chicken hearts and fry till done. Garnish with the chopped cilantro.
posted by Arthur Dent at 9:40 AM on November 7, 2007

You've got your best answer already, so I'll just chime in to nth that grilling them is excellent. I was introduced to chicken hearts via a friend's backyard bbq and was bowled over by how tasty they are, particularly if smoked over a fragrant wood. I understand that the climate may not be right for it now, but do yourself a favor and schedule a reminder in your calendaring app of choice to grill chicken hearts on May 1 (or thereabouts).

Come to think of it, have you talked with the butchers at your grocery store? Whenever I've asked a butcher about a particular cut of meat that's for sale, he or she always seems to have a favorite recipe or two to share, along with general cooking time &c. advice. They tend to be meat enthusiasts as well as professionals.
posted by mumkin at 10:09 AM on November 7, 2007

Response by poster: Grilling them does sound excellent. I live in an apartment, so I can only grill in the summer when I go to the park. Frying them was definitely a better idea than my plan of making a soup. It turns out my girlfriend doesn't like plums though. We fried them quickly and then simmered them for a while in white wine with onions. They look like button mushrooms and taste like chicken with the texture of calamari. Arthur Dent's idea also would've been quite good. In fact I might use that idea with chicken hearts, calamari and button mushrooms just for weird aesthetic affect. The thing is, I didn't get them from the butcher. They're packed in plastic and sold for 2 Euros near the bacon and Wiener Wurst. Anyway, thank you everyone for answering, the cumulative effect steered me in the right direction.
posted by creasy boy at 11:28 AM on November 7, 2007

I've found them tough, and and they are really chock-full of cholesterol - a ridiculous amount of cholesterol. I used to feed them to the cat but the current cat won't eat them.
posted by ikkyu2 at 1:10 PM on November 7, 2007