kilikini said:Okay, I refused to go to the stinkin' meat store with my hubby
because.......well, it stinks. As a result, sigh, he brought chicken and
pork hearts along with some chicken thighs. I was *very* skeptical on the
hearts, but I kept an open mind. He took a baggie out and filled it with
cornmeal, pepper, garlic, salt and a little flour. He shook the bag and
plopped the hearts out into a searing pan of oil. When they were done and
cooled, I tried one.
VILE NASTY ICK
Apparently my cat agrees because even though she ate one, she licked her
butt afterwards. I can only assume to get the taste out of her mouth.
I had a shot of whisky to remove the taste.
Does anybody else eat this sort of thing and if so, how do you prepare it to
make it taste good? Did I just have a bad one? (I refused to try another.)
kili
I love chicken hearts, but not everybody does. I grew up eating them.
I usually buy chicken gizzards (stomachs) and hearts, because the
hearts are very small and most butchers and sell them packaged
together. I like to cook them in chicken soup or stock when I make
it, but you have to cook them a long time in order to get them soft.
When I serve the soup, almost everybody loves to eat the hearts and
gizzards with the noodles, rice, dumplings or whatever else is in the
broth. Some do not like them. :o(
What I like even better, is to make a sort of stew or ragout. I chop
and sauté onion and garlic until golden, add the cleaned hearts and
gizzards (you always have to cut open each heart, as most of them have
coagulated blood in them and you have to make sure that every bit of
stomach lining is removed from the gizzards) add them to the onions,
add salt and pepper, cover tightly and cook slowly over a low flame.
If the onions do not release enough liquid for gravy, add some chicken
stock or water, if you have no stock. Some people cheat and add
tomato sauce. It will take a couple of hours until the meat is soft.
Towards the end you can add tiny beef, chicken or veal meat balls
and chicken wings; they will cook much faster than the gizzards. Many
also use chicken necks, but I do not. Serve over rice, mashed
potatoes or Kasha Varnishkes. If you know that everybody likes this
dish, it makes a nice appetizer course for company.
I think that I would not like chicken hearts the way you tried them.
They must have been still partly uncooked.
I do not remember ever eating pork hearts, but I think cooked in a way
I like, they would be very tasty.
