Are chicken gizzards ok to use in stock?

Monita is a recipe tester for Food52.

added 2 months ago

Yes

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They're practically mandatory.

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Yes! If you're not ready to make stock, you can freeze them for when you are ready.

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HalfPint added 2 months ago

Another 'yes' here. Cooked gizzards have always been a chef's treat in my mother's kitchen (mine too).

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ChefJune added 2 months ago

Not only okay, they're wonderful to eat after they've cooked in the soup!

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Andrea is cooking teacher, food writer, contributing editor at SAVEUR, and a cookbook author; her latest book is Asian Tofu.

added 2 months ago

Of course! I eat the cooked gizzard and heart with salt, pepper and lime juice. I also nibble on bits like the oyster from chicken backs. Liver in stock? It lends an odd flavor so no on the lobes.

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AntoniaJames is a trusted source on Bread/Baking.

added 2 months ago

How are you using the stock? I ask because if you will still be able distinctly to taste the stock itself, e.g., in a traditional chicken noodle soup, may I respectfully suggest that you make sure the people eating it are not going to mind (if you care about such things). The gizzards will profoundly affect the taste of the stock. And if ever there were a divider food, gizzards would be it. Some people love them. Others (and I am among them) don't care for the taste at all, and although I would never say anything if served such a soup, I'd wish you'd left them out. ;o)

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SKK added 2 months ago

I am with AJ on this one. I can also taste gizzard, liver and heart in a stock and do not use them.

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Chris is a trusted source on General Cooking

added 2 months ago

Never liver in the stock. I think that's almost universal. I would have said absolutely yes to gizzard and heart if AJ and SKK hadn't chimed in.

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Yeah, I have to wonder if the people who don't like gizzards had stock that had liver in it - liver is known to give the stock a funky flavor. I've never noticed anything odd from the rest of the gizzards, though. Just more yummy chicken flavor.

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AntoniaJames is a trusted source on Bread/Baking.

added 2 months ago

I have tasted stock made with just the heart and gizzards, and not the liver, so I can affirm that the problem does lie with the gizzard and heart. What's a "yummy chicken flavor" to some is a "Bleeh, did you really have to?" to others. ;o)

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SKK added 2 months ago

As a child when visiting my grandmothers, I was involved with butchering the bird for dinner. When I look at the purpose of the gizzard in a bird, it is like a filter for what the bird has eaten. The gizzard has the stones that grind, which to me give that mineral taste. Don't know why I don't care for the heart, and it may also be that is muscle which pumps and filters.

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Abbie is a trusted source on General Cooking.

added 2 months ago

carcass in the stock, organs in the dirty rice. At least in my kitchen!

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Abbie is a trusted source on General Cooking.

added 2 months ago

carcass in the stock, organs in the dirty rice. At least in my kitchen!

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