Gizzards are loved in African cuisine. In fact, in some Kenyan communities, they are so highly priced to the extent that they are reserved and always served to the head of the household (husband). I love this chicken gizzard recipe because I find myself, sometimes, struggling with the taste and aroma of the gizzards.
First things first, before you start cooking your gizzards, it’s important to ensure that they are well cleaned. Gizzards normally have a yellow membrane on the inside, this should always be removed. They also have quite a bit of fat on them so it’s important to trim it off completely, otherwise, it will render the end product unpalatable – who wants all that oily substance floating on their sumptuous gizzards stew.
You will start by boiling the gizzards in salted water along with beef cubes, garlic, onions and ginger. This is the first layer of flavour that you will be imparting into them. The second step of the recipe (and the most important for me) is to deep fry the chicken gizzards. This will kill/camouflage all that “gizzardy” aspect that can be off putting for some people.
Lastly, I make a very tasty sauce where I finish off the gizzards. I leave them to simmer in this sauce for about 5 minutes so that they can absorb all that goodness and then I serve. I always make sure that I drizzle freshly squeezed lemon juice so that I awaken all those flavours with a burst of citrus goodness.
Ingredients
- 750g Chicken Gizzards
- 5 Cloves garlic
- 4″ ginger
- 3 Green chilies
- 4 Beef cubes
- Bunch of Dhania (coriander) leaves inclusive of the stalks
- Bunch of spring onions
- 1/2 Green bell pepper
- 2 tomatoes
- 3 medium sized onions
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1Tbs Curry powder
- 2Tbs vegetable oil
- Enough oil for deep frying
- salt to taste
Step 1: Preparation of the Gizzards
Directions
- Start by bruising the ginger and 2 cloves of garlic to enable them release their maximum flavour.
- Quarter one of the onions.
- Place the gizzards in a saucepan that’s large enough to accommodate them and to that add bruised garlic, ginger, two beef cubes and the quartered onion. Add enough water to cover the gizzards, cover and leave to simmer for 15-20 minutes.
- Drain the gizzards on kitchen paper to remove excess water and set aside.
- Heat oil in a frying pan on medium heat. When it comes to temperature fry the gizzards for three minutes or until they acquire a light golden brown colour and drain them on a kitchen paper.
Step 2: How To Prepare the Sauce
Directions
- Blend the tomatoes to a puree.
- In a pestle and mortar crush the remaining ginger, garlic and the green chilies into a paste.
- Heat the vegetable oil in a sauce pan on medium heat and the add the onion and sautee them for 5 minutes until they just turn translucent.
- Add the paste of green chilies, ginger and garlic to the sauce pan and after about a minute add the curry powder. Cook for a minute to get rid of the raw taste and aroma of the curry powder.
- Add the tomato puree and a cup of water along with the remaining beef cubes. Cover and leave to simmer for 5 minutes to cook off the raw taste of tomatoes.
- Mix the royco in a bit of cold water and add to the sauce and it is now ready.
Step 3: Combining the Gizzards and Sauce
Directions
- Add the gizzards to the sauce together with the white part of the spring onions and leave to simmer for five minutes to absorb all the flavours.
- Add the hoho (green bell pepper) and dhania leaves (coriander) and simmer for 30 seconds and turn off heat.
- Serve while hot and squeeze fresh lemon juice on them.
- Garnish with dhania leaves and spring onions (the top green part)
These chicken gizzards can be accompanied with ugali, rice, matoke or chapati.
I have really enjoyed the recipe. Unfortunately i used the same water that had remined after boiling the gizzards instead of using fresh water….Lol… so much for saving my gizzards ended up being too salty despite the fact that i did not add salt and royce but i intsead used corn flour to thicken the soup. great lesson learnt..
Hi, the beauty about cooking is that you can always go back and correct, improve, discard, tweak, etc, any of the recipes that we work on. Glad that you are choosing to dust yourself off and try again. Thanks for trying out my recipe.