How to Cook Chicken Gizzards (Tender Broth Method for Beginners)

Many of us feel unsure about organ meats — especially when we don’t know how to prepare them in a way that actually tastes good.

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to turn tough chicken gizzards into tender, ready-to-use meat while creating a deeply nourishing broth at the same time. It’s a simple, reliable method that gives you a flavorful base for soups, stews, and easy family meals.

You’ll learn how to properly clean and prepare gizzards, how to simmer a simple gizzard broth, how to store or freeze them for later, and plenty of practical ways to add them to meals your family already loves. I’ll also walk you through common problems (like tough or chewy gizzards) so you can cook them with confidence every time.

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Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Designed for busy family life. The gizzards slowly simmer in the broth while you are busy with other things, making a basis for multiple meals from one cooking session.
• Forgiving and flexible. This recipe works with fresh or previously cleaned gizzards and because gizzards are full of collagen, they won’t overcook if you let them simmer a little longer.
• Makes your weekly meal prep easier. You cook the gizzards once, then use them in recipes all week. Or you can also portion them out and freeze for future dishes.
• Builds confidence in traditional cooking. You learn how to slowly simmer one of the most tender and mildest-tasting of all organ meats, which can then be sliced and added to various dishes.

What Chicken Gizzards Are

Chicken gizzards are a type of organ meat that help chickens break down and digest their food — since chickens don’t have teeth. To aid digestion, chickens often swallow small stones or grit, which sit in the gizzard and help grind up their meals.

If you peek at your chickens in the evening (my kids love to do this), you might notice a slight bulge in their necks — that’s their gizzards at work! Chickens naturally eat a lot before bedtime so they have something to digest overnight. Gizzard may be small, but they are surprisingly strong and muscular organs, working hard at digesting food every day.

Why Eat Chicken Gizzards

Gizzards are a wonderful addition to heritage cooking. Like all organ meats, they’re nutrient-dense, widely available, and usually one of the most affordable parts of the chicken. They are packed with protein (especially collagen), as well as vitamin B12, iron, zinc, and phosphorus. Unlike liver or kidneys, which have strong flavors that some people need to get used to, gizzards are mild and approachable. Cooked gizzards are a little more chewy than chicken thighs, but their flavor is gentle and pleasant — making them an ideal starting point if you want to include organ meats in your diet.

They’re also perfect for families. When I was a child, gizzards were the only organ meat my siblings and I ate without fuss — my grandma always cooked them in chicken soup. Because we grew up eating them, gizzards felt just as normal as drumsticks or chicken breasts. That’s the approach I recommend: treat gizzards (and offal in general) as a regular part of your cooking rotation. For young children, this helps them grow up seeing organ meats as everyday food. For older kids or adults, simply slice or chop them into smaller pieces until they get used to the texture.

While this tutorial focuses on chicken gizzards, the same method works for duck, turkey, or other gizzards — just adjust the cooking time according to their size.

Ingredients

• 700g (1.5 lbs) raw chicken gizzards. You can use any amount you like, but 700 grams raw gizzards when cooked will weigh approx. 500g (1lb) which is a good amount for a soup, fried rice, or main dish salad for a family of 5.
• Water
• Salt
• Aromatics (onion, garlic, bay leaf, peppercorns, carrot, celery)

You can also use turkey, duck, or goose gizzards in this recipe. They all need to prepared and cooked in basically the same way, although gizzards from larger birds like turkey benefit from being halved before cooking, and will take longer to cook to tenderness than chicken gizzards.

When using gizzards from older birds, such as spent layer hens be aware that they will be tougher and will take longer to cook. Once cooked, they will become very tender, so you just need patience.

Tools & Equipment

• Medium or large cooking pot with lid
• Knife and cutting board
• Spoon
• Strainer or slotted spoon

How to Prep And Cook Gizzards Step-By-Step

Choose Your Starting Point

• If using store-bought cleaned gizzards → skip to removing fat (Step 5)
• If using home-butchered birds → follow full cleaning steps
• Both methods end in the same cooking process, but cleaning home-butchered birds requires some extra initial steps.

Timing & Flexibility Options

• Same-day option: if you start cleaning the gizzards in the morning, they will be cooked and ready to eat by lunchtime.
• Overnight or make-ahead option: you can prep and cook the gizzards, then let them cool in the broth. Refrigerate the broth with the gizzards in overnight, then slice or portion them into freezer bags the next day.
• You can also cook the gizzards in broth in a crockpot overnight.

Crockpot Method (Slow Cooker)

1. Step 1: Add ingredients to the crockpot
   Place the cleaned gizzards in the crockpot. Add onion, garlic, celery, bay leaf, peppercorns, and salt. Pour in enough filtered water to cover the gizzards by about 2 inches.
2. Step 2: Cook low and slow
   Cover and cook on low for 6–8 hours, or until the gizzards are fork-tender.
3. Step 3: Strain and cool
   Carefully strain the broth into a separate container and transfer the gizzards to a bowl. Let them cool enough to handle. Slice or chop as needed for your recipe.

Instant Pot Method (Pressure Cooker)

1. Step 1: Add ingredients to the Instant Pot
   Place the cleaned gizzards in the Instant Pot. Add onion, garlic, celery, bay leaf, peppercorns, and salt. Pour in enough filtered water to cover the gizzards by about 2 inches.
2. Step 2: Pressure cook
   Seal the lid and cook on High Pressure for 30 minutes. Once done, allow a Natural Pressure Release for 10 minutes, then carefully release any remaining pressure.
3. Step 3: Strain and cool
   Strain the broth into a separate container and transfer the gizzards to a bowl. Let them cool, then slice or chop as needed.

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How to Avoid Common Mistakes (Tips For Tender Gizzards)

• Gizzards seem tough: they simply need more time to cook. Continue simmering them gently until fork-tender (until they can be easily pierced with a fork).
• Broth looks cloudy: this is normal with organ meat broths. Gizzard broth will always look cloudy and a little dark. If you want a really clear broth for your soup, make a broth with raw chicken bones and use it in your gizzard soup instead of the gizzard simmering broth. The gizzard broth can be used in stews or blended soups, where its cloudiness won’t matter.
• Strong flavor: if you include aromatics (onion, garlic, celery, etc.) in your gizzard cooking liquid, the resulting broth should have a mild, pleasant flavor. However, if it is still too strong-tasting for you, you can dilute it later with chicken broth or use it in stews or other spiced dishes where its flavor will not be detectable.
• Forgot aromatics: no worries, you can add the flavor in the final dish, like a stew or soup. One note here is that if you cook raw gizzards in plain water, your kitchen will smell a bit ‘gizzard-y’ because you are not using aromatic vegetables which would mask the smell of gizzards. Just pop your kitchen window open:)

Storage, Freezing & Leftovers

Gizzards freeze and store very well when handled properly. The key is moisture control, air removal, and proper portioning.

Raw Gizzards

• In the refrigerator: Store them for 1—2 days for best quality in a covered glass or stainless steel container (not in the original packaging). If they are sitting in liquid, pat them dry before storing.
• If you won’t cook them soon, freeze immediately — don’t wait. Organ meats degrade faster than muscle meats, so need to be used up fairly quickly or frozen.
• If they smell slightly metallic but not sour, that’s normal for gizzards. Rinse them before cooking.
• In the freezer: Trim and clean you gizzards first, then freeze in meal-size amounts so you don’t thaw more than needed. Freeze for 4–6 months for best texture.
• I like to spread gizzards on baking sheets first for flash freezing before packing them into freezer bags. They don’t clump together this way and I can remove only as many as I need that day.
• To prevent freezer burn, either vacuum seal them, place them in freezer bags with air pressed out, or wrap tightly in parchment, then foil, then place in a ziplock bag.

Cooked gizzards

• In the refrigerator: let them cool fully, then store in an airtight container and use within 3–4 days.
• I usually like to keep them in the cooking broth so they don’t dry out.
• In the freezer: For best texture, freeze for 3–4 months maximum.
• You can freeze them in the cooking broth.
• Or you can freeze them flat in ziplock bags with air squeezed out. You can chop or slice them first for ready-to-use meals, depending on how you like to eat them.
• To thaw gizzards, place them in the refrigerator overnight.

Variations & Adaptations

Seasonal Additions

• You can vary which aromatics you use in your broth base, depending on what you have available in the garden or in the market.
• In spring, use young carrots, fresh parsley, spring onions, or dill.
• In summer, add fresh herbs like parsley, basil, thyme, or oregano.
• In winter, you can include mushrooms, sage, bay leaf, leeks, onions, or root vegetables.

Flavor Variations

• Simple salted broth: If you dont have any veggies on hand, you can cook gizzards in just salt and water. This is perfect if you plan to reuse gizzards in dishes where they will be seasoned and spiced anyway, like stir fries and soups.
• Herb garden: add parsley stems, thyme sprigs, and garlic to the cooking liquid. This makes an aromatic broth, great for lighter dishes.
• Ginger and garlic: use fresh ginger slices plus garlic. This is a great option if you plan to use the gizzards later in Chinese cooking, for example in stir-fries or noodle dishes.

Simple Adjustments

• Cook whole, cut later. This is my preferred option for the simple reason that gizzards are much easier to slice or dice when cooked.
• Slice for sautéing later in fat or butter. This will give the sautéed gizzards browned edges and a crispy texture.
• Dice very small if planning to use them in soups, stuffing, meat mixtures, or rice dishes.
• Leave whole for use in hearty stews and chunky soups. This happens to be my favorite option because it requires no work:) Cooked gizzards are quite small in size, so in my opinion there is no real need to cut them into pieces if you are making soups or stews with them – unless your family objects to the way they look and is more likely to eat them up when sliced and less ‘alien-looking’.

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Recipe FAQ

Serving Ideas

There are so many ways to enjoy chicken gizzards! Here are a few of my favorite ways to use them in everyday meals:

• Add to vegetable soups. Chop finely and stir in during the last 10–15 minutes. I especially love this simple Polish style gizzard soup.
• Stir into stir fries or fried rice. Slice thin and crisp quickly in a hot pan before adding in the other ingredients.
• Mix into stews. Especially good in slow-simmered dishes with root vegetables, beans, or tomatoes. Gizzards are best used raw in stews, so they can absorb the flavors as they slowly simmer. If I want to make a stew, I will cook the gizzards, aromatics, and spices in broth for about 60-90 minutes first before adding any vegetables.
• Use as a filling. Chop them and add to savory pies, hand pies, dumplings, or stuffed peppers.
• Make a warm salad topping. Crisp in a pan and serve over greens with mustard vinaigrette. In my opinion gizzards taste best when warm, not cold, so I would personally use them in warm salads.

Don’t Waste the Cooking Broth

The broth from cooking gizzards is deeply savory and mineral-rich, and can be used in any recipe that calls for broth, bone broth, or stock. You can use it:

• In soups and stews.
• As a base for gravies and pan sauces.
• To cook rice, grains, or legumes – I always cook rice in broth, not water, to make it more nutritious.
• For braising vegetables or meats.
• To enrich sauces, reductions, or pan deglazing.
• As a nourishing hot drink, especially when you are feeling a little under the weather (season it to taste).
  
  

A Simple Skill Worth Learning

For many people, the biggest obstacle to eating organ meats is the fear that they’ll turn out tough or unappetizing if not prepared correctly. The good news is that learning to cook offal properly is usually quite simple — and once you know how, you can easily add it to dishes your family already enjoys.

Now that you know how to prepare gizzards and make a simple broth, you can start adding them to stir-fries, main-dish salads, and soups. You can even use raw, cleaned gizzards in stews you’d normally make with beef or lamb. If you need a simple and delicious recipe, try my nourishing, farmhouse-style chicken gizzard soup.

If you loved learning how to cook gizzards and want more practical tips for nourishing, traditional meals your family will actually eat, subscribe to my weekly newsletter. Each week, I share easy real-food recipes, step-by-step cooking tutorials, and time-saving kitchen hacks — all written for busy moms like you who want to bring wholesome, heritage cooking into everyday family life.

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