How To Prepare Chicken Hearts
In this short tutorial I show you how to prepare chicken hearts for cooking and I offer suggestions for adding them into recipes.
Equipment
- sharp paring knife
Ingredients
- 1 kg chicken hearts
Instructions
- Remove the thin, slippery membrane covering the heart. I usually pierce a hole in it with the point of my knife, pull it off, and once it comes off, I use the knife to slice it off at the point where it is attached to the heart (which is near the top of the heart).
- Cut off just the tip of the heart to remove the arteries.
- Cut the heart in half and remove any large blood clots. (This step is optional - they can be also cooked whole.)
- Voila! The heart is ready for cooking. Repeat the above steps with the rest of the hearts.
Notes
It takes me about 20 minutes to prepare 1kg (2.2 pounds) chicken hearts. This amount is enough for a substantial dinner for our family of five, served with rice and some vegetables.
The quickest way to cook chicken hearts:
- Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over medium high heat.
- Add the prepared hearts (whole or halved), season with salt and freshly ground pepper and saute over medium high heat for a few minutes until cooked through. Stir a couple of times to ensure even cooking.
- Serve hot with some crusty sourdough bread.
- mince the hearts and add to ground beef
- add to soups and broths
- stir fry with some vegetables
- serve cooked hearts in warm salads
- add chopped cooked hearts to sandwich fillings
- use as part of stuffing for roast chicken
- add to rice and use to stuff peppers or courgettes