Chicken Hearts

I know some of you here have them semi-regularly so I'm asking.

When I was a little girl, like 2 or 3 little, my mom would occasionally pick up a package at the grocery and cook them and toss them with noodles. I loved them! But then, no one sold them anymore.

Flash forward, after the intervening decades of scavenging the occasional heart out of the Thanksgiving turkey which was roasted nearly beyond all recognition ... but it was the only heart I could ever find ... our local grocery store suddenly got in a big display of packages of nothing but chicken hearts! Let me just say there was bouncing off of walls. So I now have a freezer with four or five packages of them because who knows if they'll continue to carry them?

Anyhow, my husband and son have been introduced to the awesomeness of the little cardiac units, and like them too. Yay!

We split one package in two. Marinated them in olive oil and garlic for an hour or so and then sauteed them in butter and some white wine with some more garlic and some chopped tomato before tossing the result with spaghetti. It was on the fly because there really isn't much to be found on chicken hearts.

So, if you have cooked them, what do you do with them?

originally posted by: ketsuko
I know some of you here have them semi-regularly so I'm asking.
When I was a little girl, like 2 or 3 little, my mom would occasionally pick up a package at the grocery and cook them and toss them with noodles. I loved them! But then, no one sold them anymore.

You weren't asking me as I've never eaten hearts but, I wanted to share a memory that your OP brought me.
When I was young my Mom used to make chicken liver and gizzards (in the pressure cooker) and toss them with noodles. Usually linguine or the wide egg noodles (something thick and toothsome). Occasionally she would fry them back before everything we fried was so bad for us.
Thanks for the memory!

I don't know about chicken heart.. but yesterday I bought a Beef heart from the farmer's market... probably going to cook it in some red wine ... last time I used the crock pot and told those whom asked it was Beef... it was tender and pretty good

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a reply to: ketsuko. Hi!
Sorry, I usually post on the computer & I can't get online the last few days, so I'm doing it from my phone. Everytime I tried to make a new paragraph it posted, but looked like it had disappeared! I thought I had posted from my phone before! Or is it a glitch today? This is funny because hubby & I love chicken hearts & I only just found them again after years of going without!
They were in the next town in a small grocery store. And it was packages of ALL hearts! They were always hearts & gizzards before if we could find them at all! I stocked up on them too!

I usually simmer them with green onions & sometimes some tomato. I would like it with rice in the broth, but hubby likes his rice on the side, so I just put rice in mine when I eat it. Your recipe sounds awesome, I'll have to try it! WOQ

originally posted by: nickneal7
I don't know about chicken heart.. but yesterday I bought a Beef heart from the farmer's market... probably going to cook it in some red wine ... last time I used the crock pot and told those whom asked it was Beef... it was tender and pretty good

Our grocery has beef heart regularly too, and we can sometimes get some from the butcher. We braise ours and add some barley to the final cook so soak up the extra liquid. The fresher you can get it the more tender beef heart is.

The other butcher of the two had some recently that was brined and smoked and then thinkly shaved and that was purely awesome too. It was sort of like the dried beef you could find in packages only with better flavor.

a reply to: ketsuko

If you put garlic and butter and white wine on a shoe it would taste good.! Can't go wrong with ingredients like those. I'm not a heart lover but I do love those little livers.
Bacon, onion, celery, brandy and butter makes a great pate.

My grandma loved the hearts, my mom the wings, my aunt the gizzards. We licked the platter clean like Jack Spratt and his wife.

I boil chicken hearts with rice, peas, and carrots for dog food.
She had allergy problems when I fed her the corn laden commercial stuff.
The heart is my favorite part of a deer. I've eaten them raw.

My wife is from Guadalajara and she cooks them in the oven. Take the hearts, a medium-sized chopped onion, and chopped cactus and salt to taste. Wrap in tinfoil and bake 40 minutes at 350 degrees. Serve with white corn torillas and frijoles cooked with chorizo. This is one of my favorite meals. It's also good with livers and gizzards. mmmmmm

originally posted by: nickneal7
I don't know about chicken heart.. but yesterday I bought a Beef heart from the farmer's market... probably going to cook it in some red wine ... last time I used the crock pot and told those whom asked it was Beef... it was tender and pretty good

I often cook beef heart and do not tell people what it is until they have eaten it!

It is really good flash fried in an Indian style cut into strips with chilli ginger and a decent masala.

originally posted by: nonspecific

originally posted by: nickneal7
I don't know about chicken heart.. but yesterday I bought a Beef heart from the farmer's market... probably going to cook it in some red wine ... last time I used the crock pot and told those whom asked it was Beef... it was tender and pretty good

I often cook beef heart and do not tell people what it is until they have eaten it!

I've done the same thing at barbecues with armadillos. It tastes like the best pork loin you could imagine, but people still freak out when they realize what they are eating.

I like the gizzards better myself, but I do eat the heart and look forward to these innards being in a chicken when I buy them.

I have seen all three available in packages at the store, gizzards, hearts, and livers.

a reply to: StopLookingAtMe

Hmmm, might have to try this one. Our grocery sells cactus and we can get chorizo at at least one of the two butchers.

a reply to: ketsuko

I recall from my childhood my mother preparing a home made soup in which she put both chicken hearts and gizzards.
I believe that at the time she was able to purchase them packaged together from the meat department of a local grocery, but there were always more gizzards than hearts in that mix. My sister and I both preferred the hearts and there would invariably be some conflict requiring that my mother make sure that we had equal numbers of hearts in our respective servings. We only ever ate them in the form of soup.

I no longer eat red meat or poultry, but I remember that we enjoyed the taste of the hearts and gizzards and were not averse to eating these poultry organs in any way. Beef tongue was another less common cut of meat that my mother served and was enjoyed by the entire family.

Thanks, OP, for reminding me of something I hadn't given thought to in years.

a reply to: ketsuko

I grew up with us butchering our own meats, or bartering with local farmers/ranchers for meats/dairy so I really relate to your question. When I was a kid, the coveted part of any turkey or chicken was the gizzard, liver and heart. Especially the heart -- that belonged to my Dad and him alone. When we hunted and killed animals for food on the table, the hunter got choice of parts. Thus, I was socialized into wanting the heart of gamebirds because that was obviously -- from my kid point-of-view -- the best part. If we killed a deer, elk or cow, we shared the heart, of course.

So I share your fondness for heart. Any time I am fortunate enough to get one (usually frozen turkey or fresh feral chickens), I like to saute some finely chopped garlic and then saute the heart or giblets in that. Ambrosia. Ocassionally we get tubs of frozen chicken livers from who-knows-where and I cook them by mixing equal parts of flour and cornstarch with enough water, hot sauces and seasonings to make a fairly thick slurry. I let that marinate for at least and hour and then drop them into very hot canola oil. Chicken livers served over mashed 'taids with a little pan gravy.

I envy you being able to get an entire container of hearts. Wild chickens are legion here and we kill and eat them and keep their numbers winnowed down. I may have to start saving the hearts to make a full meal after reading your thread!

Beef, deer or elk heart we treated as a small roast, first searing the surface in seasoned butter and then simmering in juices. Haven't had any of those in more than 20 years. Good Lord do I miss venison. *whine*

BBQ the chicken hearts on a grill with sauce, or shish-kabob them with some veggies!

originally posted by: ketsuko
So, if you have cooked them, what do you do with them?

I eat them as if they were snacks... way too good to spoil by mixing them in some meal.

Glad to see I'm not the only one who loves that delicacy!

a reply to: ketsuko

I mashed the liver raw, add melted butter, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, finely chopped celery, egg, and leave it in the fridge for hours (a day is even better). Then i make carrot soup, with sauteed onions and chicken gizzards, while boiling i add the liverballs.