The Spruce Eats: What Are Chicken Gizzards? Chicken gizzards, cut from the digestive tract of a chicken, are meaty morsels with a deep, how do you store cooked rice flavor. They are best cooked slowly at low heat.

Danilo Alfaro has published more than 800 recipes and tutorials focused on making complicated culinary techniques approachable to home cooks. Chicken gizzards are cut from the digestive tract of a chicken. A gizzard is a muscle found in the digestive tract of a chicken. If you’ve ever seen chickens pecking away at the ground, they are in fact swallowing tiny bits of grit and gravel, which travels through the chicken’s digestive tract and eventually lodges in the gizzard. Then when actual food arrives, this powerful little muscle contracts, like a tiny fist squeezing a handful of gravel. Gizzards are very small, with a distinctive taste that resembles dark chicken meat, but with a chewier and tougher texture. The best way to cook gizzards is slowly, with moist heat, at a low temperature.

That’s because if they hit high heat, as in a saute pan, the connective tissues will tighten up and squeeze the gizzards into chewy little balls of shoe leather. Instead, the goal is to cook them slowly over low heat—called braising—so that the connective tissues relax and melt away. Aim for between 180 and 205 F. Whatever you do, don’t let them boil or they’ll be tough.

After an hour or two of gentle braising, all that connective tissue will soften and turn into gelatin and the gizzards will be nice and tender. Slow cookers are great for braising gizzards. Each model is different, but use the low setting, which is around 210 F. It might take eight hours for it to reach that temperature, so refer to your manual. Since they’re muscles, gizzards are meaty little morsels, with a deep, rich, dark-meat chicken flavor. Gizzards can be added to anything: Tacos, enchiladas, bolognese sauce, and lasagna, not to mention soups, chili, and fried rice. They’re also terrific served slightly warm with a plate of greens.

If you buy gizzards from a local butcher or even better, a poultry farmer, ask if they’ve been cleaned or not. Commercial gizzards at the supermarket will be cleaned already. You should be able to find them separately, next to the hearts and livers and so on. But if you don’t see them, ask the butcher.

Fresh gizzards should be the last thing to go into your cart at the store—they should feel cold to the touch—and the first thing to go into the refrigerator when you get home. Place fresh gizzards in a disposable plastic bag to contain any leakage that could contaminate other foods. Store them in a refrigerator set to 40 F or below and use them within a day or two. You can also freeze them at 0 F and they will keep forever, but for the best quality, you should use gizzards within four months of freezing. A simple quick-cooking technique is to make extra food at one meal and freeze for future meals. Or, to prepare food ahead and freeze for enjoying at a later time. One easy method of freezing foods, including liquid foods such as soups and stews, is to freeze them in freezer bags.

If you’re making extra food at one meal for future meals, separate and refrigerate the portion to be served later BEFORE you put the food on the table. This keeps food quality higher by preventing “planned-overs” from becoming “picked-overs. It also helps keep food safe. Buy a thermometer at a discount, hardware, grocery store or other store that sells kitchen cooking tools. As a general guideline, eat perishable foods within four days or freeze them.

Freeze foods in portion sizes you’ll need for future meals. For example, if there are two in your family and you each eat a cup of rice for a meal, freeze in two-cup portions. Visit our Storage section for more information on which foods freeze well, how long to store foods in the freezer and MUCH MORE! Place a shallow container of food on a cooling rack to allow air to circulate all round the pan for about 20 to 30 minutes. Limit depth of food to 2 inches.

This allows heat to escape and protects the food from accidental contamination from other foods during cooling. Speed freezing and hasten thawing by freezing foods in a thin, flattened shape in freezer bags. A rounded shape takes longer to thaw through to the middle. Flatter packages also will stack better in your freezer.