Tips on how to properly clean chicken hearts for omnivores, those who are losing weight and those who are squeamish

Those who have never cooked chicken hearts often doubt that they will be able to prepare the product correctly: it looks suspicious on the substrate, and it is not entirely clear which way to approach its preparation. What should stay in the trash and what should go in the frying pan – that’s what we’ll tell you about in this article.

For omnivores

In fact, the hearts you buy in the store have already been processed, and absolutely everything you see is edible. A couple of uncut vessels or a blood clot will not harm you, but it may slightly undermine the aesthetics of the finished dish.

So what should you do if you want to get maximum results with minimum effort?

• First, rinse the hearts thoroughly (however, this advice is valid for any meat).
• There is no need to clean the hearts from a thin film that you can hardly notice, but you do need to sort through the chicken hearts: often in the mass you come across other offal, both suitable and unsuitable for consumption. Even if you find a piece of liver or gizzard, you should not cook them together with hearts, since the cooking time for these products is different. Besides the question how to clean chicken gizzards requires a special approach.
• As you sort the product, remove long strands of fibers, which sometimes stretch 5-8 centimeters. Again, there's nothing harmful about them, but they can make the finished dish quite awkward to eat.

Advice

In the finished dish, blood clots are practically undetectable, and some even believe that they add piquancy to the dish and simply refuse to remove them of their own free will.

For those losing weight

Chicken hearts could be called a dietary dish if they belonged to backyard chickens that have access to physical activity. The products you find in the store certainly cannot boast of low fat content, since the conditions in which chickens are kept in poultry farms contribute to the formation of significant fat deposits.

So what do you do if you're on a diet and don't want all that fat in the pan?

• First, you need to repeat all the manipulations that we described in the section above: rinse and sort the chicken hearts, clearing them of thread-like fibers.
• Now let's add one more step: you will have to trim the fat from each heart. Yes, the process is quite painstaking, but reducing fat in the diet is worth it. Try not to touch the muscular part: if you decide to clean the chicken hearts from fat, then it can already amount to up to a fifth of the weight of the purchase.

Advice

Not all chicken hearts are covered in so much fat that it needs to be trimmed off. If you want to completely remove fat from the product, you will spend an unreasonably large amount of effort and, most likely, cut off some muscle tissue, reducing the weight of the finished dish by at least a quarter.

For the squeamish

If you get cold feet at the thought of finding an uncut vessel or blood clot in the finished product, you will have to get rid of them as well.

First, repeat the steps indicated in the sections for omnivores and losing weight, as they are basic for you too.

Now, while cutting off excess fat, remove unsightly vessels. All this can be done in one movement with a knife, so the process should not take much time.

All that remains is to get rid of the clots, which, by the way, are not found in every heart. They are usually clearly visible: an almost black clot is visible from under the pink muscle tissue. There are two ways to get rid of them: squeeze out a lump from the cut heart or soak the product in warm water so that the blood thins and comes out on its own. The first method is faster, the second is more thorough, but it’s up to you to decide which one to use.

Advice

The most meticulous ones cut the chicken hearts in half to rinse them thoroughly from the inside as well. Although sometimes the recipe simply requires it.

When choosing hearts, remember that the refrigerated product can be stored for no more than 48 hours, and the frozen base should have a minimum of ice.

Preparing chicken hearts greatly depends on how picky you are, because absolutely everything in the heart, from fat and blood vessels to blood and muscle tissue, is edible: the only important thing is what of it you want to see on your plate.

We advise you to read the article about how to quickly defrost meat