Living here in Israel, my food buying habits have somewhat changed (I haven’t yet been able to find a bulk supplier and the stores here are obviously different), but overall my approach to shopping frugally has stayed the same.
One strategy that I consistently apply is to buy and use primarily what is on sale or cheap. This past week, I saw that chicken gizzards were on sale. In the US, gizzards were about $3.29 a pound, so they were always too expensive to buy. But here, I was able to buy a kilo (2.2 pounds) for 7 shekels, which at about a dollar a pound, is the least expensive meat option I’ve seen so far. So true to my pattern, I bought ten kilos (22 pounds); a few days before I had bought all they had left, just five kilos.
I brought them home and immediately put them all in a large pot to cook. Gizzards take a long time to cook – if they are undercooked, they are chewy and have a not quite pleasant consistency – but if they are well cooked, they are as soft as butter and really tasty. The key to cooking gizzards is to cook them long enough, until they are very soft. My kids love these, and told me it’s their favorite kind of meat now!
The other thing about gizzards is they tend to be salty. They become less salty with cooking, but still are saltier than your average cut of chicken. The way I deal with this is that I use less salt in the recipe when I’m using gizzards, and it balances out well.
It takes the same amount of gas to cook a small amount as a large amount, so it made sense to cook all that I had at one time. That helps keep fuel costs down. Also, cooked chicken takes up less space in the freezer than raw chicken, so it’s more space efficient as well.
Once they were all cooked well, I drained them out, saving the gravy to cook with. I chopped them up since I plan to use them in various dishes and that’s the size that will work best. Then I bagged them into one kilogram packages, and froze them.
What can you do with chicken gizzards? Well, once prepared like this, you can use them in the same way you would use chopped chicken. There are so many possibilities, and utilizing these inexpensive chicken parts has been a very frugal and delicious addition to our meals. And preparing them in this way means that I have a nice supply in the freezer for a number of meals, ready to go!
Avivah
pass the corkabines! how many of you kids eat these?
All of them!
Wow I admire your work! I can not say that anyone in my home will eat gizzards if given an option ( myself included )…well DH might be a different story…what a bracha that your kids like it!!! Bonus the savings!!
Our kids aren’t picky eaters, but they do like good food. So if something tastes good, that’s what matters to them. And these taste great!
What don’t you like about them? When I was a kid I had them, and didn’t like them at all. But they weren’t cooked enough, and that was my association with them until I cooked them myself, and found they are really yummy! I didn’t have as much to freeze as I planned because my kids kept asking for permission to take some from the pot while they were still warm.
We live off of gizzards here! I usually get them for 6 shekel a kilo from Rami Levi, but you probably don’t have a Rami Levi in Karmiel…
I cook my gizzards in a pressure cooker- it goes much, much, much quicker. And then I freeze them for later use.
I don’t add any salt to them, and usually cook them with lots of water- that makes them less salty.
I save the water to make chicken soup.
I sometimes grind up my gizzards to use in place of ground meat in recipes, like in a pasta sauce, or stuffed peppers, etc.
I love that gizzards are so full of nutrition, and that they’re nearly as cheap as beans!
Sounds like you prepare them exactly as I described above. But I don’t have a pressure cooker, so I just cook them longer.
Nope, no Rami Levi, but at 7 shekels a kilo, they’re still cheaper than most of the beans, too!
Yes and no about being as cheap as beans. If you compare raw prices, perhaps, but not if you compare final prices. Beans at 10 shekel a kilo generally work out to about 3-5 shekel a kilo cooked, which would make the beans cheaper. More food for your money, but gizzards probably have more nutrition for your money.
Ronit!!
That sounds great for the next issue of Fun n’ Frugal! 🙂 🙂
Lol, don’t you know that Ronit was inspired by my blog for most of the frugal things she writes about? 🙂
Lol yes and no. I cooked gizzards long before I got married, let alone heard of Avivah, as a frugal meal. 😀
But Avivah truly is my inspiration in so many ways.
Avivah, it’s so nice you’ve added pictures to your blog posts!
Glad you like them, Michelle! For a long time I didn’t want the pressure of pictures being expected, and the very first time a pic was posted here was by my dh, when my ds2 was born. Since then I’ve only posted sporadically, but as time allows, I hope to add more pictures.
I have never cooked gizzards (I live in the US). Do you have to grind the up or can you make a stew or something similar? Can you cook them in a crockpot? THanks!
You can use them whole, chopped, or ground, depending on what you want to make. I’ve been thinking of keeping them whole next time and frying them after they’ve been cooked; there are some tasty looking recipes on food.com.
I slice my gizzards sometimes and make them into stir fry, or just stam cook them with other foods. The benefit of grinding gizzards is that they have a strong organ meat taste, so if you don’t like that taste, you can hide the taste better when you grind it and mix it with other things. Personally, my family and I love the taste of gizzards.
Avivah, I’m going to hijack your post here to ask you about chicken livers. Do you know how to prepare them? I have been wondering this for a long time. Also, do you think you’ll purchase a dryer? I’m just curious. (I asked elsewhere but I figured I’ll consolidate 🙂
I have never had chicken gizzards before, but I like cheap meat, so I’ll definitely try them out. I didn’t even know what they were before I read this (thanks, Wikipedia). They seem incredibly nutritious! I was a vegetarian for a long time (20+ years) and there’s so much that I need to try. Since we don’t do grains or legumes and not too much dairy, we’re always on the lookout for good meat or fish to buy. We’ll have to check out the Rami Levi here in J-lem for chicken gizzards! Anyone know what they are called in Hebrew?
I’m also really enjoying the pictures!
I’ve kashered beef liver, but not chicken livers – it’s the same process, though. Basically they have to be roasted and I think the easiest way to do it is to have a dedicated grill or disposable grill pan that is used.
I brought my dehydrator with me, but unfortunately listened to someone who told me to buy the converter here so it wouldn’t add additional weight to my luggage. The converter that in the US was $60 is 600 shekels here, and it’s the same one that I would use to run my grain grinder, which I also brought. So both of them are currently not in use.
Gizzards in Hebrew are called ‘kurkavan’, which I think sounds much nicer than gizzards. The thing I like least about gizzards is the name, lol!
I find them in Rami Levi under the name “Kurkevanim Petem”. The yiddish name for them, as many people know them, is pupiks.
Are gizzards what I’ve always heard called “pupiks”? I’ve only ever had them in chicken soup but they certainly are yummy that way!
(I think pupik is Yiddish for belly button, which of course chickens don’t actually have, so as a child I did wonder what they really were.)
Yes, it’s the same thing!
I guess it’s due to as a child being introduced to liver and had such a bad experience that I stay away from all organs…I can’t say that I avoid gizzards for a valid reason then lol I’d be willing to try sometime..
Interesting post! I love pipicks (what my grandma called them)! We too were told that it was the chickens belly button! I will try the slow cooking that you and others recommend! I have always baked these in the oven as my grandma did. My post can be found here:
http://salmonfishingqueen.wordpress.com/2012/08/25/theres-a-gizzard-in-my-gesiers/