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How to cook and use chicken, duck or turkey giblets to obtain the nutrient-dense health benefits without any fuss or complaining from your family.
As you ready your duck, chicken, or turkey for roasting, do you throw away or feed your pet the giblets that usually come tucked inside the bird?
The giblets can provide concentrated and hugely beneficial nutrition to your holiday meal. Why not use them instead of tossing them this year?
In this fourth of the five βTurkey Tipsβ I filmed a few years ago for the NBC Channel 8 Today Show here in Tampa (anchored by Gayle Guyardo), I show you how to very simply incorporate those giblets even if you are not the best of cooks.
The flavor is amazing when added toΒ homemade gravy drizzled over your favorite healthy stuffing recipe.
What are Giblets?
Giblets are the edible offal of fowl. Some people also include the neck too. Gram for gram, organ meat is far more nutritious than muscle meats.
- Neck βΒ great for adding additional flavor, color, and extra minerals to the gravy. You can simmer the neck on very low heat with some grass-fed butter while the turkey is roasting and then add the juice to the gravy drippings.
- Gizzard βΒ loaded with Vitamin A! The gizzard can be simmered along with the neck and then chopped up finely and blended into the gravy for additional flavor and trace minerals. For more information on the benefits of gizzards, check out this excellent article by Sally Fallon Morell.
- Heart βΒ the heart muscle contains the highestΒ concentration of Coenzyme Q10Β (CoQ10) of any food. CoQ10 is also known as ubiquinone.Β Levels of this nutrient begin to diminish as early as your 20βs and can affect your heart and brain health significantly as this nutrient is required for cellular energy.Β Turkey heart can be simmered with the other giblets in grass-fed butter. Tip: pork heart is very mild tasting, and when ground, can be mixed in small amounts with grass-fed beef.
- Liver βΒ liver is the worldβs number one superfood. Inexplicably, it has all but disappeared from the diet of Westerners. It is chock full of vitamins A, K2, antioxidants, and trace minerals. Traditional cultures viewed it as aΒ sacred foodΒ due to the health and fertility it bestowed on children and couples. It can be blended with the heart after simmering in butter with the other giblets. Mix in some additional butter with a few pulses of the food processor. Now you have a delicious and nutrient-dense pate spread for crackers. It is the perfect appetizer for your holiday meal.
A special thanks to Sally Fallon Morell, author of Nourishing Traditions Cookbook for suggesting some of the ideas for this video clip.
*The video below was originally filmed for NBC News Channel 8 in Tampa.
How to Cook Poultry Giblets
How to cook and use chicken, duck or turkey giblets to obtain the nutrient-dense health benefits without any fuss or complaining from your family.
Ingredients
- giblets from one turkey, duck, or chicken
- 2 tbsp butter
- sea salt
- pepper
- crackers optional
Instructions
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Remove giblets from the cavity of the bird and place them in a small pan.
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Simmer giblets uncovered with butter on very low heat. Add additional butter as needed.
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Remove pan from heat after giblets are soft and just cooked through. This will take longer for turkey giblets because they are larger.
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Drain the drippings from the giblet pan into a large skillet. Add the drippings from the roasted bird and blend together to make gravy.
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Chop up the cooked gizzard very finely and blend into the gravy when finished.
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Blend the cooked heart and liver in a food processor until smooth. Add sea salt and pepper to taste and serve on crackers.
Recipe Video
I always used all the giblets and neck from inside the turkey with carrots, celery, onion, salt, pepper and water in the pressure cooker for 30 min. I use this stock to make the stuffing and gravy. Everybody always loves it! (I eat the neck, liver and etc. when it cools from taking it out of the stock. YUM!) Learned this from my Mom.
I meant to you healthy home economist!!!!! Love my liver!
I’ll fight you for it! Lol
@Tracey if you’re not going to eat the liver with your turkey, can I have it? LOL
Best & VERY NUTRITIOUS! Thank you # HHE. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. You will be mentioned in my ‘thank you ‘s ‘ today. God bless …..
At my house the liver gets roasted in the pan with the turkey (and all the drippings). It obviously cooks faster than the turkey, so it becomes a treat for whoever is in the kitchen when the pan comes out for basting. I usually have to fight my dad for it!
Thank you Sarah… My mom did the same thing as others have mentioned above… Simmered and then used in the stuffing and gravy. I wish I had paid more attention back then to how she actually did it.
I enjoy crunching down the neck. The bones are soft and provide an excellent source of the calcium compound calcium phosphate. The only other good source is this type of calcium is bone broth, thanks to even organic foods being grown on depleted soils. Eating bones in part makes up for having calcium deficient foods we are all subject to, the few exceptions aside.
Plus the neck contains marrow. Traditional Chinese medicine considers marrow as a longevity food.
My Granny simmers them with onion, celery and water and then it all goes into the stuffing. Everyone eats it.
Everything in here are all great. Thank you so much for sharing this video. Turkey giblets are useful and can be made into delicious recipe.