I recently read about chicken gizzards in a dish where they played the role normally performed by snails. The dish combines braised duck gizzards with what appears to be a poached egg. The dish of inspiration can be viewed here, and is a product of the kitchen at Craft.
I read about the braised gizzards and just thought, brilliant. And now my mind has not stopped reeling with ideas and uses for gizzards: braised, smoked, pressure cooked, confit, tempura, in vinaigrette, alongside grits,
in garlic and herb butter with a side of griddled toast, in a ragout with egg yolk ravioli, atop risotto flavored with ginger and scallion, and perhaps dressed with a bit of bbq sauce.
I started by cleaning the gizzards. They were already butterflied and rinsed, so all I needed to do was trim them into manageable bites and then season them. I looked to Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing for a reliable quick cure for the gizzards. I added a puree of onion, garlic, crushed red pepper and a seasoning of the curing mix to the cleaned gizzards and then vacuum sealed the mixture to use a bit of pressure to expedite the curing.
Tomorrow we will begin cooking the gizzards. One of the many questions is how we will cook them? There are plenty so we will not necessarily be restricted to one variation. We may also opt to cure the gizzards a bit longer, though their small size may allow my lack of patience to be satisfied quickly. How can we make gizzards the perfect NFC Championship snack?
