Now you can easily make tender chicken or turkey gizzards with your electric pressure cooker.
How To Pressure Cook Chicken or Turkey Gizzards
Some people consider offals like chicken gizzards and hearts as nasty bits 🙂 They are usually the “Unwanted”. All these nasty bits including kidney, beef tripe, livers are popular in Asia. My mom cooked them often when we were kids. That’s probably how I got used to this.
WHAT ARE GIZZARDS?
Gizzards are like the second stomach in many birds. They are pretty muscular and it helps to breakdown seeds and other tough foods. It’s like a grinder for the birds.
Chicken Gizzards
Turkey Gizzards. Almost 3-4 times the size of chicken gizzards
WHY I LIKE GIZZARDS
1. INEXPENSIVE
One pound of the mixture of chicken gizzards and hearts (mostly gizzards) only cost me less than $2.50.
2. NUTRITIOUS
They are low in calories, high in protein, low in fat, and zero carbs
3.5 oz of gizzards has about 95 calories, 5 grams of protein, 0.6 grams of fat, 0 carbs,
3. TASTY (really?) Really!
They don’t really taste like chicken. It’s like meat with a firm texture. When you properly cook them they are not tough or chewy. When they are tough and chewy, they aren’t cooked long enough yet
HOW TO CLEAN GIZZARDS
There isn’t much you need to do to clean chicken gizzards. Here’s how:
1. For large size gizzards like turkey, cut the gizzards in half
2. Rinse with water to get rid of any sediments or tough seeds you may see
3. If you see any yellowish membrane on the outside, simply cut or peel it off and remove it
4. Trim off any excess lining (whitish in color) or fat if you see any with kitchen shears
BOILING VS PRESSURE COOKING GIZZARDS
Boiling chicken gizzards on the stove takes a long time, 45 minutes or 1 hour (sometimes longer). Using an electric pressure cooker like Instant Pot makes the gizzards tender in 25 minutes (cooking time), about 15 minutes total (to pressurize and depressurize). It may not necessarily shorter in time, but it’s way convenient and I can set and forget.
HOW TO COOK GIZZARDS IN INSTANT POT PRESSURE COOKER
1. After cleaning the gizzards, place them in the inner pot of Instant Pot
2. Pour in 1 cup of water or chicken stock (or use more if you plan to make a soup). Season with a bit of salt or spices/herbs of your choice if you like
3. Close the lid and turn the steam release valve to “sealing”
4. Press “pressure cooker” and make sure it’s on high pressure and set the timer to 25 minutes
5. When it’s done, let it depressurized naturally, about 10 minutes
6. The gizzards are fully cooked and ready to be used in your other recipes
RECIPE IDEAS
My mom used to make Indonesian Potato Sambal with Liver and Gizzards
You can also use them in noodle soup like this Duck Noodle Soup (Ak Bihun)
You can also include them in a braised pork recipe like this braised pork in soy sauce recipe
You can also use this crispy batter recipe to coat the pre-cooked gizzards
How To Pressure Cook Chicken Gizzards
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken gizzards sometimes come with hearts too
- 1 cup water or chicken broth more if you want to make it into soup
Seasonings:
- Salt to taste
Optional herbs:
- Bay leaves
- 1 inch ginger slices
Instructions
- After cleaning the gizzards, place them in the inner pot of Instant Pot. Pour in 1 cup of water or chicken stock (or more if you want to make it into soup). Season with a bit of salt or spices/herbs of your choice if you like
- Close the lid and turn the steam release valve to “sealing”. Press “pressure cooker” and make sure it’s on high pressure and set the timer to 25 minutes. When it’s done, let it depressurized naturally, about 10 minutes. The gizzards are fully cooked and ready to be used in your other recipes
15 comments
I used this recipe to cook my gizzards. I used 1 cup of chicken broth and added additional spices. 1 teaspoon Italian season, ½ teaspoon garlic powder, ½ teaspoon onion powder, ½ teaspoon smokey paprika, ¼ teaspoon cayenne powder, Salt n Pepper to taste. They were great, very tender and flavor able.
I’m glad it worked out! I love the seasonings you add to it!!
The instructions on the body copy are confusing. You write: “Using an electric pressure cooker like Instant Pot makes the gizzards tender in 25 minutes (cooking time), about 15 minutes total (to pressurize and depressurize).” It’s more than 15 minutes total.
The 15 minutes is an estimated time it takes to pressurize and depressurize the cooker, for example 5 minutes to pressurize and 10 minutes to release pressure completely is what I mean. Of course, this is not always exactly the time for everything we cook, but just referring to this specific recipe. The 25 minutes is the time we set the cooker to cook. I hope that helps to clarify.
This is a game changer for gizzards! No longer tough! Thanks!
I’m glad it worked out for you 🙂 I no longer cook gizzard on the stove after I own a pressure cooker 🙂
I like chicken gizzards. This recipe is great! I’ve also been making them for my 🐶 dogs, for a healthy more natural treat. 1 1/2 pounds makes about a week wroth for my little critters.
Perfectly cooked! No more hours on the stove! We like them in white peppered gravy over mashed potatoes! It was our dinner tonight. Thanks!
I just love chicken gizzards! The only thing I change is, after they are pressure cooked, I dip them in an egg wash and bread them. with House of Autry chicken breading from Amazon. I then deep fry them for about 2-3 minutes until crisp and golden brown.
Hi Scotty, I love breaded and fried chicken gizzards too! So good!! Thanks for sharing!
I sauté them until they brown, deglaze, put a little water, about 1/3 their height, salt, pepper, pressure-cook them 15 minutes, NR 10 minutes, and eat them with a side dish.
If I have 2 pounds of gizzards, should I double a water amount and cooking time? Thank you!
Hi Tatiana, yes you want to add more water to cover the gizzards. You don’t need to double the cooking time. It will just take longer to pressurize the cooker since it has more volume in there, but the cooking time will remain the same. I hope this helps.
Hi. When you say they’re ready to be used in other recipes, do you mean they’re fully cooked or not? I need them to be partially cooked, to then be sauteed with onions for stew. I’m trying to save time by pressure cooking part of the way so I don’t have to sautee for hours it usually.
Hi Luda, they will be fully cooked. If you only want partially cooked, you can half the amount of time.