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Chicken Kidneys


liuzhou

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Chicken Kidneys.jpg

 

I'm not entirely sure why, but I picked up a load of chicken kidneys at the market today. An impulse buy. I often do chicken livers but never kidneys as a dish.

 

Any suggestions on recipes or tips? Mr. Google is surprisingly reticent about revealing his secrets.

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

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Yes - these are often served in izakaya places, simply salted and grilled on a skewer.

Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

Tasty Travails - My Blog

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Was it you baby...or just a Brilliant Disguise?

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Gizzards. They don't function as kidneys in chickens.

 

Pressure cook them first, then use in stir fries.

 

They make wonderful stock.

 

 

dcarch

.

 

Ditto to all, except I don't do pressure-cooking.  I don't think I've (personally) ever seen chicken kidneys offered for sale anywhere.  I might sometimes find them still nestled on the interior against the backbone in whole chickens I buy.

 

Also, sometimes I chop them up finely and add to chicken liver sauces that I make.  Or toss them (sliced up) back into the stock when I make chicken soup or Hainanese Chicken &etc. 

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They are NOT gizzards. I cook and eat gizzards often, These are kidneys. Very tender, unlike gizzard. 

The kidneys are nestling inside what you see. I'll trim them out in the morning and take a picture. Too late now. 

Edited by liuzhou (log)

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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Thank you so kindly. As I have pointed out, I know what chicken gizzards are and look like.

 

(By the way, do you know how Google image search works? It is very unreliable. It will return any image on any page which includes the text "chicken gizzards". If I post a picture on my website saying "these are not chicken gizzards", that picture will turn up in the chicken gizzard search. Really useful.) 

 

In the meantime, supposing I have dreamed up these kidneys from nowhere, which I know I haven't; please just one for one minute imagine that I really have bought chicken kidneys. And if you did so, too, how would you cook them?

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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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A pate possibly, or use them to thicken a sauce that would go with, say, vegetables and rice. I remember this from some of Paula Wolfert's work; I think it's a Moroccan technique. I'll post more when I get a chance, but it will be much later today (tomorrow for you, liuzhou). You might try going to her website for inspiration.

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Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
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How do chicken kidneys compare to lamb kidneys in taste and texture? In The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating Henderson has a quick sauté of lamb's kidneys that he serves on toast, so maybe something like that?

 

lamb kidneys are not that soft...I just love a recipe from Hugh F Whittingstall of spicy lentils and lamb kidneys, very tasty, maybe it would work here.

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I imagine you could probably sub chicken kidneys for the pork kidneys called for here: http://ediblyasian.info/recipes/szechuan-pork-kidneys

I'm trying to recall exactly where I saw kidneys on a menu. That I can't suggests to me that it was some time ago. All I know is that it was some flavor of Chinese, but I can't remember when that was. Sorry to be of no help.

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Liuzhou,

You will need to clean the kidneys and soak them in salted water for around 30 min (you may add a slice of ginger). After that pat dry and fry over high heat in clarified butter with garlic and persil for about two minutes. Alternatively, with ginger and finely sliced scallions in neutral oil and add a tiny bit of Zhenjiang vinegar at the end. Anything longer than two minutes will result in a rather "al dente" experience ...

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This morning I was finishing off my translation of the contents of the Bite of China recipe book. As I turned yet another page, I was delighted to find a recipe for a Chicken Kidney soup.

 

The ingredients are Carrot, Water Chestnut, Chicken Kidney, Chinese Yam, Goji Berries, Dangshen, Yellow Bamboo Skin, Ginger Salt and Cooking Wine.

 

This encouraged me to do what I should have done in the first place - interrogate Mr Google in Chinese. Sure enough a whole load of recipes are there. I'm off to read them.

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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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Congratulations!  Please tell us more as you find it out.  I'll be interested to hear what you do with your purchase.

Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
HosteG Forumsnsmith@egstaff.org

Follow us on social media! Facebook; instagram.com/egulletx; twitter.com/egullet

"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

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