'Tis Hunting Time—A smallish blog

[Smithy]

Remind me please about the fried and then pressure cooked chicken gizzards. I have a couple quarts of giblets that friends gave me from their farmer's market chickens. The first batch I cooked (stir fried) had a strange taste and I ended up giving most of them to the dog. Since then I've read that the gizzards have to be cleaned first...which I didn't do.

 

So, please describe your procedure again?

 

(And yes to carby not crabby ... but my autocorrect does plenty of strange things!)

[Shelby]

5 minutes ago, Smithy said:

Remind me please about the fried and then pressure cooked chicken gizzards. I have a couple quarts of giblets that friends gave me from their farmer's market chickens. The first batch I cooked (stir fried) had a strange taste and I ended up giving most of them to the dog. Since then I've read that the gizzards have to be cleaned first...which I didn't do.

 

So, please describe your procedure again?

 

(And yes to carby not crabby ... but my autocorrect does plenty of strange things!)

Yeah they do need to be cleaned well.  The ones I buy are either from the grocery store or the Asian Market--the Asian Market ones are always nicely cleaned.  I rinse them all in cold water and comb through them to make sure, though.  I'll refer again to my hero Hank Shaw--he has a tutorial on cleaning gizzards here .  I always soak mine in buttermilk for a while before frying, too.  I believe it helps tenderize them a bit.  I dump a bunch of flour in a gallon ziplock and add a copious amount of Lawry's salt and black pepper.  Like really dump a lot more than you think.  Mix that all together well.  I don't dump all the gizzards in at once because it becomes a gummy mess.  Just dredge a few at a time.  I use a cast iron pan.  Fill with enough veg. oil so that it can fry but not a ton.  I probably do 1 1/2 to 2 inches?  Then heat up the oil and fry turning over once to do both sides.  You don't have to worry if they're done enough--just get a nice crisp like fried chicken.  Once fried, drain on a paper towel--I put paper towels on a big square pan.  After frying they can wait a while until you're ready to pressure cook them if you wish.  When ready, I fill the instant pot with a cup of water and place the gizzards on a stand--I'll take a picture tomorrow.  I might actually use two IP's just so they aren't so packed full.  Pressure cook for 40 mins quick release.  These won't be crunchy but they will be tender and delicious.  KFC back in the day used to make these and they were wonderful.

[KennethT]

33 minutes ago, Shelby said:

Yeah they do need to be cleaned well.  The ones I buy are either from the grocery store or the Asian Market--the Asian Market ones are always nicely cleaned.  I rinse them all in cold water and comb through them to make sure, though.  I'll refer again to my hero Hank Shaw--he has a tutorial on cleaning gizzards here .  I always soak mine in buttermilk for a while before frying, too.  I believe it helps tenderize them a bit.  I dump a bunch of flour in a gallon ziplock and add a copious amount of Lawry's salt and black pepper.  Like really dump a lot more than you think.  Mix that all together well.  I don't dump all the gizzards in at once because it becomes a gummy mess.  Just dredge a few at a time.  I use a cast iron pan.  Fill with enough veg. oil so that it can fry but not a ton.  I probably do 1 1/2 to 2 inches?  Then heat up the oil and fry turning over once to do both sides.  You don't have to worry if they're done enough--just get a nice crisp like fried chicken.  Once fried, drain on a paper towel--I put paper towels on a big square pan.  After frying they can wait a while until you're ready to pressure cook them if you wish.  When ready, I fill the instant pot with a cup of water and place the gizzards on a stand--I'll take a picture tomorrow.  I might actually use two IP's just so they aren't so packed full.  Pressure cook for 40 mins quick release.  These won't be crunchy but they will be tender and delicious.  KFC back in the day used to make these and they were wonderful.

Is there any reason why you don't PC first, then dredge and fry?  It reminds me of a lot of Indonesian recipes where they're cooking tough pieces of meat - it's first simmered in a spice paste liquid for a few hours, then drained, then fried...

[Shelby]

1 hour ago, KennethT said:

Is there any reason why you don't PC first, then dredge and fry?  It reminds me of a lot of Indonesian recipes where they're cooking tough pieces of meat - it's first simmered in a spice paste liquid for a few hours, then drained, then fried...

The one time I tried it that way all of the breading slid off during frying.  Maybe I'm missing something?  

[KennethT]

15 hours ago, Shelby said:

The one time I tried it that way all of the breading slid off during frying.  Maybe I'm missing something?  

That's true - my brain temporarily had a nap and I forgot that you used a breading.  You'd have to thoroughly cool and dry them before breading otherwise it will not stick...

[SLB]

I would've guess that PCing after frying would lead to the breading sliding off!  It's startling that it doesn't. 

 

[FWIW -- I've never used and IP, I use an old timey pressure cooker, I know they must be different because the bean cooking times are so very different]

[Shelby]

Good morning!  It's a frosty, foggy morning over here.  The guys are of course out doing their thing.  They saw lots of deer yesterday but nothing tripped their trigger (haha).  

 

 

 

These are nice bucks

 

 

 

And oh man was the moon bright last night.  I would suspect that a lot of feeding went on overnight because it was almost like a bright sunny day lol.  Super moon before it got dark last night

 

 

And early this morning

 

 

So...hopefully a nice dry doe will be gotten today.  I'd like to have venison steaks for dinner tomorrow.  But, if not, I have some nice choice beef steaks I'll sous vide.  

 

I got my Misfits boxes yesterday, thank you FedEx for not screwing up lol sigh.  So we have a decent array of vegetables for a while.  Anyway that took a bit to get everything put away and before I knew it it was time to put out some kind of snacky stuff.  

 

 

Not fancy but enough to take the edge off.

 

Then I got busy on the ducks.  I put paper towels over them to get them as dry as possible and then rubbed them with a ton of butter.  I forgot to mention that we brined them before we froze them.  After the butter I sprinkled with Lawry's salt and fresh black pepper.  Then I stuffed them with a lemon wedge, and sprigs of thyme, rosemary and sage.  After that they lounged on the counter for a while.

 

 

Then I sorted through the tomatoes and got out the ones that needed to be used and peeled them.  Next I did chopped onion, garlic and celery in butter, added the tomatoes and seasoning and let that simmer for a while.  Right before serving I tore up a piece  of toasted sourdough bread and added that.  No picture...stewed tomatoes are boring lol.  Next I fried a few strips of bacon, removed those and added trimmed up Brussels sprouts to the pan along with more onions and garlic and got those nice and roasted.  Seasoned with yep, more Lawry's and black pepper, added a few glugs of chicken broth, put the lid on and let them get nice and tender.  Just before serving I added shredded cheddar and the crumbled up bacon.

 

 

I started the steam boys on 450 F about an hour ahead of time to get them nice and warmed up.  Pintail and teal were done in about 15 mins.

 

 

Mallards I did for 25--they were in the slower oven.

 

 

 

 

Our hunter friend said they were just like an excellent steak so I think he liked them  

 

Today will be a busier day for me--sooooooooooooooooo much frying to do.  I've already prepped my cast iron so it's all ready to go at least.  I'm also thinking of making an apple galette out of the last of the apple pie filling I made from the apples on our tree.  I was toying with making a lemon posset because I have a ton of lemons but I'm not sure I have room in the fridge for 3 dessert cups sigh lol.  Anyway, we'll see what I get up to today.  

 

For right now I'm going to enjoy my hot cup of coffee that is mostly sugar and cream and bask in the quietness of the house.

[Shelby]

Sent to me just now:

 

I think this gal is going to get in the blind with them

 

[TicTac]

On 12/4/2025 at 11:18 AM, Shelby said:

She says thank you 😊  She's  6.    I can't believe she's already 6.  We got her in Jan of 2020 right before the pandemic.

LOL yeah.....same.  She got in the duck pond and it's now a dirty pink.

 

I love balsamic vinegar with duck.

A gastrique with balsamic, rosemary and cherry jam goes awesome w Duck!

[patti]

6 hours ago, Shelby said:

I'm also thinking of making an apple galette out of the last of the apple pie filling I made from the apples on our tree.  I was toying with making a lemon posset because I have a ton of lemons but I'm not sure I have room in the fridge for 3 dessert cups sigh lol.  Anyway, we'll see what I get up to today.  

 

An apple galette sounds so good! It’s chilly and dreary here and wouldn’t that just warm things up. I didn’t know what a lemon posset was, but now that I do, yum! 

 

I would be happy with some butter and whatever homemade bread you have. Oh, and could you pass the cashews?

 

I appreciate all the pictures. You are one excellent hostess!