How to Cook Chicken Hearts

How to Cook Chicken Hearts (for People who are Afraid of Organ Meat)

If you are like the average American, my guess is that you would be disappointed if you asked me, “What’s for dinner?” and I replied, “Chicken hearts!” (No, I don’t have data to back that up – maybe the average American loves chicken hearts and I just hang out with a bunch of unusually picky eaters).  What if I told you that chicken hearts are very nutrient-dense, affordable, easy to cook, and actually pretty tasty?  Let’s look at some of the benefits of including chicken hearts in your diet, and how to do it easily and painlessly.  

Benefits of Organ Meat

Here in the modern United States, “meat” usually means muscle meat.  The only organ meat that people eat regularly is liver, which many people don’t like because of its distinctive flavor and texture – and, as we will see shortly, you want to be careful not to have too much anyway because of the danger of vitamin A toxicity.

This is a shame, since animals have all sorts of perfectly edible organs other than just the liver (if you ever dissected an animal in high school, remember all those organs in there?  Well, just about all of those are fit for human consumption – although not after being stewed in formaldehyde, obviously).  Pancreas, kidney, heart, and brain are all widely eaten around the world.   In fact, many traditional communities (such as the Inuit, who eat the blood and organs before muscle meat,) preferentially eat the organs rather than muscle meats.

This may be partly due to the fact that, by pretty much any standard, most organ meats are more nutrient-dense than most muscle meats.  Organ meats tend to have a higher concentration of vitamins and minerals, such as B-vitamins, vitamin A, zinc, and iron, including nutrients which are not present in appreciable amounts in muscle meat, such as vitamin A, folate, and copper.  

In addition to having higher nutrient density, organ meats tend to be more affordable than muscle meats.  More obscure organ meats, such as brain and pancreas, may be harder to get ahold of, but liver, heart, and kidney are more readily available, and tend, if anything, to be cheaper than conventional muscle meat, since less people want them.  

Finally, eating organ meats helps avoid waste and puts you more in touch with where your food comes from.  Humans have been eating animals for thousands and thousands of years, and eating more of the animal can help you appreciate your human heritage as a hunter, and feel good that less of the animal is going to waste.  

Benefits of Chicken Heart in Particular

So, you want to start eating organ meat, but don’t know where to start.  My strong suggestion is to start with chicken heart.  Let’s look at why.

If you are a newbie at organ eating, you very likely find the whole concept a bit icky.  (If you don’t, that’s great, you can ignore this paragraph).  You probably want to start with an organ meat that is fairly mild and similar to muscle meat in terms of taste and texture.  In my experience, heart is much less foreign-tasting than other organ meats.  Both liver and kidney have a strong, somewhat metallic flavor and a chewy texture that grosses a lot of people out.  Heart is a bit chewy, but it is really not very different from ordinary dark chicken meat – after all, the heart is a muscle as well as an organ!  (I am also told that brain tastes fairly mild, but I can’t affirm this for sure since I have not tried it.  Plus, if you are squeamish about eating organs, I doubt brain would be a good place to start).  

Another benefit of heart is that it is more nutrient-dense than most muscle meat, but it has a lot less vitamin A than liver.  This is a contentious topic that deserves a post of its own, but there is some serious concern that frequent consumption of liver can lead to subclinical vitamin A toxicity.  For example, in the keto and carnivore space, both Judy Cho and Amber O’Hearn make a strong case for this, pointing out that the carnivore influencers who ended up feeling ill on carnivore and needing to reintroduce carbs were those who emphasized liver or liver supplements.  (Note that I am not saying that everyone should try to totally eliminate vitamin A or liver from their diet, but that overdoing it is a real possibility you should watch out for).  

So, heart gives you a lot of the extra nutrients found in liver, such as folate and copper, in higher concentrations than you would get in muscle meat, but without the worries about the vitamin A.

Below is a table comparing the nutrients in chicken liver, chicken heart, chicken breast, and 90/10 ground beef (I personally never eat 90/10 ground beef because it is too lean, but the protein to fat ratio is closer to liver and heart than for fattier ground beef, making it a better comparison).  Note that heart performs significantly better than chicken breast and ground beef on most nutrients, but with very little vitamin A.  I got the data from eatthismuch.com – all the values are for 100 grams cooked.  

	Chicken Heart	Chicken Liver	Chicken breast (skinless)	90/10 Ground Beef
Iron	9 mg (113% daily value)	13 mg (161% dv)	1 mg (13% dv)	3 mg (39% dv)
Copper	1 mg (56% dv)	1 mg (59% dv)	0 mg (5% dv)	0.1 mg (11% dv)
Zinc	7 mg (66% dv)	4 mg (36% dv)	1 mg (9% dv)	7 mg (62% dv)
Folate	80 µg (20% dv)	560 µg (140% dv)	4 µg (1% dv)	8 µg (2% dv)
B12	7 µg (304% dv)	21 µg (880% dv)	0.3 µg (14% dv)	3 µg (117% dv)
B6	0.3 mg (25% dv)	1 mg (65% dv)	1 mg (46% dv)	0.4 mg (33% dv)
Vitamin A	8 µg (1% dv)	4,296 µg (477% dv)	6 µg (1% dv)	0.3 µg (0.3% dv)

(Note – bold is 1st place, italics is 2nd place)

How to Cook Chicken Heart

Chicken hearts are pretty easy to cook.  The main danger is overcooking them; they don’t taste terrible if they are overcooked, but they can get a bit tough and rubbery.  As soon as the internal temperature hits 165 degrees F. and the inside is no longer pink, take them off the heat.

The two ways I have personally used to cook chicken hearts are pan-frying and grilling.  I owe a shoutout to Chris Cooking Nashville for giving me some prompts my first time I cooked chicken hearts (Chris is an amazing resource for keto and carnivore cooking).  

Pan-frying Chicken Hearts

I buy 1 pound tubs of chicken hearts at my local Market Basket (which cost $2.99 a pound, even for the higher-quality brand of chicken).  These tubs can freeze well – defrost the whole tub by running it under cold water in the sink.  If the hearts are still a little frozen, this can make them a bit easier to cut.

• Ingredients:

•  1 pound of chicken hearts
• 1 tbs olive oil (or another healthy oil: coconut oil, avocado oil, lard, tallow)
• 2 tbs butter
• Two cloves chopped garlic (optional)
• 1 small onion, chopped (optional)
• Salt and pepper to taste

• Directions:

• Cut the hearts in half lengthwise.
• If using the onions and/or garlic, chop and set aside.
• Heat a large pan or skillet over medium heat, then add the olive oil. 
• When the oil is hot but before it burns, add the garlic and onions (if using) and stir frequently.  Saute for about five minutes, and turn the heat down to low if they start to burn.
• Turn the heat back up to medium and add the chicken hearts.  You want the oil hot enough to sear the hearts.  
• Add the two tbs of butter and let the butter melt.
• Stir periodically to make sure the hearts cook evenly – add salt and pepper as desired while the hearts cook.
• Once the hearts are no longer visibly pink, check them with an instant-read meat thermometer; as soon as they hit 165F, take them off the heat.  Overcooking can make them tough.
• A Serving Suggestion: Heart has a slightly stronger flavor and chewier texture than regular chicken, but is pretty similar to dark meat chicken from the leg or thigh.   I enjoy a chicken cacciatore-inspired dish consisting of pan-fried hearts fried with onions or garlic on top of spaghetti-squash and crushed tomato (or a no-sugar-added tomato sauce).  You could also add sauteed bell peppers.

Barbecuing Chicken Hearts

• Ingredients:

• 1 pound of chicken hearts
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 2 tbs apple cider vinegar 
• ¼ cup soy sauce
• ¼ cup teriyaki sauce
• Two cloves chopped garlic (optional)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Bamboo skewers (to cook the hearts on)
• (Note: you want to use a soy sauce and teriyaki sauce that are wheat and gluten free and don’t have a lot of added sugar.  I personally use Tamari San J– I don’t get any money from them, I just mention them because it is a brand I personally use and enjoy).

• Directions

• Mix up the marinade: mix olive oil, apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, and teriyaki sauce together in a bowl.  If using garlic, mince the cloves in very small pieces and mix in with the marinade.  Set aside.  (As a note, I like using this marinade for chicken thighs and steak tips as well, especially for the grill, but also for pan-frying, or roasting in the oven). 
• Put the hearts on the skewers.   Stab each heart through the middle; load up each skewer, but leave about ¼ inch of space between the hearts so they can cook evenly.
• Lay the heart-loaded skewers in a flat pan (or large glass or plastic container) and pour the marinade evenly over them.  Cover and let them marinade in the refrigerator, ideally overnight but at least for three or four hours. If the marinade does not completely cover them, turn them over a few times as they marinade so that the hearts are evenly saturated with marinade.
• When you’re ready to grill, be careful, because the hearts are easy to overcook.  You want to have the heat fairly high to cook the hearts quickly, turning the skewers frequently.  Once the outside of the hearts are seared, check the temperature frequently and take them off the heat as soon as the internal temperature reaches 165 F.

Do any of you enjoy eating chicken hearts?   Do you have a favorite way of cooking them that I didn’t mention?  Let me know in the comments!