Chicken Gizzards substitute

Best substitute

Chicken hearts

Use the same amount by weight as the chicken gizzards you are replacing

Best for adobong atay at balunbalunan

Close match

Chicken hearts are the closest swap and go in one for one, since they are the same kind of dense dark organ meat and taste almost identical, just a bit milder and springier. If you cannot get hearts, use boneless chicken thighs cut into bite-size pieces, which give you the right poultry flavor but none of the chew, or beef heart cut small, which gives you the chew and the iron-rich savor but tastes beefy. For a vegetarian version, halved king oyster mushroom stems or rehydrated dried shiitake come surprisingly close on texture with a splash of soy sauce for depth. Decide first which job the gizzards were doing in your recipe, because it is nearly always either the chew or the deep savory flavor, and different swaps cover different ones.

Other chicken gizzards substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-size pieces
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight
Dark meat from the same bird, which gets you the flavor family without the organ intensity.
What changes
Best for
gizzard stew, Filipino adobo, Brazilian moela, rice dishes, any dish where the gizzards are one component among several
The swap most people will actually make, and it produces a good dish that is not the same dish. Thigh meat is unmistakably chicken and browns beautifully, but it is soft and shreds when braised, so you lose the whole point of a gizzard, which is something to bite down on. It is also much milder, missing the mineral, almost liver-adjacent depth that makes gizzard gravy taste so savory. Two fixes help a lot: cut the pieces large, around an inch and a half, and sear them hard before braising; and add a splash of soy sauce or fish sauce, or half a chicken liver mashed in, to restore the savory bottom end. Cooking time drops to twenty-five or thirty minutes.
3Beef heart, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
A large, extremely lean muscle that eats more like steak than like offal.
What changes
Best for
gizzard stew, skewers, fried gizzard-style dishes, braises, when texture matters most
The most faithful texture match on this list. Beef heart is firm, dense and pleasantly chewy in exactly the way gizzards are, and it carries the same iron-rich savor. What changes is the animal: the dish tastes distinctly beefy rather than of poultry, which is fine in a stew or on a skewer and wrong in giblet gravy destined for a roast chicken. It is also a cheap cut and easy to overcook, going from tender to dry quickly, so either sear it fast and serve it pink or braise it a full hour and a half.
4Chicken livers
Taste and texture differ
Use about half the weight the recipe calls for
The soft organ from the same giblet bag, included for flavor rather than texture.
What changes
Best for
giblet gravy, dirty rice, adobo with gizzards, stuffing and dressing, pate-style spreads
Use this when what your recipe needed was the deep savory flavor, not the bite. Livers are far stronger tasting than gizzards, creamy and soft, and they break down into the sauce instead of staying as discrete pieces, so half the weight is usually plenty or the whole dish turns liverish. In giblet gravy and in dirty rice they are excellent and traditional. In fried gizzards or on skewers they are the wrong ingredient entirely, since they cannot hold a shape under high heat.
5King oyster mushroom stems or rehydrated dried shiitake
Different taste
Use the same amount by volume, plus 1 teaspoon soy sauce per cup
The vegetarian answer, and a genuinely good one on texture.
What changes
Best for
gizzard stew, stir-fries, rice dishes, skewers, vegetarian versions of adobo
King oyster stems sliced into thick coins have a dense, meaty, slightly squeaky chew that lands close to gizzard, and rehydrated shiitake caps are chewier still and bring their own glutamate-rich savoriness. What is missing is the blood-and-iron depth of organ meat, so add soy sauce and, if you have it, a spoonful of the shiitake soaking liquid. Brown them hard and dry in the pan first, because mushrooms release water and will otherwise steam rather than sear.
6Beef tripe or pork stomach, thinly sliced
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight, with a longer cook
Another animal's stomach doing the same structural job, common in Chinese and Filipino cooking.
What changes
Best for
long-braised stews, Chinese braises, soups, menudo-style dishes
This is the honest option for a cook who specifically wants offal chew and cannot find gizzards. Tripe and pork stomach are chewier than gizzards, more strongly flavored and often faintly barnyard-like, and they need considerably longer cooking, usually an hour and a half to two hours, before they turn tender rather than rubbery. Slice thin and season assertively with aromatics such as ginger, garlic, bay and vinegar. In a delicate dish it will dominate; in a robust braise it is very good.

What is Chicken Gizzards?

Chicken Gizzards is Chicken gizzards are the bird's muscular grinding stomach, sold cleaned as small dense nuggets of very dark meat that stay firm and springy however you cook them.

Cooking tips

Gizzards do not follow the usual rule that meat gets tough the longer you cook it. They are almost pure worked muscle, so they go tough first and only become tender after a long stretch of moist heat. Simmer them for forty-five minutes to an hour in salted water, broth or an adobo braise before you fry, grill or sauce them, and any substitute that is softer, such as chicken thighs, should be added much later in the same pot.
The other legitimate approach is the opposite extreme: slice them very thin across the grain and cook them hot and fast for two or three minutes, which is how Chinese and Korean kitchens usually handle them. Halfway between the two, five to twenty minutes, is the one range that reliably produces rubber.
Check them even if the package says cleaned. Split each gizzard and look for the tough pale silverskin lining and any grit or greenish bile stain, and cut those away, because the lining never softens and bile is bitter. A rinse in salted water and a quick soak is the traditional first step.
In giblet gravy the simmering liquid is half the point. Cover the gizzards, neck and heart with water, simmer them gently for an hour, then use that broth as the base of the gravy and chop the meat into it. If you swap in chicken thighs you will need to compensate for the flavor that broth would have carried, so use good chicken stock rather than water and consider adding the neck.
Gizzards are dark meat and they take strong flavors well. Vinegar, soy, bay leaf, black pepper, garlic and ginger are the classic partners across soul-food, Filipino and Brazilian versions, and they are also what makes a milder substitute like chicken thigh taste closer to the original.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave the gizzards out?

In giblet gravy and in stuffing, yes, with a small loss: they contribute savory depth and chopped texture, and using good chicken stock plus the neck and a chicken liver covers most of it. In dishes named after them, such as fried gizzards or Filipino adobong balunbalunan or Brazilian moela, they are the dish itself and leaving them out means cooking something else, so pick a substitute rather than an omission. In soups and rice dishes where they are one of several proteins, drop them and increase the rest.

Are chicken gizzards and chicken hearts interchangeable?

Close to it, in flavor. Both are dense dark organ meat with the same mineral savor, and many recipes cook them together. Two differences matter: hearts are springier where gizzards are chewier, and hearts cook in a fraction of the time, so add them at the end of a long braise rather than at the start. If a recipe calls for a pound of gizzards, a pound of hearts will work, and half of each is better still.

Why did my gizzards come out rubbery?

Almost certainly undercooking rather than overcooking. Gizzards need either a long slow simmer of forty-five to sixty minutes to break down their connective tissue, or to be sliced paper thin and flashed in a hot pan for two or three minutes. Anything in between leaves them at their toughest. If you have already fried them and they are rubbery, the rescue is to braise them in a little broth for another forty-five minutes, which will not restore the crust but will fix the texture.

What is a good vegetarian substitute for chicken gizzards?

King oyster mushroom stems cut into thick coins are the best texture match, since they are dense and slightly squeaky under the tooth, and rehydrated dried shiitake are chewier and bring more savory depth. Neither has the iron-rich organ flavor, so add soy sauce, a little mushroom soaking liquid and plenty of black pepper and garlic, and brown them hard in a dry pan before adding liquid so they do not steam.

Do I need to clean gizzards before cooking them?

Usually they arrive split and cleaned of grit, but they are rarely fully trimmed. Look for the tough pale membrane lining the inside, which stays leathery no matter how long you cook it, and trim away any yellow-green bile staining, which tastes bitter. Rinse well in cold salted water. Some cooks soak them in milk or salted water for half an hour, which is optional but does mellow the flavor a little.

Related substitutes

More meat & protein substitutes

Chicken Gizzards substitute

Other chicken gizzards substitutes

2Boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-size pieces

3Beef heart, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

4Chicken livers

5King oyster mushroom stems or rehydrated dried shiitake

6Beef tripe or pork stomach, thinly sliced