Chicken livers - a confession of supreme ignorance

[Duer 157099]

This is one of those things where you adopt a view in childhood and then never revisit it until, like, NOW, some half a century later.

When I was a kid, chicken backs used to be regularly available (and cheap, no doubt) and we'd have them often.

My favorite part was the, um... the "livers" - yes, plural.

Honestly, until recently, I never even thought about why in the world I would, for so long, believe that chickens had TWO livers and that they were in their back.

Also, I have made chopped liver many times in my life, using those cartons of chicken livers which obviously are much larger than the kind found in the backs of chickens, and yet I never made any connection.

So now I realize that all those years, I was really enjoying chicken KIDNEYs. I mean, not that there's anything wrong with that, compared, say, to livers. But damn, that's a major difference isn't it?

I wonder if I would enjoy kidneys from other animals?

[hippywife]

1. No organ meats for me.

If you get kidneys, don't forget the proper preparation...boil the piss out of them. :D

[elleng]

5. Please do!

:rofl:

[The empressof all]

2. Are you talking gizzards?

gizzards are chewy.My husband loves them cooked in a spicy stew over rice.. ...Livers are smooth and creamy.I like them sauteed with onions and mushrooms over a fresh pasta....or chopped with onions and smaltz for sandwiches or deviled eggs. They both come in whole chickens along with the heart. The heart gets cooked in the microwave, cooled cut in half and fed to the dogs.

[Duer 157099]

3. Nope, not gizzards

These are the organs that are found in either backs or thighs.

Maybe I should Google this and make sure that they're even kidneys! LOL who would have thought that I've actually taken college level courses in biology anatomy and physiology? lol...

It's not even *shown* on this chart!

[Duer 157099]

4. OMG they might be lungs! n/t

I'm all but certain now that they must be lungs. Whew! Consider what the function of the lung is compared to a kidney, that's probably good.

[Arkansas Granny]

7. I've heard older people around here refer to those as the "lights".

I've always liked chicken livers and have eaten the "lights", too. I don't care much for the gizzard, however.

[Duer 157099]

9. I've never heard them called lights.

But then again, I've only ever heard them called "livers" but that was only within my own family.

[Arkansas Granny]

14. It may be a regional thing. I've only heard it from older people who

grew up in rural areas.

[Warpy]

6. Not a problem, really, they're both vascular organs

that are full of iron and some waste products and should taste very similar, although the livers are more tender and friable when cooked.

The chicken backs I used to get were made for soup and the cats got the kidneys, raw, because of the similarity to liver. I simply cannot get liver to pass my throat.

If you enjoyed them, that's great.

I doubt an anatomy lesson would have made any difference to you when you were a kid if you already liked them. Kids think they're solid inside, like a potato, and generally don't make the connection between their innards and animal innards.

[Duer 157099]

10. The anatomy part that bothers me is that

they are so clearly bilaterally symmetrical but yet I learned at a young age that the liver is one organ (albeit with lobes, but even then, unsymmetrical)

[Warpy]

11. Sometimes, bits of the liver do get trapped there

during the evisceration process. However, what you were eating was the kidneys.

They're perfectly safe. If you liked them then, continue to enjoy them now.

[htuttle]

8. Chicken liver yakitori is offally good!

Sorry.

:spank:

[Retrograde]

12. Those little bits along the backbone?

I like them too, but these days my chicken back parts get used for stock.

If you can ever find them - they seem to have disappeared from regular grocery stores in my neck of the woods about two decades ago - lamb kidneys are also good: brush them with some olive oil, broil and enjoy.

[Denninmi]

13. Kidney stew.

My dad used to like a stew made with beef kidneys, onions, potatoes.

They smell bad when cooking them at first. You do them in a lot of water, boil them for a while, then drain, rinse well, and continue in fresh water or broth. The discarded water is essentially urine -- looks and smells like it.

But, they actually taste pretty good. Not dissimilar to liver, but a milder flavor and a somewhat different, little bit softer texture.

[The empressof all]

15. Are you talking about the bits you can dig out of the back?

If that's what you are talking about I've always called them the Oysters. They aren't the lungs just a very succulent meat. There are two on each bird and we always fight for them.

[Denninmi]

16. 6A SE Michigan

No, the OP is talking about the actual kidneys -- two little dark things nestled against the spinal column in the back. What you are talking about are a little pieces of thigh/back muscle attached to the broad, flat bone of the pelvis.

[The empressof all]

17. Oh those things that you wash out when you clean the bird

I always thought they were globs of blood.....and kind of yuckie.