Chicken Giblets & Basil
Giblets are the hearts, livers, and gizzards, even Thais refer to all these items sold together as giblets. This is how simple a Thai dish can be, and can be made to any degree of heat you like, my wife made this yesterday and she likes it on the spicy side. Minimal ingredients and takes just a few minutes to prepare.
Ingredients
- 500 grams chicken liver, heart and gizzards, (1 lb)
- 40-60 Bird's Eye Chilis
- 6 cloves garlic
- 2-3 handfuls basil, roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon chicken stock powder
- salt, to taste
Instructions
- In a heavy mortar, grind up the chilies and garlic. Clean the chicken by removing the fat from the hearts and livers, cut the livers into 2-4 pieces. If the gizzards are fresh, clean the gizzards by splitting nearly in half and removing the lining, then chop each gizzard into smaller than bite size pieces.
- In a large non-stick pan, heat cooking oil of your choice, when hot, add the livers, hearts, and gizzards, and the chili and garlic paste from the mortar, and just a small amount of water, cook until the liver is no longer pink inside. While cooking, sprinkle in the chicken stock powder and stir that in. Stir the giblets occasionally. When the liver is cooked through, add the basil and stir that in until it wilts. Serve with rice.
Notes
If you buy the giblets at say Tesco, the cost is about 70 Baht/500 grams. If bought from a local chicken farmer, you can probably get these for about 40-50 Baht/500 grams. The basil and chilies are free from our yard. For 6 servings (based on store bought giblets), this is about 35 cents per serving, even less for 8 servings. Excellent value per serving.