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Chicken Heart Skewers

Chicken Heart Skewers

Chicken heart skewers are a surprisingly delightful dish that showcases the rich, tender flavour of this often-overlooked cut. Cooking them on the BBQ brings out their natural juiciness and adds a smoky depth that pairs beautifully with a variety of seasonings. In this recipe, we use two ways to prepare chicken hearts: Japanese Yakitori, where the hearts are glazed with a savory-sweet tare sauce that caramelises perfectly over the grill, and a simple Brazilian-style version, where the hearts are seasoned with just salt and pepper, allowing their robust flavour to shine. Both dishes celebrate the unique taste and texture of chicken hearts.

Using chicken hearts may be a step too far for some, but don’t knock it until you’ve tried them.  We think you’ll be very pleasantly surprised and glad you stepped out of your comfort zone.  We sourced our chicken hearts from IQBRO.

Recipe Credit for Yakitori Sauce:  Nick Rourke

Cooking surfaces

BBQ Temperature

200°C

Ingredients

    • 500g chicken hearts
    • milk
    • 2 tsp Maldon salt
    • ground black pepper

    For the Yakitori sauce

    • 1 cup Japanese soy sauce (Shoyu Sauce)
    • 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
    • 1 cup Mirin
    • 1/2 cup Sake (cooking sake is fine)

      Method

      1. Our chicken thighs came well prepared, and we only had to do a minimal amount to clean them up.
      2. The butcher advised us to soak the chicken hearts milk for about 2 hours to tenderise them.
      3. Thread about ten chicken hearts on skewers.  Continue until all the hearts have been used up.
      4. Refrigerate until ready to cook.

      For the Yakitori sauce

      1. Mix all the ingredients in a small saucepan.
      2. Bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, reduce to a simmer and cook until thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon.  This takes about 20 minutes.
      3. Remove from the heat.  You can set it aside to cool or use immediately when you cook the skewers.
      4. You may want to keep back some of the sauce to pour over at the end of the cook.

      To cook the skewers

      1. Set up your Egg for a direct cook with the stainless steel grid at 200°C.
      2. Place your chicken skewers directly on to the grid.
      3. Season half of the skewers with some salt – these will be your Brazillian style skewers.
      4. Baste the remaining half of the skewers with the yakitori sauce.
      5. Cook and turn frequently, until the chicken hearts are lovely and brown.
      6. Cook them until the chicken heart reaches at least 75°C, which takes about 15 minutes.
      7. Remove the chicken heart skewers from the grill and allow to rest for 1 to 2 minutes.  Brush the yakitori skewers with the remaining glaze and season the salted skewres with some ground black pepper.  Serve immediately.
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