What are you supposed to do with the innards?

Every time I buy a whole chicken, it comes with this pouch of, like, stuff inside. Unless you want to play Hannibal: The Home Game, I'm honestly not sure what you are supposed to do with these things. It's always random pieces, too. Might be a neck and a liver, might be a liver and a heart, might be a gizzard (whatever the heck THAT is), might be a I DON'T KNOW IT'S SLIMY AND GROSS.

I finally resolved to figure out what you are supposed to do with this stuff besides "throw it away and try not to look." It turns out that people who love their chicken innards love them a lot.

1. Stock
If you make chicken stock out of your chicken carcass, then you can toss in those gizzards, too. Why not? Add some extra flavor and oomph.

2. Cook it with the rest of the chicken
Whether you are roasting, frying, or skillet cooking your chicken, you can cook the random bits in there, too. They might be less disgusting once they are fully cooked and crisp on the outside. Worst case scenario, once they are done cooking, you can feed them to your cat or dog. (Just the organs, please. Not the neck. It has bones.)

3. Dredge in flour and fry
This basic method for cooking fried organs has the benefit of somewhat camouflaging the look of the organ itself. Let's face it, you could dredge and fry just about anything and it would turn out pretty tasty.

This seems to be a particularly popular option for chicken livers. This ChefTalk user offers a recipe that actually makes chicken livers sound somewhat tasty. Not sure if I can bring myself to try it, but I pass it on in case you might want to.

Image courtesy Flickr/Marisa | Food in Jars