Crispy Southern-Style Chicken Gizzards

Why This Crispy Southern-Style Chicken Gizzards Works

Soaking the chicken gizzards in buttermilk for a few hours is what changes them from tough and chewy to something tender enough to bite through. Over time, the buttermilk slowly works into the meat and starts to loosen up those tight, rubbery parts. While they sit, the gizzards also take in a little moisture, so they don’t dry out when they hit the hot oil.

Once the gizzards go into the seasoned flour, the outside gets coated in a dry layer that sticks well because of the buttermilk. In the hot oil, that flour coating quickly firms up and turns into a crisp shell. As the crust browns, it keeps the heat inside, so the gizzards cook through while the outside stays crunchy. By the time they come out of the oil, the contrast is there: a crackly, seasoned crust on the outside and gizzards inside that are much softer than when they started.

Mistakes To Avoid

Pulling the gizzards straight from the package to the fryer without a long soak in buttermilk leaves them tough and chewy. The buttermilk time lets the meat relax and soften; without it, the coating may crisp up, but the inside stays hard and rubbery.

Going into the flour while still dripping wet from the buttermilk makes the coating clump and slide off. The extra liquid turns the flour into paste in spots, so parts of each gizzard fry bare and come out patchy instead of evenly crisp.

When the oil isn’t actually at 350°F and is too cool, the gizzards sit in the oil soaking it up instead of sealing quickly. The crust turns pale and greasy, and the inside can still be a bit firm because it heated slowly in oily fat.

Letting the oil get much hotter than 350°F causes the outside to brown fast while the inside lags behind. The crust can look done and even start to taste slightly burnt, but the gizzards inside stay tight and over-firm instead of tender.