Chicken Giblet Brawn (Head Cheese)
A budget-friendly homemade brawn made from giblets. I love making brawn from all sorts of cuts—pork hock, chicken thighs, and so on. Today I want to share a recipe for chicken giblet brawn. It's a really tasty cold appetizer that tastes like a cross between aspic and homemade sausage.
Cooking method
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Step 1:
Gather all the ingredients for the brawn.
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Step 2:
Rinse the giblets and cut them into small cubes. In a deep bowl, combine all the giblets with the salt, pepper, Italian herbs, and gelatin. Mix well and let it sit for 15 minutes.
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Step 3:
Take an empty juice or milk carton, cut off the top, wash it well, and fill it with the meat mixture. Stand the carton in a pot of water so the water comes to within 1–1.5 cm of the rim, and simmer over low heat for 2 hours once it comes to a boil.
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Step 4:
Alternatively, you can make it another way: put all the giblets in an oven roasting bag, bake for an hour, then pack the hot mixture into the carton—or just cook it in the carton as above. While cooking, it helps to cover the top of the carton with a lid or plate. Let the brawn cool at room temperature, then refrigerate it for at least 6 hours; you can set a weight on top to make it firmer.
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Step 5:
Slice the finished brawn into portions and serve. Your chicken giblet brawn is ready. Enjoy!
- Brawn (head cheese) is a deli-style meat made mainly from pork head meat plus offal, which gives it a firm set, along with salt and spices; some versions add blood. The mixture is traditionally packed into a pork bladder casing, simmered, and cooled under a weight, and it's served as a cold appetizer—keep it refrigerated. Even though brawn is mostly made from offal, those cuts carry plenty of important nutrients, including vitamin B12, iron, and protein. It's high in calories, so it's filling and energizing, and thanks to its high protein content it can be a good addition to the diet of anyone looking to build muscle.
Caloric content of the products possible in the composition of the dish
- Ground black pepper - 255 kcal/100g
- Gelatin - 355 kcal/100g
- Salt - 0 kcal/100g
- Chicken breast (fillet) - 113 kcal/100g
- Chicken heart - 159 kcal/100g
- Chicken liver - 140 kcal/100g
- Chicken stomachs - 114 kcal/100g
- Herb mixture - 259 kcal/100g
