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The bag of giblets inside a good chicken includes the heart, liver, neck and sometimes the lungs, kidneys and crop (the throat muscle chickens use to grind up their food). To prepare the giblets, give them a rinse, then cut away any thick fat or ventricles from the top of the heart and liver. Cibrèo is a traditional Florentine sauce made using chicken offal, and often also includes the cockscomb, wattle and gonads, but I’ve adapted it to turn a more accessible bag of giblets into this remarkably flavourful dish.
Chicken offal sauce
Cibrèo makes for a delicious amuse-bouche while you’re waiting for a chicken to roast, or turn it into a main course by mixing it through cooked pasta. One bag of giblets should make a nice snack for four to six people, a starter for two or a main course for two when mixed with pasta. If you need to multiply the recipe to feed more people but don’t have any more giblets to hand, buy some extra chicken livers and/or hearts to make up the difference.
The recipe calls for chicken stock, but there’s so much flavour in the offal that just water will work just fine, too. I made a very light stock by cooking the chicken neck with the shallot skin, some other veg trimmings and 150ml water for 15 minutes.
Cibrèo is usually thickened with egg yolk, but I used a whole small egg, to avoid any potential waste. It thickened the sauce perfectly, but be careful to add it when the contents of the pan are at a low temperature, and slowly bring the heat back up to create a thick, velvety sauce.
Serves 2 as a starter or main course with pasta
15g butter
15g olive oil
6 sage leaves
1 shallot, or 1 small onion, peeled and finely diced
80-100g bag chicken giblets – heart, liver, lungs, kidney and crop, if included, cleaned (see main introduction); save the neck to make the stock (see recipe introduction)
Sea salt and black pepper
1 tsp flour, for dusting
30ml white wine, or 15ml cider vinegar or wine vinegar
120ml chicken stock, or water
1 small egg
Juice of ¼ lemon, or 10ml cider vinegar or wine vinegar
1 pinch ground nutmeg
Cooked pasta or crusty bread, to serve
Melt the butter and oil in a wide saucepan on a low-medium heat. Fry the sage leaves untilcrisp, then scoop out on to a plate. Add the diced shallot to the hot fat and saute, stirring, for five minutes, until translucent.
Chop the giblets into rough pieces, season with salt and toss withthe flour to coat. Add to the hot fat in the pan and fry, stirring, for five minutes. Add the wine, boil for a minute, then pour in the 100ml of the stock and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer, cook until the sauce thickens a little, then turn down the heat to very low.
In a small bowl, whisk the egg, lemon juice and the remaining chicken stock, then stir into the giblet pan and return to a boil, stirring the whole time. Once the sauce has turned thick and luxurious, season with salt, black pepper and ground nutmeg to taste.
Serve at once, either tossed through cooked pasta (add enough of the pasta cooking water, or more hot stock, to create a velvety sauce) or simply with crusty bread. Either way, garnish with the crisp sage leaves.
