How to Cook Chinese Home-Style Chicken Hearts

As a kid growing up in Malaysia, we ate all parts of the chicken, including the organs. My stepmom might remember I had a particular fondness for chicken hearts and that I used to try and score the one heart that came with whatever chicken dish that’s at the dinner table.

On occasion, she would also cook chicken hearts as a standalone dish, and it was always done the same way – with sautéed garlic and ginger and lots of thick soya sauce (an Asian grocery ingredient that’s labelled nowadays as cooking caramel, and no, it’s not the same as kicap manis).

I’ve used this agak-agak (guesstimated) recipe my whole life, especially since chicken hearts (when you can find them) are generally pretty cheap here in Australia. I was convinced I’d shared the recipe here on my website in the past until someone hit me up for it earlier this week and I realised I couldn’t find it among the hundreds of posts I’ve published over the last 15 years or so.

So here it is at last – keep in mind that cooking this dish is so innately instinctual (truthfully that’s how I approach almost all of my cooking) that I don’t really measure anything – it’s kind of like a dash of this, a pinch of that etc. – so don’t take the amounts in the recipe below as gospel.

I don’t always use oyster sauce, only when it’s within reach (just adjust the flavours as needed). You could also add a dash of Chinese cooking wine after you’ve sizzled the ginger/garlic, and maybe even a pinch or two of five spice powder, if that’s your thing.

You could sauté some diced fresh onion alongside the garlic & ginger to give the dish more texture, or you could just fold in some store-bought fried onion towards the end to help thicken up the sauce while also giving it some texture (if you do use fried onion from a packet, it might naturally thicken up the sauce to the point you can skip the cornstarch/tapioca starch step since they almost invariably contain cornstarch already).

You’ll see in the two photos of braised chicken hearts I managed to dig up and share here, that one has a thinner sauce while the other has more texture and is drier. Either works – it’s all up to you.

If you can’t get your hands on cooking caramel (ie. thick soya sauce), you can replace it with dark soya sauce but you’d want to then omit the regular (light) soya sauce because dark soya sauce is a lot saltier than cooking caramel.

Recipe: Chinese-Style Braised Chicken Hearts 

INGREDIENTS:

1kg chicken hearts
1 TBSP cooking oil
5 slices ginger
1.5 TBSP minced garlic
1 TBSP cooking caramel (aka thick soya sauce)
2 tsp oyster sauce
2 tsp soya sauce
½ tsp chicken powder (optional)
½ tsp white pepper
2 tsp cornstarch/tapioca starch + 1 TBSP water OR 2 TBSP store-bought fried onion
1 stalk spring onion, sliced, for garnish

METHOD

1. Heat oil in a (preferably) heavy-based pan; add ginger slices and garlic, and sizzle for 15-30 seconds or until aromatic but not burnt.
2. Add chicken hearts and sauté briefly.
3. Add cooking caramel, oyster sauce, soya sauce, chicken powder (if using) and white pepper. Cover and simmer on medium heat, stirring occasionally – the chicken hearts should produce some juices as they cook, but if you feel it needs it, you can add a little water to the pan.
4. Braise until the chicken hearts are cooked through – about 10 minutes; if it’s too saucy or if the sauce is too thin, thicken it with a cornstarch or tapioca starch + water mix, or alternatively add a couple of tablespoons of fried onion and simmer a little further until it’s the preferred consistency. Adjust seasoning if required; remove from heat, top with spring onion, and serve.