yes, I made that mistake.

Now, I know some of you are just shaking your heads thinking “there’s NO way she could made that mistake” … alas, I did.

After finding a tasty recipe for chicken satay but when I tried to find chicken at the store labeled “tenders” I failed… so I picked up a package of chicken that was equally unfamiliar and figured it could be the same thing…
I also subbed apple sauce for the juice as that’s what I had at the time.

Gizzards are secondary stomachs used by birds to grind their food before digestion. Because birds don’t have teeth, they must fill their gizzards with small stones to achieve the same goal. Gizzards contain a very tough inner membrane, surrounded by a muscular pouch which provides the grinding action. Gizzards are part of the group of foods called offal, which also includes beef tripe, chitlins (pork intestines), and hearts.
Gizzards are definitely chewy, since they are primarily a membrane more than a muscle. The muscle tissue itself has a subtle flavor similar to chicken liver.

Contrary to gizzards, “Chicken tenders” are the same as chicken fingers, or chicken strips. Made from strips of chicken (white meat) usually from chicken breasts, chicken tenders are usually pre-cut and breaded or cut from a breast at home before cooking.

The recipe was awesome, and because we just couldn’t handle the chewiness of the gizzards, I froze the leftover satay sauce.  I will defiantly be making this again, but next time with tenders!

Chicken Satay

(click link above for recipe from the Food Network.com)