Gizzards seem to be a love-it or hate-it protein. To me, they’re a lot like hearts—hard-working muscle, dense with flavor. But unlike hearts, they’re extra chewy. There are a few approaches to cooking gizzards; the method you choose will depend on your end goal and jaw strength. You can tenderize them, or you can embrace the chewiness and cook them straight up.

This fried gizzard recipe has an optional step for tenderizing, which honestly will make it more palatable for the majority of eaters. But if you’re one of those weirdos like me that likes extra chewy and crunchy food, you can skip that step, which inevitably will mean fewer gizzards that you have to share.

First, clean the gizzards. You want to remove the plate and the silver skin from the sides of each half. Give them a good rinse to get rid of any gravelly bits. With duck gizzards, you can just split them in half, but with goose or turkey gizzards, cut them down into ¼-inch thick, bite-size pieces. Here’s a helpful video on cleaning gizzards as well.

From here, you have the choice of frying them raw or braising first for more tender bites. If, like me, you order the fried gizzards every time you're in a gas station that serves fried chicken, you can skip the braise. Otherwise, you’ll probably like the braised version more.

Whether you braise or fry them raw, these double-breaded fried gizzards have all the characteristics of good fried chicken. The extra crispy breading maximizes the sauce-to-meat ratio. And regardless of your opinion on gizzards, everyone loves deep-fried crispiness.