Chitterlings
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Cook time:
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Serves: 7 lbs
When cleaning chitterlings, don’t believe the hype! It’s a time consuming job that takes patience, diligence and good eyes. The pay off is worth it but like anything worthwhile, getting there is not easy! If the recipe tells you to clean your chitterling by dunking them up and down in water, or rinsing them off until the water runs clear, you better run clear… of that recipe! (lol) Check out how to really clean chitterlings at the bottom of our chitterling recipe.
Ingredients
- Chitterling – 10 to 20 pounds, cleaned (see below)
- Onion – 2 large, diced
- Garlic – 2 cloves, minced
- Habaneros – 2 whole with stem removed
- Salt – 2 tablespoon
Instructions
- Put cleaned chitterlings into a 6 quart stock pot with 5 quarts of cold water.
- Add onion, habaneros, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and then reduce flame to simmer.
- For the first hour of cooking, skim the chitterlings pot, discarding the foam that you skim off.
- While cooking, add water if needed, broth should cook down to just cover chitterlings. Do not allow to cook dry.
- Cook until meat is tender and some pieces fall apart when you pick up a piece with a fork (usually about 4 to 5 hours depending on amount being prepared).
- When chitterlings are done, remove from pot and cut up into 2-3 inch pieces. Return to pot and taste for seasoning.
- Add seasoning as needed.
- Serve with vinegar and hot sauce
Cleaning Chitterlings
- Chitterlings will normally be purchased at the grocery store frozen. You need to let them thaw out totally before cleaning them. Once thawed, you will take the chitterlings piece by piece, one by one and go over them inch by inch. You are looking for and removing all traces of dirt, straw, hair and anything that isn’t the actual chitterling itself. You want to remove the membrane that lines the chitterling and this removes the majority of the dirt but you must double check to make sure you get it all. You must also be sure to check both sides of the length of the chitterling for dirt and debris, removing any found. The important thing is to remove anything that has any trace of dirt or debris in or on it. This will be the fat and membrane. I have found that a 10 pound bucket of chitterlings takes a couple of hours to clean depending on how dirty they are. After your chitterlings are thoroughly cleaned, douse them up and down in clean water. I put a little bleach in my first go round of dousing water, about ¼ c to 3 gallons of water. I douse them about 5 minutes then empty the water and repeat twice without the bleach, to remove all traces of bleach.
- Put the chitterlings into a 5 or 6 quart stock pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and let boil about 3 minutes. Pour off the water and refill the pot with clean water. Bring to a boil again, boil about 3 minutes, pour off water and refill with clean water. Bring to a boil, then turn flame down to medium low. Skim any foam residue that floats to the top off of chitterlings, and continue skimming until all traces of foam residue are gone.
- When you are finished cleaning them, your 10 pounds of chitterlings suddenly looks more like 5 pounds but who cares! All that’s important is what is left is clean and ready to cook, eat and enjoy!!!
Serving size: 1 cup
Chitterlings (Chitlins) are a delicacy and cleaning and cooking them is becoming a lost art. Due to prep time in cleaning them, I rarely fix them and if I do it’s for holidays, a special occasion or a special request from a very special person! When I do fix them, I’m always glad that I did (when they’re done and on my plate!) 🙂 If you want to fix chitterlings, please check out information on the recipe for how to clean chitterlings and how to cook chitterlings. The most important thing is to make sure that your chitterlings are cleaned and cooked properly! Enjoy!!!
Chitlins with greens, potato salad and corn bread. Nuff said!!!
U clean them just like me some people say bleach I say hell yea
I hear you Derek! They have to be clean or I can’t deal! I don’t over do it and I make sure I rinse them extremely well.
I clean mine the same way
Yes, I agree! That’s why I say every culture has it’s own soul food. Soul food comes from humble roots. It’s peasant food, working man’s food, poor people’s food, country food – food that had to “s t r e t c h” as far as it could to feed as many people as possible! But also to feed them well and satisfy them. Growing up I never realized that we weren’t rich. The food was plentiful and delicious!