Chicken or goose necks are commonly used but duck or turkey necks can be substituted. The stuffing can also include internal meats, such as chopped heart, gizzard, liver. Sometimes the stuffing is flavored with garlic and black pepper. Helzel may be cooked in chicken soup or used as an ingredient in cholent. Because of its sausage shape and the flour-based stuffing, helzel is sometimes called "false kishke".[1][2][3]
The name derives from Yiddishheldzl (העלדזל, "neck") which in turn stems from German Hals.[1][4]
The Ashkenazi helzel bears a similarity to tebit, an Iraqi Jewish variant of hamin, which includes a whole chicken skin filled with a mixture of rice, chopped chicken meat, and herbs.[5]