Liver Lover
Chicken livers are a favorite of My Beloved and, every now and then, I like them, too. Whenever I roast a chicken, I pan fry the liver for him as an appetizer - his face lights up when he sees what's on the little plate.
Preparing them for the pan is a drag - even my rather strong stomach is tested when I remove the connective tissue - but the final result is worth a little "ick" time.
Inspired by the idea of the classic liver, bacon and onions, I found a recipe on epicurious.com that used calves' liver, but it sounded good, so I adapted it for chicken livers.
Each of the ingredients is sautéed separately, so the bacon gets crisp, the onions get nicely browned in the bacon fat, and the livers are still a little pink inside. You use the same pan for all those steps, keeping each ingredient warm as you go, so the pan has a nice layer of extra flavors at the bottom by the time you add the mixture of chicken broth and sherry vinegar to make a pan sauce by swirling up all those flavors into the sauce as you reduce it a bit. Pour the sauce and top the livers with bacon bits and fresh parsley and you have a classic.
The vinegar brightens what might otherwise be a very heavy dish, and I liked the tang it added, but next time instead of an equal chicken-broth-to-vinegar ratio, I'd cheat in favor of the chicken broth so it was 3-1, instead of 2-2.
Still, for liver lovers like us, it was a solid A-, and we'd happily make it again.
posted by Zoomie at
10:28 AM
5 Comments:
Ick! Is funny but I will eat liverwurst and pate but liver and onions oh no. That leaves more for you guys.
I have a favorite chicken liver breakfast recipe from the Silver Palate that uses blueberry vinegar. I have not fixed them in a long time but used to serve them for brunch when my chicken-liver loving friend came to visit!
Greg, now that _is_ funny, that other iterations of liver give you the shivers, but not paté or liverwurst! I guess it's a texture thing for you?
Diane, the vinegar was definitely a great addition. Glad there's at least one other liver lover in the world! :-)
And I would put the whole lot on pasta (just for me, of course) We both love liver - chicken, veal, foie gras.....
Toward the end of my cats' lives they became very picky eaters so I started making chicken livers for them. It never crossed my mind to eat them myself. One day my seven year old son came home from school as I was finishing a batch and wondered what smelled good. He though they were divine and maybe the best after school snack ever. That broadened my appreciation for all sorts of liver. I think of the cats with fondness every time I make it. I will have to try it with vinegar next time. Sounds yummy!
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