How to Cook chicken livers?

I bought chicken livers a few months ago thinking they would be good with onions and toast. I cooked them and they became little rocks. Does anyone know how to cooks these suckers?

Should I just give up on them?

You just overcooked them....

Saute your onions and some garlic in a bit of butter. Dredge your livers in seasoned flour, then egg, and then again in seasoned flour. Just about the time the onions are becoming a nice brown colour add your livers and saute a few minutes each side.. Press them...if there is still lots of give the centers will still be a bit on the raw side. At this point, add about 1/2 cup marsala and deglaze the pan. Two minutes later, slide the entire pan's contents over tagliatelle or wide egg noodles. Sprinkle some grated cheese and fresh chopped parsley on top. Some diced tomato in the pan would be a very very nice touch, too.

Just what ever you do don't put them in the microwave. We had a cat years ago that my wife always fried up a small package of chicken livers for. Well one Sunday she was running late and did them in the microwave. She let them cool down and put it in his bowl. He promptly ran over to take a bit and the liver exploded in his mouth. Needless to say he wouldn't go near them any more.

I like chicken livers in dirty rice myself but never could eat them by themselves. There isn't enough onions on the planet to make liver taste good to me.

lol, joe c. pop livers for pets.

you can nuke livers, just "vent" them with a fork first.


i'd go with vb's post.

or just the butter, garlic, and onions, with evoo. and fresh parsley, to round off the sulfur.

joec said:

Just what ever you do don't put them in the microwave. We had a cat years ago that my wife always fried up a small package of chicken livers for. Well one Sunday she was running late and did them in the microwave. She let them cool down and put it in his bowl. He promptly ran over to take a bit and the liver exploded in his mouth. Needless to say he wouldn't go near them any more.

.

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LOL... when cat's get surprised its always a hoot..

I usually boil the suckers for my cat... don't like liver myself

I usually just eat one at a time the same night I'm roasting a chicken. I just season with a little S&P and some garlic powder, then saute it in butter. The little guy never seems to make it out of the kitchen!

buckytom said:

lol, joe c. pop livers for pets.

you can nuke livers, just "vent" them with a fork first.


i'd go with vb's post.

or just the butter, garlic, and onions, with evoo. and fresh parsley, to round off the sulfur.

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My wife is a true blond, the though never crossed her mind.

I love chicken livers!!!! Usually when baking a chicken, towards the last 15 or 20 minutes of baking, I will toss the livers into the pan where all the juice has collected. When chicken is done.... livers will be nice and roasty and flavorful!

The other way I like to do them now is dredge them in a bit of seasoned flour and fry them up for a few minutes. Ohhhh so yummy!!!

I love them fried simply, the way you do, sattie. I actually like them even better cold.

Fried cold livers Constance?

joec said:

My wife is a true blond, the though never crossed her mind.

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hope she doesn't read here....

Ah she knows she is a blond, beside I'm always teasing her about it. Beside she once told a friend that she has stayed with me all these years because she never wants to see me happy.

what a loving wife

Yes we are pretty well suited to each other but then Feb. 5 we will be married 44 years and together 45.

Personally, the only thing you will find me eating with chicken liver in there is Dirty Rice. Spicy enough to kill the liver flavor.

There is one recipe for liver I'm wanting to try later this year. Get a plastic microwave bacon tray. Take a container of chicken liver and break them into lobes, and lay them out on the tray. Liberally spinkle salt over the livers. And I mean really cover them with salt. You can add garlic powder if you want. Let the livers dry out a bit as the blood drains from them. After an hour or two, when the livers have firmed up a bit, flip them over and repeat. You want to livers to become really good and tough.

This is supposed to be a really good catfish bait. The liver is tough enough to stay on the hook. The added salt helps to attract the cats, and the garlic (if used) will also attract them.

Please note that I have NOT tried this yet. It's on my list of things to do this year when the weather and water warms up.

I do em the same way Vera does, right up to the Marsala, never though of that or the rest of what she does. I will definitely try that next time around!!

JoeC, your a funny guy.
I never got so fancy as Vera to make a meal of them. I don't know why, just never did. New idea. Good!
I just do the butter, salt and pepper while the rest of the bird is roasting. Like alittle treat for the cook.
But no, NO, NO calves liver. YIK!

What am I chopped liver?!! OK, don't answer that!

Ok, here is the way I learned to make chopped liver from my mom who learned it from her mom. (The old way. Today, healthier oil, like canola oil is used instead of schmaltz.)

Greene/Jacobs Family Famous Chopped Liver:
a traditional holiday dish

First you have to make the schmaltz:
Saute chicken fat to render it and make schmaltz. This is done by cooking down the fat with sliced onions. The onions should lightly brown but not get dark or black. The chicken fat should be cooked until it becomes gribenes (chicken skin cracklings). Strain out the gribenes but you can keep in the onions if you like. If not using the shmaltz right away, refrigerate it. Always refrigerate the leftovers. Leftovers are wonderful in mashed potatoes or on fresh rye bread sprinkled with a little kosher salt.

When that is done, saute a package of chicken livers with some of the schmaltz and more sliced onions. Saute until the livers are no longer pink inside and the onions are soft or lightly browned. (If you don't have enough schmaltz, you can save it for the chopping and saute the liver in a little canola oil)

Place the chicken livers, onions and enough schmaltz in a wooden bowl and use a mezza luna to chop together. When the liver is close to smooth, grate two hard boiled eggs into it and mix in with the mezza luna and continue to chop. Add salt and pepper to taste. This chopping should never been done in a food processor because you will never have the proper consistency--

Serve on rye bread. Or small rye cocktail bread if serving as an hors d'oevre. During Pesach, serve on matzoh.

Real chopped liver does not contain brandy or pistachios. That food is a French liver pate, not chopped liver.

Constance said:

I love them fried simply, the way you do, sattie. I actually like them even better cold.

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i love them the same way, cold is cool

I think I will try em again! When I boiled them they came out VERY hard and rubbery.

You keep overcooking them. Chicken livers do not take long to cook, not at all. I love them and the cooking is as simple as it gets. A little butter, allright a lot of buter, hit it up, add livers and some slised onion, some salt for seasoning, fry couple minnutes on each side. Done. There should still be a little bit of blod when you cut into them. Yum.

CharlieD, if there is a little bit of blood when you cut into them, then they are not kosher. And, when you make chopped liver, you want them to be cooked through but not tough. All the pink should be gone--so my mom and grandma taught me.

Kosher and liver is very complicated to begin with. It's a whole diferent story. especially liver fried in butter. Nothing even close to be kosher.

How's yor mom?

CharlieD said:

Kosher and liver is very complicated to begin with. It's a whole diferent story. especially liver fried in butter. Nothing even close to be kosher.

How's yor mom?

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Very true! milk products cant mix can they?

Here's how I cook chicken livers (but I haven't done it in awhile):

Fry about 6 slices of bacon in a pan until crisp. Remove from pan and add the equivalent of a big onion, sliced. Let the onion carmelize, then remove from pan and set aside.

Add some butter at this stage if needed (hey, I am not making any health claims. I said I haven't eaten them in awhile.) When the butter is bubbling, add the chicken livers, dredged in flour, salt and pepper. Use your spatula often and let them brown on each side well. Turn the heat down, add the onions and the bacon (torn into bits), and let it cook a few minutes longer, Don't over cook or they will taste like dirt clods.
You can also add some fresh mushrooms along with the onions if you like.

Yummy.

Caramelize a small, coarsely chopped brown onion, and set aside. Saute the livers in butter, same pan. Add a half of a chopped green bell pepper, then some chopped celery. Onion goes back in, with a bit of caraway seed. Add some chopped walnuts. Then add heavy cream and some black coffee. Thicken with potato starch, let rest. Serve with noodles or spaetzl.

I always prepare liver and other innards in one of these:

FryBoy said:

I always prepare liver and other innards in one of these:

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OMG!! I can't stop laughing.......

Barb

What is that, a pressure cooker??

And what has Barb in stitches??? What did I miss!?!

i think it is a garbage disposer