Chicken Liver Pate
So already I know that half of you are not going to make it here purely on the strength of the name of the post. To the half of you who did make it – a hearty congratulations! This must mean that either you like liver and pate or you want to like it because you know that it’s one of the healthiest things you can put in your body. Properly raised liver from pastured animals or wild caught fish is without doubt one of the healthiest foods in the world and it’s not even grown in Amazonian rainforests.
Home made pate is the healthiest version
of pate you can eat as is often the case with many foods. Have you seen the additives they put in the shop bought stuff? It’s really gross. Will you look at how many ingredients this one has including margarine, butter flavours (why bother!), preservatives and they even have add colour to it to make it look palatable! At least it’s “gluten free” (as if pate ever needed to have gluten added!)
My favourite way of eating liver is in this homemade version of chicken liver pate – I’ll be honest, it’s the only way I eat liver! But I Iove this stuff and I always feel like a million dollars the next day!
I only EVER use organic livers. I think it’s really important to know where your meat comes from and to use as clean a source as you can source but in the case of livers, I insist on organic ones! I never have to clean them either. They are easy and surprisingly non yucky to handle. They just go straight in the pan.
Ingredients
- 250g organic butter – grass fed
- 1 red onion – diced
- 1 clove of garlic – finely chopped
- 500g organic chicken livers
- teaspoon of chopped fresh thyme or herb of choice – sage and rosemary also work well
- 100ml brandy (optional – I add brandy to mine as I flame most of the alcohol off and it gives a lovely flavour)
- Himalayan salt to season
Method
- Place 125g of the butter in a saucepan and melt on a low heat.
- While butter is melting in saucepan, place a quarter of the remaining butter (about 30g) in a frying pan.
- Add the diced onion to the bubbling butter and cook till translucent. The object is not to brown the onion.
- Remove onion from pan leaving as much butter in pan as possible.
- Add another 30g of butter and when butter is bubbling , add livers to pan.
- Cook livers quickly until just done, turning after a minute. They should still be pink inside. The process should take no more than about 4 minutes. Overcooked livers make the pate taste yuck! If you choose to use the brandy, now is the time to add it. Allow it to cook down a little and flame it if you want to – it’s fun but be careful!
- Add the chopped garlic and thyme and stir through the livers.
Place the onions and the liver, garlic, thyme and butter juices in a blender and blend well until smooth.- You can pass the pate through a fine sieve into another bowl at this point for a silky smooth texture. I highly recommend going to this extra effort although you don’t have too provided you have a powerful blender. It will taste fantastic whether you sieve it or not. It’s a textural thing.
- If you choose to sieve the pate, add it back to the cleaned blender.
- Chop the remaining butter – there should be about 60 grams left, into 4 pieces and add them to the pate. The warmth of the mix will allow the butter to melt into it.
- Add Himalayan salt to taste remembering that the flavours will be dulled by refrigeration so don’t be too light handed with the seasoning. Add a small amount and keep adding to taste.Process again for at least a minute.
- Place the pate in the container you want to serve it in and smooth over the top with a spatula.
- Take the butter that has been on the stove top on low heat. It should have separated by now. You’ve just made clarified butter. Skim any solids off the top with a dessert spoon Pour the clear liquid part over the top of the smoothed pate to make an airtight seal. Discard the milk solids from the butter.
- Store in the refrigerator for up to a week.
- Make sure to eat the butter too!
Even if you don’t like liver, give this a try. You might be surprised that its actually quite addictive. A lot of people get their taste for liver from home made chicken liver pate especially if its a nice gently recipe. If you don’t like it, there will be someone near you who will just love it!
Let me know what you think! Do you have a special liver pate recipe or add a special flavour to yours? Please share it in the comments below
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