Chicken Liver Pâté

I am going to make this – love pate – very common in Sweden on a sandwich with pickles – as common as cheese. I usually just get the stuff here in Seattle in a german store but going to try to make myself. . .it’s about time.

How long does it take to cook the livers. How do you know when they are cooked? Thanks much.

The timing sort of depends on the size of the livers and how hot your stove can get. The livers should just be cooked through. ~Elise

For those who can’t eat dairy, this is how I make chicken liver pate:
Saute 3 or 4 chopped shallots in olive oil (or butter if it doesn’t bother you too much). Saute the cleaned chicken livers until just cooked (not pink but still very soft). Take the livers out of the pan. Throw in about 1tsp of fresh thyme and about 1/3 cup of cheap ruby port. Reduce the port until it’s about 3tbsp. Puree all this in the food processor and add salt and pepper to taste. (I find it needs about 1tsp of kosher salt, but everyone has their own salt needs.) Chill and eat!
PS. If you’re really hungry, eat some livers and sauce over pasta or rice before pureeing the rest for pate. It’s a great meal!
Happy New Year!

I love pate but I’ve never seen liver/s sold separately. Where would you look for it? Are they sold cooked/raw/frozen?

We have two local grocery stores with butchers (one of the stores is Whole Foods). I just get raw chicken livers from the butcher, and I’ve seen them packaged as well. ~Elise

I use to make the liver pate forever but instead of sautee, I cook the liver in a chicken broth (could be an instant broth you buy in a supermarket but with low sodium). I use the liquid to complement the cream when processing the cooked liver in the processor.
Instead of capers and anchovy, I put a tea spoon of a very good curry (powder).
And finally, to make it firmer, prepare a package of white powder gelatin and mix it to the pate still warm, before send it to the fridge.

Just a note to be sure to cook the livers through. I adore chicken liver pate, but have seen recipes that call for the livers still to be pink in the center. The one time I tried this, I was hospitalized with salmonella and campylobacter! As long as they are cooked, this recipe should be not just delicious but perfectly safe.

I read this recipe yesterday, just before a trip to the grocery store for some last minute New Year’s ingredients. I found a one pound tub of chicken livers, so I brought them home with this recipe in mind. I had a recipe for chopped chicken livers that used olive oil instead of butter, and incorporated hard boiled eggs and cooked carrots, so I sort of combined the two recipes, using my favorite flavors from each of them.

The other one caramelized the onions, but poached the livers rather than sauteeing them, which didn’t appeal to me at all. Instead, I browned the onions in olive oil and then cooked the livers with the onions. I put them into the food processor with hard-cooked eggs and carrots. The juice from the onion-liver sautee provided enough liquid, and the eggs and carrots gave it some more body and texture. I added a little Marsala (lacking brandy!) and chilled it in a bowl. Creamy, with with a sort of roasted flavor, this turned out really well even though I forgot the capers, and didn’t use the cream.

I had bought some rye crispbread flavored with rosemary for our New Year’s pickled herring, and the crispbread turned out to be just right with the liver, too. Excellent!

I adore live pate of all kinds. Your’s certainly looks better than mine (I’ll remember your photo trick). I made a deer liver pate and it was divine. It made a lot, so I mixed the leftover with cream cheese and we had sandwiches with it, delish!

Hi Elise!

Can I substitute white wine for brandy in your liver pate recipe? Thanx!

Chit

Hi Chit, you could try it, or you could just skip it all together. ~Elise

Everyone in our family (even the little kids) love pate and request it several times a year. We’ve always used the recipe in the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook (red and white cover, page 15), which is a lot less sophisticated than your version, Elise. Still, it’s easy to make, and using the oiled mold makes for a pretty presentation if it matters to your family. This recipe makes 1 2/3 cups, which isn’t nearly enough for our crowd, but it can be doubled or tripled if necessary. The Tabasco adds flavor and a hint of heat, but you can skip it or add less if you like, but it doesn’t bother even the little ones in our family.
1 lb chicken livers
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp mayo or salad dressing (ie, Miracle Whip)
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp butter, softened
8 drops Tabasco Sauce
1/2 tsp dry mustard, 1/2 tsp salt, dash pepper

Cook livers and onions in 2 Tbsp butter in a covered skillet about 5 min. Drain; reserve 3 Tbsp drippings. In a food processor, whirl the mixture (incl. reserved drippings)until smooth. Add everything else and whirl until smooth. Place in well-oiled 2 cup mold or bowl and chill at least 6 hours or overnight.
Garnish with sliced hard boiled eggs, parsley, snipped chives, etc.

Nice photo, considering what you had to work with! I am craving this right now; it will have to wait. BUT I ‘m about to dash to the market, so you never know. I don’t trust myself to make pate unless there are a lot of people around to eat it, since I could eat most of it all by myself. I usually make a similar recipe from Tuscan chef Benedetta Vitale’s book Soffrito–the magic ingredient is the anchovies–no matter how much you think you hate them, you shouldn’t leave them out! I wish you could beam me some right now :)

My family makes this pate in an alternate style. We start with two slices of bacon, Render said bacon, remove from pan onto a paper lined plate and reserve for later use.

Meanwhile chop one large white onion finely and hard boil one egg. Saute onion, in same pan bacon was rendered in, (s&p) for about four minutes before adding the chicken livers. Cook through, chopping the livers while heating. When cooked remove pan from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes while peeling eggshell.

In a food processor, chop reserved bacon, egg and liver and onion mixture, (taste – s&p to taste). If too thick add water or chicken broth/stock until desired consistency.

Refrigerate for at least three hours before serving. Serve on either Ritz cracker or Toated Onion Crackers. These are the best!!!!

Yum! When I got together with friends in November to slaughter 75 broilers, no one else wanted any of their livers, so I ended up with several pounds of them. I made a couple of different pâtés, and froze the rest of the livers for later use. My favorite pâté recipe has about half the butter/cream of this recipe, but includes half an apple and subs calvados for brandy. The apple lightens the texture, and the flavor is great with liver.

Love the idea of including an apple and subbing calvados. Thanks! ~Elise

This was the dish I most looked forward to at my Aunt’s New Year’s Eve party every year. It makes my mouth water to think of it. I cannot have dairy now – can you think of what else I could put in for the cream? I am also off from soy, legumes and gluten.

Elise, thank you for this recipe. I’ve always loved chicken liver pate but never made it. I will try this, but may need a substitution for brandy. Any suggestion? Will wine do or preferably non alcohol? Thanks again.

Just skip the brandy if you can’t have alcohol. ~Elise