Best Chicken Liver Recipes

From the blog http://chatteringkitchen.com December brings with it cold winds, hot fireplaces and the spirit of festivities. Kitchens are fired up to prepare for families and friends, houses are filled with people enjoying the holidays and everyone comes together to share each others joy. What better way to bring a smile on people's faces than through good food. While most tend to concentrate on large lunches and dinners, some shift focus towards canapes and cocktails. Short on time but still want to have people over to rejoice Christmas or simply the holidays, then invite them over for cocktails in the evening or after dinner. Hors de ouevres can be quickly whipped up to excite the palate of your epicure guests. One such December favorite of mine is Liver Pate, a classy and full bodied antipasti, served with melba toasts. Having been a specialty of my mothers', I can still remember the smell that would emanate from the kitchen each time that she would make it. Even though she would not cater professionally, but her famous Liver Pate was ordered by many of her friends for their dinner parties. Famous throughout French and Belgian cuisine, Liver Pate can be made with Goose Liver (Foie Gras), Duck Liver, Pork Liver or Chicken Liver. Since my mother used Chicken Liver most of the time, I adopted her recipe, albeit with a twist - cranberry sauce. A combination that is perfect to serve during the holiday and Christmas season.

One night in 2006, as the executive chef of Marigold Kitchen, I was preparing a dinner at the James Beard House in New York. By the time we finished up, our crew was hungry and exhausted. We rolled into Momofuku Ssäm Bar around midnight, and several minutes later were presented with an entire slow-cooked pork shoulder, crackling on the outside and soft and juicy on the inside. With the familiarity of a kitchen team that had just worked a 14-hour shift, we devoured the whole thing.The Zahav Lamb Shoulder was born that night on the drive home. It was also possibly responsible for keeping me from falling asleep at the wheel. Next to our hummus, this is the dish that put Zahav on the map. We brine a whole lamb shoulder and smoke it over hardwood for a couple of hours. Then we braise it in pomegranate molasses until the meat is tender enough to eat with a spoon. Finally, the lamb shoulder is finished in a hot oven to crisp up the exterior. This dish is the best of all possible worlds — smoky and crispy, soft and tender, sweet and savory — and it’s a celebration all by itself. The use of pomegranate in this dish (and the crispy rice we serve with it) is very Persian, which is a cuisine with tradition so rich it always makes me think of palaces and royal banquets. The chickpeas recall the humble chamin, a traditional Sabbath stew that’s slow-baked overnight.Chickpeas, the underrated star of this dish, recall the humble chamin, a traditional Sabbath stew that’s slow-baked overnight. During the long braise, the lamb bones create a natural stock that is absorbed by the chickpeas, creating the richest, creamiest peas you’ve ever tasted. I’ve even made hummus with these chickpeas — totally decadent!Preparing the lamb shoulder is a two- or three-day process and thus requires some advance planning. We go through about sixty shoulders a week at the restaurant, and it’s still not enough. If you’ve ever been disappointed at Zahav, chances are it’s because we didn’t have a lamb shoulder for you. Now, you can make it for yourself.We smoke our lamb shoulders at Percy Street Barbecue. If you have a smoker, feel free to smoke the lamb. Or just roast the shoulder as the recipe indicates.From Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking, ©2015 by Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook. Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.

Head chef and Top Chef alum Ed Cotton shares with us his recipe for pasta with Bolognese sauce from Sotto 13 restaurant in New York City. This recipe can easily be cut in half if you're not looking for restaurant portions. 

A bruschetta (brew-SKET-ta) is one of many variations of toasted bread, olive oil, and garlic from Italy and it is justly popular all over the world. Meant to be eaten as a dish in itself, today a bruschetta is often served with a topping, though then it’s technically a crostino (literally "little crust"). The traditional Roman way of preparing a bruschetta is to cook the bread in oil to toast it, while the Tuscan fett’unta ("anointed" slice) is toasted first, then drizzled with warmed olive oil, not only a little lighter but less work. And I’ve included a version of Italian-American garlic bread that won’t make you expire from garlic poisoning.

Chicken livers are the secret to the Bolognese, shhhh… The sweetness of the peppers, onion, and basil, and the salty tang of gorgonzola is the perfect foil to Pasta alla Fantasia. — Cooking and the Career GirlFor more recipes like this one, visit Cooking and the Career Girl.