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Meat & Poultry

Stewed Chicken Liver.

Here’s yet another dish I’d never touch as a lil fella growing up on the islands, yet today it’s one of my favorite things to have with Dhal and Rice, with a side of Kuchela. We (my brother and 2 sisters) weren’t overly picky eaters as children, however we did make it a bit challenging for mom at times.

You’ll Need…

1 1/2 lb chicken liver
1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
2/3 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon Caribbean Green Seasoning
3/4 tablespoon Mushroom Soy Sauce (any dark soy sauce)
1/2 medium onion (diced)
1 medium tomato (diced)
2 cloves garlic (crushed)
1 teaspoon tomato ketchup
1 1/2 tablespoon chopped chives

Notes! Please use the video below to follow along as it’s loaded with tips which I may have missed to mention here. Additionally I’d like to mention that I washed the liver (after I cut into pieces) with the juice of 1/2 a lime and cool water. If doing this recipe gluten free, please go though the full list of ingredients to make sure they meet with your specific gluten free dietary requirements.

After having cut and washed the liver, it’s time to marinate it for 5 minutes with the Caribbean Green Seasoning, Salt, Black Pepper, Ketchup and Soy Sauce. I used Mushroom Soy sauce, but you may use any dark soy sauce with success. Should you want to add a 1/2 teaspoon of grated ginger, it will add a lovely flavor as well. Mommy would use Caribbean Browning sauce instead of the soy sauce, but my cupboard was bare… gotta make a trip to the Caribbean market soon.

On a medium heat, add the oil to a saucepan, followed by the onion and tomato. After 2 minutes, turn the heat to low and add the crushed garlic and cook for a further 2-3 minutes.

There’s no need to marinate the seasoned Chicken liver for too long. Once the onion is soft and tomato starts to melt, turn the heat back up to medium/high and add the chicken liver to the pan. Stir well. I added a splash of water (about 2 tablespoon) to the bowl I marinated the liver in to pick up any remnants of the marinade, then add it to the pan.

The liver will also release it’s own liquid, so may I recommend you don’t place a lid on the pan or we could easily over-cook the liver. That said, unlike some recipes you may come across which cook the liver until ‘pink’, I need mine cooked thoroughly.

Do remember to stir it a few times to make sure it cooks evenly.

After 5 minutes on that medium/high heat, it’s time to personalize things a bit. Decide if it’s cooked to your liking (cook longer if necessary), if you want gravy or not (mommy would do this dry), and taste and adjust the salt to your liking. At this point I added the chopped chives and cooked it for 2 minutes more to get rid of most of the liquid.

I find that finishing with the chives gives it a lovely garlic/onion flavor. But you can opt for parsley or Chadon Beni (culantro). Should you find it difficult to source Chadon Beni, you may use Cilantro (coriander). Keep in mind that it will further cook after you turn off the stove due to the residual heat in the pan.

You’ll notice that I didn’t use an Caribbean Sunshine (scotch bonnet), but you’re free to add some should you want a little heat in the finished stewed chicken liver. Add it with the onion and tomato at the start.

Gluten Free Meat & Poultry

Quick And Tasty Curry Chicken Livers.

A coworker had invited me out for lunch many moons ago saying that the restaurant in the mall where we worked had the best liver with onions on special every Thursday… I still recall his enthusiasm when he spoke about how delicious they were. I also recall other coworkers having a sort of disgusting look on their faces as they heard him describe  this liver with onions. No-Lie it was the most revolting thing I had ever tasted. Still a bit bloody and that metallic taste stuck with me the rest of the day. No wonder parents in North America struggle to get their children to eat chicken liver. It’s the way YOU cook it!

If you’ve tried my other chicken liver recipe : Caribbean Inspired Stewed Livers , you’ll know it’s all about flavor so don’t be alarmed when I get all the liver haters loving livers.

 

You’ll Need…

1 lb Chicken Livers
pinch black pepper
1 tablespoon veg oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup bell pepper
2 scallions (green onions)
1 shallot (or small onion)
4 cloves garlic
2 sprigs thyme
4 bird’s eye pepper (or 1/4 scotch bonnet)
3 leaves shado beni (or cilantro)

1 tablespoon curry powder

Note: Shado Beni (Chadon beni) can be found at most West Indian stores as well as Asian and Latino markets where it may be called culantro. The best substitute is cilantro or coriander. IMPORTANT: If doing this recipe gluten free, do ensure that the curry powder has no flour filler to meet with your specific gluten free dietary needs.

Prepare the ingredients (slice the shallot, bell pepper and scallion, then diced the garlic and shado beni). Please leave the bird’s eye pepper whole as we want the flavor but not the raw heat. Obviously if you want the kick, dice them. Bearing in mind that the seeds will pack a real kick if you include them.  Clean, chop the liver in equal sized pieces (so they cook evenly) and wash/ drain.

Heat the oil on a medium heat then add the shallots and garlic, lower the heat and let it cook slowly for a couple minutes. Now add the curry powder and cook (still on low) for another 2-3 minutes. The curry will go a bit darker and grainy. The goal here is to wake-up the spices which make up the curry blend.

Toss in the whole peppers (stems removed) and heat through, then add the pieces of liver to the pot and stir well to coat with that lovely curry base we created. Turn the heat up to medium/high now. Then top with everything else except the shado beni, stir well and cook for about 5 minutes.

It’s important to not cover the pot or it will release a ton of moisture and then it will mean cooking longer than necessary to burn off that liquid. The last minute of cooking, top with the finely chopped shado beni or cilantro. Taste for salt as your tolerance for salt will be different than mine.

Now here’s the kicker (after my gallivanting above about how YOU cook livers).. our girls refuse to eat liver, even with this delicious version. Liver has a bad reputation, falsely spread by people who (in most cases) have never given them a try. Yes the texture is a bit weird, but once cooked correctly, the tasty flavor will make up for that. Serve warm!

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Meat & Poultry

Caribbean Style Chicken Livers.

Our mom will verify that no matter where in the world you’re doing your parenting gig, you’ll encounter kids who refuse to eat chicken livers. I still recall the look on my face when we’d come home from school and you’d open the pot to see what mom prepared for dinner and with horror you would see chicken livers staring back at you. However, that changed the first time I actually tasted them and I’ve never looked back. Our mom is a boss in the kitchen so it still baffles me that I didn’t trust her skills… why did I avoid chicken livers all those years?

Seasoned and cooked to perfection, these chicken livers will get your kids and stubborn eaters asking for more… trust meh!

 

You’ll Need….

1lb chicken liver
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 med onion
2 cloves garlic
1/4 teaspoon green seasoning
1 tomato
1 scallion
1/4 scotch bonnet pepper
1 teaspoon ketchup
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
pinch curry powder

Chop the liver into 1 inch pieces, wash with some lime or lemon juice and water, then drain and set aside for us to prepare the other ingredients. Dice the scallion, onion, tomato, garlic and scotch bonnet pepper. Remember to wear gloves when handing scotch bonnet peppers and wash your hands with soap and water immediately after. If you’re concerned about the raw heat of the scotch bonnet pepper, don’t use any of the seeds or white membrane surrounding the seeds.. that where that raw heat is.

With your trimmed, washed and drained chicken livers in a bowl, it’s time to add the salt, black pepper, green seasoning, ketchup, curry powder and scotch bonnet pepper slices. Give it a good stir and set aside (fridge) to marinate for about 30 minutes.

Time to cook… heat the oil on a medium flame, then add the diced onion and reduce the heat to low, so we can slowly cook the onion. After 3 minutes the onions should be soft, translucent and the edges should start going golden. Add the finely diced garlic and cook for another 1-2 minutes.

It’s now time to add the seasoned chicken livers. Turn up the heat to medium and give it a good stir (don’t cover the pan).

Chicken livers cooks very quickly and here’s where you’ll have to decide how “cooked” you like it as it will affect the final texture of it all. I like my liver firm, but not leathery., so you can follow my direction.

Add the diced tomato and continue to stir to make sure each piece of liver gets in contact with the bottom of the pan/pot.

You’ll notice that two major things will happen. The liver will start to go a dull color and it will spring it’s own juices (why we need to leave the lid open, so we can burn that off). Cook for about 3-5 minutes, then add the chopped scallion and then turn up the heat to burn off any liquid.

It should take 4 minutes to now burn off the liquid. I like leaving a little gravy, but our mom was strict.. she wanted to see oil (fuss it was dry).

Taste for salt and adjust accordingly.. turn off the heat and serve. I love these chicken livers in a sandwich, so that’s exactly what I did after these were hot off the stove. But these are an excellent side dish as part of your family dinner.

I guarantee you (strong words), that this will be the absolute best way you’ve ever had chicken livers and I’m even bold enough to say that your picky eaters will also find this very appetizing (providing you can convince them to give it a test drive). Here’s the video of me preparing this wonderful chicken liver dish:

Before you go, don’t forget to check out the latest cooking videos, connect with me on twitter and join our community on facebook. oh yea! leave me a comment below – it’s appreciated.

Meat & Poultry

Simple Chicken Liver And Gizzard.

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The majority of people I know are turned off by liver and when you mention chicken gizzards they have this look on their face as if they think I’m joking. People actually eat gizzards? I don’t blame the average North American for disliking liver as I too was turned off the first time I had liver at a local restaurant. A coworker insisted we go out for lunch at a pub that had liver and onions on special. The texture, smell and overall taste was not appealing. It was nothing close to the liver and gizzards that my mom would make with dhal and rice for dinner.

During my childhood on the islands I remember my mom having a bag in the freezer where she would put the chicken liver and gizzard from the weekly chicken we’d buy from the chicken farm, until she had enough for a meal. My job back then was to “feather” the chicken and I can safely tell you that I don’t miss that chore. Our mom hated the automatic “plucker” that the farm had, as she thought that it bruised the meat of the chicken. So little ole me had to hand pluck the chicken every Sunday morning.

Here’s my rendition of the recipe my mom would use back then.

You’ll Need…

1lb chicken liver
1 lb chicken hearts and gizzards
1/2 teaspoon salt
dash of black pepper
1 small onion sliced
1/2 medium tomato sliced
2 cloves garlic sliced or crushed
1 scallion diced (green onion)
1/2 teaspoon green seasoning mix
1/4 teaspoon soy sauce (dark)
1/4 hot pepper (habanero or scotch bonnet)
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoon vegetable oil
juice of 1/2 lime or lemon
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon ketchup

Start off by cutting the gizzards into small pieces (about 1/2 inch), but cut the liver into bigger chunks (I’ll explain why later). Place in a bowl and squeeze in the lime or lemon juice, mix well and rinse with cool water. Drain off all the excess water and let’s season this so it can marinate.  Add the following to the bowl.. salt, black pepper, green seasoning, tomato, hot pepper (optional – can use hot sauce as well), scallion, garlic, Worcestershire sauce and onion. Mix well and allow to marinate for at least 15 minutes.

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Heat the oil on medium/high heat in a pan, then add the seasoned gizzard and hearts ONLY! This is why I suggested above that you keep the pieces of liver a bit bigger, so you can fish them out and keep them aside. Since liver cooks very fast we won’t be adding it to the pot until much later. So go ahead and add the gizzard and heart pieces, as well as any of the marinade. Give it good stir and add the ketchup and soy sauce. This will help it achieve some colour or it will be rather pale. Add the 1/4 cup of water and ring it to a boil, then lower the heat to a very gentle simmer, cover with a lid and allow it to cook for about for 25-30 minutes. The gizzard will take a while to get tender. Stir occasionally.

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After 30 minutes there should still be a bit of liquid in the pot and the gizzard should be tender. Here is when we add the seasoned liver we set aside earlier. After adding the liver, turn up the heat to medium, give it a good stir and cover the pot. Let that cook for 3 minutes. Then remove the lid and cook for another 3 minutes. My mom would turn up the heat if at this point the gravy was thin, since we enjoyed it with little or no gravy.

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Check this observation I made over the years. I remember when I first moved to Canada way back when… you could get a huge pack of chicken liver and gizzards at the grocery store for under a dollar. Today, you have to be lucky to even find it in the meat section and if you do, the price is almost as high as buying chicken breast. The influx of immigrants created a huge demand for such things. And butchers are only too happy to cash in. The same can be said for pig feet, oxtail, goat, etc.

If you’re not daring enough to try the gizzards and hearts, do try the liver only. Just season as above and cook no more than 6 minutes in total on high heat, or you’ll wreck the liver. And before you go I’d like to ask you to leave me a comment below – even if it’s just to say hello. It’s appreciated. BTW, have you connected with us on facebook yet?