May 6 - Chicken Livers With Caramelized Onions and Mushrooms

This week, Bittman was attempting to talk about the efficiency of freezing food. It was a good reminder for me, since I’m not a big fan of eating leftovers the next day. However, I realized that could be better about making extra servings and freezing them for a lunch next week, instead of bringing a frozen, pre-packaged diet entrée. I also realized that I was already following some of Bittman’s advice. In the past few months, I’ve been better about saving unused ingredients – in my freezer, you’ll find cups of frozen chicken broth made from the remains of a roast chicken and a container of shrimp heads that I can use for stock in the future.

By the end of the article I expected to find a couple recipes for things that would freeze well for the future. But no, except for one frozen cookie dough recipe (a trick I’ve used for quite a while), the other recipes used ingredients you might already randomly have lurking in your freezer…like frozen beans or egg whites or livers. Really? I have frozen beans, but the reason I freeze them is that it’s really easy to crock pot a 1 lb. bag of beans and I already have a bunch of recipes that call for beans. I don’t need more recipes for using beans. So I went back to one of my original goals for this project, using an ingredient I’ve never used before – chicken livers.

Besides the occasional pate, I don’t think I’ve ever had liver, much less prepared it. I’ve never actively avoided liver, but I’ve never sought it out either. So I headed to grocery store and looked for chicken livers. I was directed to the freezer in the butcher area, where I found a 1 lb. container for only $1.99! This is probably the cheapest meat that Bittman has ever directed us towards. As for the rest of the ingredients, they were easy:


2 medium onions, cut in two and thinly sliced
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or butter, more as needed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 sprig fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1 cup button mushrooms, cleaned, trimmed and sliced
4 uncooked chicken livers
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar or other, or more to taste
Crusty bread or toast for serving

I prepped the onions and alternated cooking and prep work for the rest of the recipe, following the directions as given.

1. Put onions in a large skillet over medium heat. Cover and cook, stirring infrequently, until onions are dry and almost sticking to pan, about 20 minutes.

2. Stir in a tablespoon of oil or butter and a large pinch of salt and a few grindings of black pepper, add rosemary and turn heat down to medium-low. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms release their liquid and it evaporates, about 15 minutes more. Remove vegetables from pan; set aside.

3. Wipe pan with a paper towel, put it over medium-high heat and add remaining oil or butter. When oil is hot or foam from butter has subsided, add chicken livers. Keep heat high and cook livers quickly, turning them until brown and crisp on both sides but still pink on inside, about 3 or 4 minutes total. Remove from pan.

4. Return vegetables to pan along with vinegar and 2 or 3 tablespoons water, just enough to deglaze; stir well to combine and serve with livers and crusty bread, or on toast.

I was able to follow these steps without problems. I had a nice dinner plate, with a side of sautéed spinach and the suggested crusty wheat bread. But I can’t show you the final product, because I forgot to take a picture. What can I say except it was long day and I was thinking about making the start of the Biggest Loser finale (how did I allow myself to fall into that 3 hour time suck????).

So you'll have to take my word for it -- ended up with a nice dinner. I can’t say that chicken livers are my new favorite protein, but they were nice and creamy with a distinct flavor. I’d definitely make them again…and I probably will be since I have about 2/3 lb. of livers remaining, which are now in my freezer for future use. So in the end, I guess I did have some new frozen ingredients courtesy of Mark.