Panko Crusted Deep-Fried Chicken Livers

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I grew up in a family where I was exposed to a lot of different kinds of food. Some of my friends had not even heard of some of the food my parents made, let alone tasted it.  Some of this included okra, chicken necks and rhubarb. It was just too unusual. Unfortunately not many moms and dads experiment with food and their children end up very fussy eaters.

My mom and dad was born and raised in the Western Cape and grew up with things like bokkoms and ’pens & pootjies’. Offal was seen as a delicacy in our Afrikaans family and whenever we had a family gathering, an offal ’potjie’ was made.

Needless to say, chicken livers and any kind of offal or organ meat was a ‘no- no’ among many friends. Being a teenager is tough enough as it is, imagine how it is with your friends finding your eating habits weird and somewhat gruesome? It was at that moment that I decided I would stop eating chicken livers and offal. Yes, I know – how foolish of me to give into uneducated teenagers?! It was only after high school and after my teenage years that my brain cells resurfaced and I decided to go back to my African up-bringing and roots and eat offal again.

Today, I cannot imagine my life without chicken livers – I absolutely love it! Thankfully, so does my husband. Wherever we go, we order chicken livers just so we can compare it to what we have tasted at other restaurants. We have had really horrible chicken livers –too dry, too mushy, too saucy, too spicy, too bland, etc. The best way to prepare chicken livers is with love at home. Chicken livers are just like chicken breasts – if it is overcooked, it will become dry. I have made chicken livers with peri-peri sauce on many occasions and it is still one of my favourite weekday meals. Because one cannot have the same variation on cooking a specific meat for the rest of your life, you have to experiment with new cooking techniques and flavours otherwise you will become boring in entertaining and bored with food.

Have you noticed that restaurants always serve chicken livers the same way? This needs to change, ASAP.

We had Panko bread crumbs in the cupboard and I came up with the brilliant new way to serve chicken livers. This is a perfect snack to serve in a pub with ranch dressing or lime mayonnaise, or if you want to, serve it fine -dining style to any of your chicken liver-loving friends.

Chicken livers are inexpensive and it would be ideal if you could substitute your beef or lamb meals with a meal containing chicken livers, especially with the increase in food prices. Chicken livers contain a range of vitamins and minerals.  It is also, however, high is cholesterol.

If you have never eaten chicken livers, try it – you might end up even liking it!

For this meal, I decided to serve the deep-fried chicken livers with beetroot three ways (poached in red wine, pickled and beetroot crisps), port jelly, oven-roasted pearl onions, butter and thyme poached mini button mushrooms and roasted garlic cream cheese.

This took some time, but it was all worth it after tasting it!
Please contact me should you like the full recipe. 🙂

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