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!
Ingredients
- 1 Container of Fresh Chicken Livers
- 1 Cup Flour
- Salt
- Pepper
- Peri-Peri Spice
- Dried Parsley
- 4 Eggs, whisked
- 2 Cups Panko Bread Crumbs
- Sunflower or Canola Oil for Deep-frying
Instructions
- Clean the chicken livers by removing all of the sinew parts & cut it in smaller pieces.
- Combine the flour, salt, pepper, peri-peri spice and dried parsley in a shallow smaller pan or rectangular container.
- Set up your breading station. The first container will have the flour, the second shallow container will have the eggs and the last shallow container will have the Panko bread crumbs.
- In a heavy-base pot, heat the oil to ± 175°C. If you do not have a thermometer, you can start on the second highest setting on your stove and once you start frying, immediately turn it down to medium heat.
- Make sure to have a plate lined with kitchen towel, oven gloves and a metal slotted spoon ready to remove the chicken livers from the hot oil.
- Once your oil is heated, pat the chicken livers with kitchen towel making sure to remove any moisture. Dredge each chicken liver in the flour, making sure to shake off any excess flour. You can also do this by mixing the chicken livers with the flour in a sealed plastic bag. Make sure that the flour goes into all of the folds of the livers. Make sure you use only your right hand for this. The right hand will be used when working with the dry ingredients and the left hand will be used when working with the wet ingredients.
- The next step is to remove the chicken with your right hand and placing it into the container with the egg. By using your left hand, make sure the egg covers all of the flour.
- With your left hand, remove the livers from the container filled with egg and drop it into the container with the Panko bread crumbs. Cover the livers with Panko crumbs with your right hand.
- If you feel comfortable dropping the chicken livers into the hot oil, you may do so. You can also use the slotted spoon to slowly drop it into the oil. You can only fry about 6 livers at a time. Please be careful whilst the livers are frying – it will splatter and it might burn you if you stand too close to the pot.
- Turn the livers once you see the sides getting golden. Once the livers are equally golden on both sides, you can remove them with the slotted spoon and place them on the plate with kitchen towel.
- Should you need to move the pot, please make use of the oven gloves?
- I recommend eating the chicken livers as soon as they are cooked to ensure that the crust goes not go soggy.
- You can serve the chicken livers with a ranch sauce, or a lime mayonnaise.
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. 
10 uit 10~!
YUM Renske!!! Dit lyk te mooi om te eet!