Necessity is the mother of invention. I was looking for a way to use up a nine pound bag of chicken giblets from one of my grass-fed farmers. But, you have to be quick with all those chicken hearts and livers, lest the bacteria get to them first!
In the animal kingdom, most species will hunt out the most nutrient-dense offerings and preferentially eat those first. Traditional peoples knew this. Predators know this. Even hunters and butchers know that innards must be processed and chilled first.
And that is exactly why livers will ‘spoil’ so quickly. It’s just that some other little species (if not your dog or cat given the opportunity) has gotten there first. Just trim off any dark liver spots and carry on as usual.
“Giblets – 9 pounds”
In this case, here’s how it breaks down for me. I defrosted the bag labeled “Giblets 9 lbs” in advance of a summer barbecue, sorted all the chicken hearts and took them. Even the most weary of organ-meat consumers must confess that grilled chicken hearts are simply delicious. Just a little salt and pepper and those were all gone.
The next morning I still had five plus pounds of chicken livers to consume. We had chicken liver tacos for dinner and I reserved some for the baby. (I’ve found a snap-top tupperware works best if you must store them for a couple days.) And yet I still had plenty left in the fridge.
Pâté or mousse seemed the best bet with the remainder, since I can refreeze them and I love having jars on hand for day trips. I can grab a jar straight from the freezer in the morning and it’s perfectly defrosted, but still cool in a couple of hours for lunch. As such, Pâté with Sausage Seasonings was born.
Pâté with Sausage Seasonings
I’ve recently reconnected with an old favorite – Alice Water’s Simple Homemade Sausage – and I remembered how much I love these flavors together. Why not make an inspired pâté? To balance the stronger flavor of chicken liver, I increased all the spices. And added a heap of extra lard. This matches the fat profile of other pâté recipes I like, and I see no shame in aiming for 10x when it comes to fat-soluble vitamins.
In the end, I like having a super spreadable and smooth mousse. Easy for veggies and no complaints from the kids about little bits of connective tissue. I decided to take the extra (albeit not necessary) step of pressing our pâté through a medium-mesh sieve with the back of a ladle to make liver mousse. See how easy:
From there, I scooped out the mousse into pint and cup jars – one for later in the week, and the rest into the chest freezer. In the end, these spices came together exactly as I hoped.
Pâté with Sausage Seasonings is a quick recipe to get some liver down the hatch before the nearest competitor. Perfect for both seasoned liver lovers and those still in the making. Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken livers, cleaned of excess connective tissue and roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup lard, divided
- salt (1 heaping tsp of fine sea salt or adjusted)
- 1/2 t ground pepper
- 1 T fresh sage, chopped
- 1/4 t (freshly grated) nutmeg
- 1/4 t cayenne
Instructions
- Clean up your chicken livers, cutting off any connective strips or dark spots, and roughly chop. You can be much quicker than usual if you plan to pass the puree through a sieve as described in step 4 below.
- Saute the chicken livers. Add 2 tablespoons lard to the pan (for each batch, if the livers don't all fit in one pan). Heat on medium until lard is melted, then saute the livers for about 2-3 minutes per side until they are a little browned, but still pink in the middle. Pour all of this off into a food processor or blender jar.
- Return pan to the stove on low and add remaining lard. Meanwhile, as the lard melts, add salt, pepper, sage, nutmeg and cayenne and blend until smooth. When the remaining lard is melted, add it to the food processor/blender as well.
- (Optional) Pour the mixture through a medium-mesh sieve over a bowl. Use the back of a ladle, moving in circles around the sieve, to push the puree through. All the tangly bits and excess connective tissue will be caught up in the sieve. In the bowl you will be left with a easy-to-eat smooth-as-can-be mousse.
- Taste for seasonings and then pour or spoon pate/mousse into jars. Cover each jar with a little piece of parchment or wax paper to keep it from oxidizing. Generously lick your spatula and other utensils before washing.
Could I use butter in place of the lard?
Absolutely! Or any other nutrient-dense fat that you love 🙂 (ghee, duck fat, tallow, etc…)
My kids complain about the “iron taste” when I make chicken liver pate. Do you find soaking the livers in milk or lemon juice prior to making a pate recipe helpful in decreasing the metallic taste? I’m going to try this specific recipe in hopes that the delicious herb profile will overtake the iron taste. Fingers crossed! If you have time, please let me know if you’ve tried the soaking method and if it does work as promised? Thanks Janine!
Hi Michelle,
I’m so glad you’re here! Good for you coming back to pate and experimenting again! Yes – I have soaked liver many times and while it did help me become better friends with liver (more comfortable working with it and cooking it) – I don’t notice a strong difference in flavor from soaking. I find that certain spice profiles – such as allspice (which you’ll find in this recipe – use a generous portion 🙂 ) and not cooking quite as long have a better impact on the strong minerally flavor. I go into a lot more depth with many methods for improving the flavor of liver in my Liver Lover Course. If you are interested in learning more – check it out at liver.offallygoodcooking.com 🙂
xo, Janine