A couple of months ago, a classmate of mine brought some chicken liver paté in for us all to sample. The taste immediately took me back to a time when I was probably around 12 years old, sitting at the luncheon table in my great-grandmother's Upper West Side NYC apartment with my mom, great-grandmother and two great-aunts. My mom and I would take these trips into Manhattan to visit the 80-something ladies-who-lunched and would always stop at Zabar's on the way. Well, one bite of that paté put me at that table, biting into liverwurst and smiling with the eldest women on the German side of my family. We'd schmear the liverwurst on rye bread and have tastes of smoked whitefish and pickled herring with onions to go with it. Those are some fantastic memories.
After I had that taste a couple of months ago, I called my mom to thank her for feeding me liver as a kid. I don't think she really got why I was thanking her, but nonetheless, it motivated me to FINALLY make my own paté. As soon as I finished eating the paté this evening, I called my Grandma (a talented home-chef herself) to tell her all about it, down to the herbs and spices I used. Grandma was delighted to hear about what I'd made and loved my idea to make some for her the next time I'm back in New Jersey.
I don't think it's a great secret that liver is a super-food. The nutrient density of once ounce of this organ meat looks like something of a vitamin supplement. Based on the RDA, here's how 1 ounce of liver stacks up for the following nutrients, many of which are quite scarce in other food sources. I know many of you are probably cringing at the idea of eating liver, but I promise you this recipe is quite tasty! After I made it tonight, I proceeded to eat about 4oz of the paté and about 30-45 minutes later I felt a rush of energy (read about that below). No joke… Win!
Iron: 18%
Niacin: 15%
Vitamin A: 75%
Vitamin B2 / Riboflavin: 33%
Vitamin B6: 11%
Vitamin B9 / Folate: 40%
Vitamin B12: 79%
Selenium: 33%
The nutrition in Liver.
Pasture-raised chicken livers over onions before cooking.
According to Chris Masterjohn,
“Liver and cod liver oil are nutrient-packed super-food supplements that can help boost energy, libido, muscle growth, brain power, and general health. They are abundant sources of nutrients difficult to obtain elsewhere, such as vitamin A, arachidonic acid, DHA, and the B vitamins.
Liver contains an unidentified “anti-fatigue factor” that was found to greatly boost swimming endurance in rats. It is probably extremely rich in carnitine, lipoic acid, and other energy-related nutrients whose food sources have not been sufficiently researched.”
Source: The Benefits of Liver, Cod Liver Oil and Dessicated Liver.
The Best Sources of Liver to Eat.
According to Lynn Razaitis of the Weston A. Price Foundation,
“Of course, we should consume liver from healthy animals–cattle, lamb, buffalo, hogs, chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese. The best choice is liver from animals that spend their lives outdoors and on pasture. If such a premier food is not available, the next choice is organic chicken, beef and calves liver. If supermarket liver is your only option, the best choice is calves liver, as in the U.S. beef cattle do spend their first months on pasture. Beef liver is more problematical as beef cattle are finished in feed lots. Livers from conventionally raised chicken and hogs are not recommended.”
Source: The Liver Files.
Check out Chris Kresser's take on liver in his post entitled “Liver:Nature's Most Potent Super-Food.”
Here's another fun article that lists out 10 Health Benefits of Chicken Liver – which essentially explains great uses for the above nutrient density in daily functions of the human body. Sweet!
This is just one of over 120 delicious and easy recipes in my new book, Practical Paleo!
Chicken Liver Paté
Yield: Approximately 4 servings.
Click here for estimated nutrition facts.
Ingredients
1lb chicken liver (you can try other liver if you like- select the darkest livers that you can find as lighter-colored livers are less healthy.)
1 small onion (or 1/2 of a large onion), chopped
1/2 cup red wine (or you can try balsamic vinegar if you don't want to use or don't have red wine)
2-4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 sprig fresh rosemary
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup butter (I like Kerrygold)
Sea salt (I like Redmond Real Salt)
2 tablespoons cracked black pepper (optional)
Click here for the approximate nutritional value for 1oz of this recipe.
Preparation
- Sauté the liver and onions in a couple of tablespoons of the butter until the livers are browned and the onions are tender.
- Add wine, garlic, mustard, herbs and lemon juice and cook uncovered until most of the liquid has gone.
- Transfer the mixture into a food processor and blend to a smooth paste along with the rest of the butter 1Tbsp at a time until it reaches a smooth, creamy consistency – you don't want it to be crumbly.
- Add salt to taste.
- Put pate in a shallow dish to refrigerate before serving.
- (optional) Press cracked pepper onto the top of it or garnish with a sprig of fresh thyme or rosemary.
- Enjoy spread on celery, carrots, cucumbers, peppers or any other veggies you want to dip!
Variations
- Use any other kind of liver you like.
- If you don't want to use wine, try using some balsamic, apple cider or red wine vinegar. I haven't tried that out myself though, so I can't tell you how well it would work.
- Here are a few other recipes you might want to try as well!
Comments 87
Okay… I’m going to make it too. You’ve inspired me. I’ve been meaning to use liver for a while now, just haven’t yet. Bought some today at the market tho.
I don’t have any childhood memory reinforcements, but I’m looking forward to it regardless. Thanks.
Yay! Let me know how it turns out!
Thanks for the recipe. We were looking for a good recipe today so we could make this instead of buying it in the store. Keep up the great work. CW
Let me know what you think! Most store-bought versions have weird ingredients that sneak in there!
I’ve been trying to locate a source of pastured chicken, eggs and liver in the Southern California area. I live in the Palos Verdes area, but the small farmers market doesn’t carry any pastured products. Any ideas appreciated. BTW, I’m 52 and my grandfather would grind chicken livers by hand and add I think olive oil or some kind of home made mayo and chopped egg. Served in celery sticks…Yum! All the kids loved it! Thanks for the reminder. I will be trying your recipe. Thanks.
Check http://www.eatwild.com
Da le ranch has pastured chicken,beef and pork. He is at the SOCO farmers market off the 405 in Costa Mesa.
Try Diamond Mountain Ranch’s website. They visit local farmers markets in the South Bay area.
I love chicken livers and make pate often for myself and my personal chef clients. I love the addition of mustard. I use sage and sherry in my recipe that is a conglomeration of several.
We love liver here. I recently made lambs liver too. But that wasnt a big hit. 🙁
I’ve been looking for a great pate recipe. Followed your tweet to your beautiful blog, Diane! Gotta shop for ingredients tomorrow. I know you said to pick dark liver, but would lighter liver be a bit less “liver-y” tasting? 😉 I’m trying to learn to eat it!
Hey Diane,
Thanks for the awesome recipe! I LOVE pate… and ever since I’ve changed my way of eating I’ve been eating more of it. Saw this recipe and thought “I’ve got to try that”. Bought me some chicken livers today and made it (with some changes). It was SUPER EASY to make… took me all of half an hour..
Substituted the red wine for organic balsamic vinegar.. It gives it an almost sweetness and tangyness about it.. SO GOOD!
Added more dijon and more garlic (just cos I heart garlic)
Used Lemon Thyme instead of normal Thyme
Added less butter at the end (probably by only 50g or so..). Still managed to get that creamy consistency
The liver wasn’t organic but according to the shop the chickens are kept in good conditions (not cage, hormone free etc). Definitely not the colour of your pasturised ones on your blog, but they were pretty dark looking.
Won’t add the cracked pepper to this one cos I’m not a fan of pepper
Thanks again! I will never have store bought pate ever again.
I don’t really think that will affect the taste, but lighter livers indicate less healthy animals. I would opt for the most red livers you can find. If they don’t look dark, skip them until they do or find another source. I don’t even feed my cat livers that look too light.
I don’t know much about liver, but my guess would be that dark red livers would have a better taste. Since liver is a “filter” organ, the worst the chicken eats or is treated, the more crap liver will have to filter, hence a brownish colour. Dark liver are “cleaner”. That’s also why baby beef liver has a more subtle taste than regular beef liver: baby beef liver didn’t filter as much as a full-grown beef.
Another great recipe, Diane! I substituted red wine vinegar for the red wine and bacon fat for the butter, and doubled the mustard. Turned out delicious and creamy! I’ve never had pate ever, so this was an awesome way to start!
Fabulous rendition of a similar recipe I’ve been making for years here in France…Do you have any suggestions for a savoury “cracker-texture-like” platform for a base? I have a problem with NOT associating pâté with baguette..but perhaps cucumber “disks” would work? Thank you for your informative, interesting and entertaining blog….
Thanks for the kind words 🙂 I shared some with my mom recently on cucumber slices and she loved it that way— I do, too. Try it!
My favorite medium in place of crackers or bread is to use slices of raw zucchini!! The flavor is very neutral, allowing any dip to shine!
Any recipe for raw crackers would work well! The base is usually dehydrated vegetables and/or seeds. My friend makes them and they are delicious.
http://www.therawtarian.com/basic-raw-cracker-recipe/
Made this last night and really liked it. I may have overdone it with the rosemary though and I subbed vinegar for wine, so I’ll be trying again soon. Thanks for the recipe.
I have to avoid all fermented foods because of migraines, so that means no wine or vinegar of any sort. Would apple juice work? I am not a liver fan so if the wine/vinegar is critical to making this palatable, I’ll have to skip it.
I would try the apple juice for sure- maybe even some cooked, skinless apples mixed in if you tolerate them. Good question!!!
Made some this week and wow so yum! I had to sub with apple cider vinegar and chives and parsley. I was initially turned off by the smell of it before cooking but by the time it was done, I was converted! Thanks for sharing this awesome yet simple recipe 🙂
How long will this last? and is it freezable?
i’d like to know too, thanks!
I have memories of my mum making batches of chicken liver pate in ramekins and freezing them in a freezer bag. I remember there was a solid layer of butter over the top which probably helps prevent them drying out too.
I just made this…my first pate ever…it was so easy and super yummy. Thank you!
I think the nutritional info is a bit off. It is based on 32 oz (2 lbs) of chicken liver while the actual recipe calls for 1 lb.
I love this recipe. It is delicious!
I can tell you how happy I was to see liver, especially chicken liver rise to such beneficial status. “Organ meat” has gotten a bad rap on “cholesterol bad food list” for a long time. I come from the era of whole chickens, those we raised ourselves and from the grocery store, when the chickens had all their organs. Now you are lucky you get a small piece of liver or gizzard that you can identify.
I can’t wait to try your pate’. I’ve tried several recipes so I am eager to try this version. Other’s I’ve made use heavy cream instead if butter and cognac instead of wine. Yum!
I’m concerned about overcooking the livers. When you say to “brown” them, so you just mean that the color of the liver changes to brown -or- that they have a caramelized brown to them?
I just mean cook through until they are brown and not red anymore.
I have two questions, it is ok to consume not pastured liver? I meant we have long winter so it is impossible to raise animals only by grass.
Second question it will be better to buy liver during summer month when animals are on pasture and then freeze it?
I have heard different opinion on freezing liver
Thanks
It’s okay to eat it from other animals, just not as ideal. If it’s long winter, many places feed hay to grass-fed animals… You can definitely freeze it.
I used 1/4c of balsamic vinegar and 1/4c of good red wine, ~5 cloves of garlic, 2+ teaspoons of mustard (plain ground, didn’t have dijon), lime juice as I didn’t have lemon, and added a little powdered cumino and pasilla. Everything else remained the same. In one fell swoop, I have gone from not liking liver to being obsessed, and I’ll now easily be able to get several servings of liver per week! Thank you so much!
Hooray!!! You are welcome!
Thanks for the post! Over here I can’t find either pastured or organic labelled chicken livers. But from looking at your picture, the color of the regular branded chicken livers I buy here are the same dark red color as the pastured one in the pic. Can I be relieved then ? :))
I have never eaten liver in my life and this recipe was my first foray into organ meats. I used balsamic vinegar instead of red wine, but otherwise followed the recipe exactly, with dark-colored chicken livers, unfortunately not pastured. While I won’t say it was the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted, it was fine and entirely edible. My parents on the other hand, who are generally fans of liver, did not like it. So I’m wondering what I could do differently next time to make it more palatable. Would soaking the livers first help? It took quite a while for most of the liquid to cook off, is it possible I overcooked them?
I have tried one other pate recipe with so-so results. My DH is mentally opposed to the idea of eating liver. However if I put it in pasta sauce or ground meat burgers he’s ok with it. This is good! I had all the ingredients including the Kerrygold butter & fresh rosemary & thyme in my March garden. My pastured chicken livers were very dark. Thanks for the pics comparing them. I used Port for the red wine. My DH commented that it smelled good as I was making it — so that’s progress even if he hasn’t/won/t taste it yet! I think it would be delicious on rye rounds — need to go to the store. Thanks for the recipe!
I have tried one other pate recipe with so-so results. My DH is mentally opposed to the idea of eating liver. However if I put it in pasta sauce or ground meat burgers he’s ok with it. This is good! I had all the ingredients including the Kerrygold butter & fresh rosemary & thyme in my March garden. My pastured chicken livers were very dark. Thanks for the pics comparing them. I used Port for the red wine. My DH commented that it smelled good as I was making it — so that’s progress even if he hasn’t/won/t taste it yet! I think it would be delicious on rye rounds — need to go to the store. Thanks for the recipe! PS I cut the recipe in half also.
This is the only liver recipe I’ve ever had/made/ENJOYED in my life! My mom never made us liver because she hated eating it as a kid. After hearing of all the benefits, I decided to give Diane’s recipe a shot and lo and behold, I liked it! I also felt that energy rush Diane described. It was the most “super” experience I ever had with a super food. I ate it on cucumber slices as a snack. I used grocery store chicken liver—that looked surprisingly dark but I don’t know if they were organic or pastured.
I heard from different websites that it is ok to eat liver only once a week, due to its high concentration of Vitamin A? Do you share their opinion?
How about other organs, like spleen and heart? I know their Vitamin A concentration isn’t so high so is it ok to eat them daily?
I am French Canadian and have eaten organ meats since I was a child ,the only thing I won’t eat are kidneys,they smell and taste bad.I have made many pates in my life and everybody liked them and the livers are so good for you.”Bon Appetit”
I am French Canadian and have eaten organ meats since I was a child ,the only thing I won’t eat are kidneys,they smell and taste bad.I have made many pates in my life and everybody liked them and the livers are so good for you.”Bon Appetit”
I am trying to find a source of pasture raised meat in Central N.J. / Jersey Shore. Any suggestions? I am eager to try this recipe, I have been searching for a tasty way to incorporate liver into my diet. Thanks!
You can try looking here for a local Weston A Price foundation chapter leader to contact. http://www.westonaprice.org/local-chapters/find-local-chapter#nj
Can I use ghee instead of butter?
You can, but the texture won’t be as creamy. You can also use any other kind of fat like duck fat or bacon fat.
I made this last night and subbed apple cider vinegar for the red wine – and it is AWESOME!! Definitely has a tang from the ACV, which I love. It was a little too tangy for my BF, so I might do half water and half ACV next time. All in all totally delicious and I’m super psyched!
NICE! You can try balsamic as well next time.
I have not made pate in decades, and as I remember, the recipes I used at the time were so-so and ultimately unsatisfying, so I was overjoyed at not only how easy this was to make, but how absolutely delicious it is. I too bought store-bought chicken livers from a local market who has their own onsite butchers and I am very confident in their meats. I used balsamic vinegar, but didn’t’ have lemon juice on hand. No matter — it turned out so good that I didn’t even wait to chill it. I will definitely make this again. Thanks for a great recipe!
I like it warm, too!
I like it warm, too!
Winner winner chicken (liver) dinner! I’ve never been a fan of organ meats, but I finally was compelled to try it and used your recipe with balsamic vinegar (and replacing butter with bacon fat as I am dairy free). Not bad, noooot bad. I still find it a little… unusual? The combination of flavors. But I’m liking it. I think it will be a nice pre- or post- workout snack. Thanks for helping me dip my toe into organ meat land!
WOOT! It is unusual when you’re not used to it 😉
Winner winner chicken (liver) dinner! I’ve never been a fan of organ meats, but I finally was compelled to try it and used your recipe with balsamic vinegar (and replacing butter with bacon fat as I am dairy free). Not bad, noooot bad. I still find it a little… unusual? The combination of flavors. But I’m liking it. I think it will be a nice pre- or post- workout snack. Thanks for helping me dip my toe into organ meat land!
WOOT! It is unusual when you’re not used to it 😉
I made it with Sardines and Chicken liver!!!! It was great!!!!!
Looks terrrible – tastes AMAZING!!!!!
Would this work in a Vitamix? Sounds delicious 🙂
Author
I wouldn’t put it in a blender – a food processor is recommended for solids vs liquids, but you can try if you want.
Cool, thanks for the reply!
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Late to the party… But I just made this recipe for the first time and can’t get over how delicious it is! Never thought I’d be craving liver but here I am. Thanks for the recipe and all that you do 🙂
Thanks for having this recipe on the site! I’m recovering from a long weekend working at a show and have been feeling really exhausted and just off. I’m hitting the store on my way home and picking up the ingredients that I need to whip up a batch tonight, I’ve made it multiple times before and it’s the perfect recovery food. My kiddo loves this “dip” for his veggies, too so we’ll both be happy. ^_^
Awesome!!! The new Bacon & Superfood Meatloaf in the new edition of PP is already a reader favorite, check that one out as well!
I’m looking forward to it, thanks!! ^_^