If liver is the Cinderella of traditional foods, bacon is its fairy godmother. Over the years I’ve failed more times than I’ve succeeded in getting my family to love liver. This homemade chili and bayou dirty rice have gone over very well, but it’s not like I personally jumped out of bed in the morning and thought, “YAY, it’s liver day!”
Until now.
A few months ago I came across a Bacon-Beef Liver Pâté recipe in The AutoImmune Cookbook. Since I didn’t have all the right ingredients on hand, I adapted the recipe and – BIPPITY BOPPITY BOOP! – magic happened. I’m telling you, m-a-g-i-c.
This chicken liver pâté made with bacon is now one of the meals I most look forward to every week. I always notice bump in energy on pâté day, and that’s no surprise considering it’s one of the most nutrient-dense foods available.
Why Liver is A Superfood
According to this article by Chris Kresser, liver is “between 10 and 100 times higher in nutrients than corresponding muscle meats,’ especially vitamins A, D, E, K, B12, and folate, plus minerals such as copper and iron. It’s Vitamin A content is known to help reduce the effects of stress, and as I wrote about here it’s also been shown to have anti-fatigue properties.
But what about toxins . . . aren’t they stored in liver? According to Kresser, “A popular objection to eating liver is the belief that the liver is a storage organ for toxins in the body. While it is true that one of the liver’s role is to neutralize toxins (such as drugs, chemical agents and poisons), it does not store these toxins. Toxins the body cannot eliminate are likely to accumulate in the body’s fatty tissues and nervous systems.”
Of course, he also adds that “it is essential to eat meat and organ meats from animals that have been raised on fresh pasture without hormones, antibiotics or commercial feed. Pasture-raised animal products are much higher in nutrients than animal products that come from commercial feedlots. For example, meat from pasture-raised animals has 2-4 times more omega-3 fatty acids than meat from commercially-raised animals. And pasture-raised eggs have been shown to contain up to 19 times more omega-3 fatty acids than supermarket eggs!”
If you’re a liver skeptic or hater, I suggest you give this recipe a try.
Bacon And Chicken Liver Pâté
Equipment
- measuring cup
Ingredients
- 8 oz organic bacon
- 1 lb pastured chicken livers (rinsed and dried)
- 5 garlic cloves
- 2 ¼ tsp dried thyme
- 2 ¼ tsp dried rosemary
- ½ tsp unrefined sea salt
- ⅓ cup bacon grease (if you don't have enough after cooking the bacon, top it off with another oil such as coconut oil, butter, store bought pastured lard, or homemade lard)
- herbs (optional – for garnish)
Instructions
- In a medium pan, cook all the bacon until crisp and set aside on a plate. Pour most of the bacon grease into a measuring cup, but leave enough behind to leave the bottom of the pan well-coated.
- In the same pan, add the garlic and sautee for a couple of minutes over medium heat.
- Add the chicken livers, thyme and rosemary. Cook until the livers are no longer pink in the center. Remove everything from the pan and set aside to cool for a few minutes.
- While you're waiting for the livers to cool, add enough coconut oil (or oil of your choice) to the bacon grease to equal ⅓ cup.
- Add liver mixture, bacon, salt and ⅓ cup fat to the food processor. If desired, you can keep a few pieces of bacon out to use as a garnish.
- Process the mixture until it forms a paste. Transfer to bowls, add garnish if desired, and serve immediately. We love to cut carrots in to long “chips” and use them as crackers.
Carmelized onions and lots of crumbled bacon are my family’s favorite with fried liver.This recipe sounds delicious too! Bacon is liver’s new best friend!
Do you not soak the liver in lemon juice the night before like in your chili recipe?
Not for this one. The flavor of the bacon mellows it out 🙂
Can I freeze leftovers of the pâté? How long will it last in the fridge?
Thank you, thank you! Keep the liver recipes coming. I know how healthy it is, but my whole family has gagged on it when I’ve tried to make it. You have a knack for making things like this taste good. Much appreciated.
I made a very similar recipe for duck liver pate…I practically had to arm wrestle my 2 year old to get a bite. 😉 Pate is hands down my favorite way to get liver in my diet.
I was given 6 pounds of grass fed beef liver. I would like to make pate but I have heard that beef liver has a stronger flavor. Would it work? I don’t want to be ruined with my first pate attempt 😉
It does have a much stronger flavor. To be honest, I have not found a recipe I like made with beef liver. I am going to keep trying, though!
Shoot! I have yet to find chicken livers locally. We’ve butchered a few of our chickens but they’re bantams and it takes a lot to make a pound.
Hi Heather,
Do you do this one as a meal for the family or a snack?
Thanks!
Sara
Great question – it serves us well as a light lunch 🙂
Yay liver! It took me awhile but I have finally acquired a taste for chicken liver pate and I love bacon so I can’t wait to try this. Yum! Looks great. Somewhere buried in one of my Pinterest boards is a recipe for crispy, citrus calf liver that I’d like to try. I’m pretty sure it was a recipe I planned on making some real food substitutes for ingredients I wasn’t sure about.
Thanks for the recipe Heather! Have to try it out.. Definitely need more liver in our diet. Do you know roughly how long this lasts refrigerated? Thanks!
Another twist on this pate would be to add mushrooms ! delicious!
That looks amazing, I’m trying it next week-end 🙂 I think I only have veal liver but it will be a nice experiment.
I was wondering, before I go and ruin a whole batch of paté, do you know if I can freeze it for later meals? There’s only two of us at home, neither of us huge liver fans. I know I can make a smaller batch but I have a 500gm piece of liver that I can’t possibly saw through and must defrost in one go.
I haven’t tried it, but according to Mickey Trescott (whose recipe this one is adapted from), pate made similarly to this does freeze well.
Yes it does freeze well !
I don’t have a food processor, would a blender or hand mixer work as well?
Unfortunately, I don’t think it will in this particular case 🙁
I’ve used a blender on liver before and it worked just fine!
Does topping the 1/3 cup off with coconut oil make it taste like coconut oil?
I use expeller pressed instead of virgin coconut oil in this recipe. I don’t think it tastes like coconut at all.
Yay! I am DEFINITELY going to try this. We have been trying for another baby for 4 months now and have had no success. I am trying to include more nutrient-dense foods in my diet and this is on my “to make NOW” list. Thank you!
I just tried this recipe with venison liver. I think I have a new favorite food!
YAY!!! We’re having it tomorrow – so glad you liked the recipe 🙂
where do you get organic chicken and beef liver?
Great recipe and a delightful way to get more liver into our diet. The pate was creamy and the herb flavor really stood out.
Can this be frozen?
I make chicken liver pate flavored with bacon and maple syrup, and use coconut oil instead of butter. I call it Canadian Chicken Liver Pate and it’s delicious!
Years ago when I was pregnant, I used to dip beef liver in egg, then flour, sautée in butter, onion, bacon and APPLES! Spaetzle on the side. Yum! Need to get back to that great habit!
What type of bacon can i use, back bacon or American bacon (the fatty type)? Can I also put in a couple of smoked slices?
How do you eat this? With gluten free bread or what do you recommend for people who can’t do wheat?
Thank you!
We eat ours on carrot sticks. 🙂
I combined this recipe with another to make the best chicken liver pate ever! I used 50% more bacon (12 oz instead of 8). Instead of pan-cooking the livers, I seared them quickly to brown but removed them from the pan before they were cooked all the way through. I then placed the livers in a pot of boiling water, took the pot off the heat and covered it and left them in there for 8 minutes. This cooking method keeps the livers very tender, but you still get some of the flavor of browning. (I also saved the “broth” created by cooking the livers – which was surprisingly mild – and combined it 50/50 with chicken broth in a soup, and you couldn’t even tell the liver broth was in there!) I also added 1 medium sliced onion, sauteed gently in the bacon fat until very soft and somewhat caramelized – the onion really made the pate outstanding. And I left the garlic raw because I like it that way, and used fresh herbs instead of dry, adding them to the sauteed onions just before they were done. This was the best pate of all time – my mother-in-law who grew up eating liver agrees. I have never been a big liver fan but I literally crave this stuff and eat it for breakfast nearly every morning!
Heather, can you freeze this?
I’ve never tried so I’m not sure. If you do please let me know how it goes!