A simple chicken liver stew is my idea of food heaven, featuring peas and mushrooms in a red wine sauce, and all in under 30 minutes!
It is the perfect frugal penny-saving dinner that is plenty hearty enough to fill bellies and maybe even delicious enough to convert offal sceptics!
Chicken Liver Ragu.
I love this chicken liver recipe it is simple, tasty, hearty and dirt cheap to cook.
Admittedly offal recipes are not exactly the height of food popularity. Although my Pork Faggots recipe proves to be one of the most popular on my site as does my classic liver and onions recipe!
The relative explosion of high-end nose-to-tail restaurants over the last decade also indicates there is a change afoot for some.
This recipe is full of big flavour. We have the iron-rich flavour of the livers, some mushrooms for earthiness and bling that up with sweet peas.
Finally, we wrap that up in a lovely thick red wine sauce.
The is also quick to cook, taking just 25 minutes. Chicken livers really do not take long to cook at all!
Frequently Asked Questions.
How do I know when chicken livers are cooked?
There is much written about the safe cooking of food so I will not rehash that.
The official safe internal temperature for chicken liver is 70°C (158°F) in the UK and Australia and 73°C (165°F) in the US according to authorities.
There is a trend for cooking them less than this, you can make your own choice. However please do not rely on how things look, liver cooked to 70°C will still be a little pink inside. Buy a meat thermometer and use it!
Can I use frozen chicken liver?
I have a friend who was excited by this recipe but could only get frozen chicken liver.
Apparently, they work well, but do need slightly longer cooking to tenderise. I am not sure why this is, but if you are using frozen liver be prepared to cook a little longer.
What wine should I use?
The same old advice applies to wine, first and foremost if you would not drink it, then don’t cook with it.
I usually use either a Pinot Noir or Gamay in this chicken liver stew. You want a dry red wine with a hint of acidity for the best results.
Serving Suggestions.
I treat this simple chicken liver stew more like a ragu most of the time if I were honest.
The images here show it served with mashed potato. But I am just as likely to serve it with a cheesy polenta in the similar fashion to the way that I serve my mushroom ragu.
It is also awesome stirred through pappardelle pasta in the same way that I do with my venison ragu. Reduce the size of the chicken livers by about half if you are going to do this.
If you are not ready to give up on potatoes just yet then spoon this over a jacket potato.
In fact, by way of a public service announcement, I have just discovered that you can cook baked potatoes in an air fryer and they are outrageously good.
Simple Chicken Liver Stew Recipe
I adore cooking with and eating offal, sadly it is not more popular, this easy chicken liver stew recipe combines them with peas and mushrooms in a wonderful red wine sauce.
Ingredients
- 350 g (12 oz) Chicken Livers
- 125g (1 Cup) Small Button Mushrooms
- 150g (1/2 Cup) Frozen Peas
- 50g (1/3 Cup) Shallot
- 2 Cloves Garlic
- 1 Tsp Tomato Concentrate
- 175ml (2/3 Cup) Red Wine
- 30g (2 Tbsp) Butter
- 1 Tsp Cornflower
- 3/4 Tsp Salt
- 1/2 Tsp Black Pepper
Instructions
- Dice the shallot and garlic as finely as you can.
- Clean up your mushrooms and if they are larger than bitesize cut them in to half or quarters.
- Now trim up your chicken livers removing any sinew and cut them up into 2-2.5cm pieces. That's about an inch for those of you of that persuasion.
- Heat a frying pan over a medium-high heat and add the butter.
- When it foams add the shallot and cook for 2-3 minutes without colouring, make sure you stir occasionally.
- Add in the garlic and saute for another minute,
- Throw in the mushrooms, season with the salt and pepper, then coók stirring occasionally for 5 minutes.
- Turn the heat up to high, add in the chicken livers and saute for 2-3 minutes.
- Pour in the wine and add the tomato puree.
- Reduce by half, this should take 3 or 4 minutes.
- Add 1 tablespoon of water to the cornstarch and mix together.
- Reduce the heat to medium.
- Add the peas to the pan, followed by the cornstarch slurry and cook stirring for a minute or two.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
2Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 574Total Fat: 24gSaturated Fat: 11gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 10gCholesterol: 1018mgSodium: 873mgCarbohydrates: 23gFiber: 6gSugar: 7gProtein: 49g
Calorific details are provided by a third-party application and are to be used as indicative figures only.
Roger
Friday 27th of November 2020
Great meal so easy to make and a great flavour will make this again, thank you.
Brian Jones
Saturday 28th of November 2020
Glad you enjoyed it Roger, I love this recipe it's so simple and delicious, I must give it a facelift though ;)
msSally
Tuesday 3rd of November 2020
Any idea how this would be done in a pressure cooker?
Brian Jones
Wednesday 4th of November 2020
This really is not a good candidate for cooking in a pressure cooker, getting things going with a saute, and then reducing the wine is pretty fundamental to this recipe. You could do that in a pressure cooker but then all you are left with is a 5 minute simmer, and to be honest it will take longer for the pressure cooker to come to pressure and cook than it would be to leave it in the pan.
Pressure cookers are really not great at short cooking times as they increase the rate of cooking and as such, there is far less room for error.
Sue R
Thursday 21st of May 2020
This was so good I want to eat it once a week for the rest of my life. Really good on the polenta. I was a very happy girl. Only thing I really did different was I used an onion instead of shallot because it's what I had. I did rinse the livers.
Brian Jones
Monday 1st of June 2020
So glad you liked it Sue, I love this recipe!
Sue R
Wednesday 20th of May 2020
I'm making this tomorrow night so not sure it's too late for a reply but do you wash or soak your chicken livers first? I've usually rinsed but not soaked but I do soak lambs liver. Husband isn't really into polenta but I totally am and I'm cooking *insert evil laugh* ;P
Brian Jones
Wednesday 20th of May 2020
Haha, no I never soak or wash my chicken livers before I use them, I do soak pigs live in milk but chicken livers I leave as they are. I have experimented with soaking for a couple of hours in red wine and it did not work for me, so I keep it now and drink it ;)
Enjoy :)
Brian Jones
Tuesday 8th of January 2019
I think that is often the way, childhood food nightmares are rarely as bad as we remember them to be ;)