By Greg B. Among the many delicious parts of the chicken, I think the livers rank very highly.  They are fatty, packed with nutrients and vitamins, and can be cooked in many different ways.  Now, some may complain that they taste ‘livery’, and others many enjoy that taste.  The following recipe is a derivation of one I saw Mike make once, and it totally abolishes that strong ‘liver’ flavor.

Start with 1 pound of chicken livers, and take a pan and add whichever frying fat you prefer.  Myself, I like to use a combo of olive oil and duck fat.  Mostly because I have a ton of duck fat in my freezer currently, and I think it adds a nice flavor.  I like to bread the livers in a combination of flour, salt and white pepper.  Then, you will fry them, nothing hard.  350F oil, lightly floured and spiced livers.  they take a few minutes per side, but it can all be done rather quickly, depending on how much oil you add.  I like to have enough oil to just barely submerge the livers.

In the meantime, while those fry up,  we should talk about the sauce.  In a small saucepan, combine soy sauce, ketchup, white wine, freshly grated ginger, garlic, finely diced onion and some black pepper.  I don’t know exact proportions, but you’ll want to add mostly ketchup, and then add the white wine until you get a consistency a bit more wet than you want it, some of the water/alcohol will cook off.  Mix, and taste.  You’ll notice that it’s missing something.  The final ingredient is one of those Vietnamese hot sauces.  You can find them in different stores, Mike and I have different ones in our fridges, but you know the kind.  Pepper seeds floating in a viscous red paste and a very strong spicy flavor to it.  Be sure to add this to the sauce, as much as you’d like, but you’ll need at least 4 tablespoons to really get some spice mixed all around in the sauce.  Simmer this until your livers are done.

You’ll know your livers are done because the breading will be a nice golden brown, the livers will not be ‘bleeding’ but wont be overly chewy either (yes, I sample them as i cook them, because they are so delicious).  Remove them from the oil to a rack to cool slightly, then you have some options to serve. If you made a lot of sauce, you can combine them all in the same pan and simmer a few minutes, then serve.  Or, as I like it, serve the chicken livers separate from the sauce, and just place as much sauce as you want over top of them, or on the side. I served this with some duck fat fried fingerling potatoes with fresh rosemary.  Nothing special to them, but they did taste really good, even with some of the extra hot sauce!