This is the best chicken liver pate recipe and I have been making it for over 2 decades. It has also become very popular on my site and you can see the positive feedback in the comments below. I love my original version but have also included a second recipe which uses a splash of cream and less butter. So choose which you prefer.
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I love to serve chicken liver pate with crispy melba toast and a dollop of something sweet. It’s silken smooth so it needs the crunch. The Marmalade offers a bitter-sweet flavour which is rather delicious and quite Christmassy too. If you want to be really wild, stir a splash of whiskey into the marmalade to give it that boozy edge.
I had the intention to make a clementine jelly to go with the pate, but that plan fell apart when I realised I was running out of the year. You know the feeling as you catapult towards Christmas in the silly season and suddenly realise you have bitten off more than you can chew? Literally and figuratively.
I once made jelly out of dessert wine which was delectable with this pate.
I had also planned on doing a few more Christmas recipes (as I do EVERY year) – but didn’t get it together. Note to self to be a bit more organised next year.
I love this season and the food that comes with it the most, so I always disappoint myself if I haven’t come up with something as innovative as my mince pie and frangipane tart, or my apple mince-pie crumble bars (My favourite ever), and my boozy cherry and Christmas pudding strudel with chocolate. These hot cross cinnamon sticky buns would be perfect for this time of year too. Ah well, there is always next year.
Here are a few of my favourite recipes for Christmas.
In the meantime, this is my best chicken liver pate which is so very easy to make. I always make a double batch and freeze off ramekins for later use. It’s so nice to pop in a basket for a summer picnic.
Can you freeze chicken liver pate?
Chicken liver pate freezes very well and I always make a double batch using 500gms of chicken livers.
I fill ceramic ramekins with the pate, top them with melted butter and a bay leaf and then wrap them tightly in plastic wrap to freeze.
To thaw chicken liver pate, leave it at room temperature for a couple of hours or thaw it in the fridge overnight.
I have made focaccia melba toast before, or actually melba toast from any good bread, and it’s also perfect withcrispy flatbread, but for these little party canapes, I made them from very thinly sliced stale baguette. The marmalade is a very good quality store-bought Seville marmalade which has nice bitterness. I use free-range chicken livers here.
*UPDATED RECIPE WITH CREAM*
PS: I have a little recipe update in case you prefer to use less butter and like to use cream. For this I recommend doing a double batch:
500gm free-range chicken livers
125gm butter (and a bit extra to coat the top if desired)
1 large onion (white), chopped
1 – 2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 – 4 bay leaves
Thyme leaves from about 4 small stalks
125ml cream
80ml good brandy
freshly ground black or white pepper (I prefer white)
Follow the instructions above, just add the cream after you have added the brandy and allowed it to cook off for a couple of minutes. Then add the cream and cook for about another minute or two further.
The best ever chicken liver pate recipe
This is a really easy and delicious chicken liver pate recipe that will instantly become your favourite too.
Print Recipe
Ingredients
250gm free-range chicken livers
125gm butterand a bit extra to coat the top if desired
1large onionwhite, chopped
1– 2 cloves garliccrushed
2bay leaves
20 – 40mlbrandy
freshly ground black or white pepperI prefer white
Thinly sliced stale baguette for the melba
Instructions
Melt the butter in the pan and saute the onion for about 5 minutes until turning soft.
Add the chicken livers, garlic and bay leaves and cook over moderate heat, stirring until the chicken livers are just done – about 4 – 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the brandy just before finishing off and allow this to cook for a couple of minutes.
Remove from the heat and let it cool.
Remove the bay leaves and blend in a food processor until it is as smooth as it will go. It takes a few minutes. Season with salt and lots of freshly ground white pepper (to taste). Spoon the pate into ramekins or other serving dishes and cool.
When cool melt some butter (microwave is great) and pour over the pate which looks pretty decorated with a bay leaf. Cool in the fridge until serving.
To make the melba toast slice a stale baguette as thinly as possible and lay the slices out on a cooling rack which you have placed over a large baking tray. This allows for the warm air to flow under and over the bread to dry it out.Bake in an oven preheated to 150C for about 20 minutes until dried out and just starting to colour. They do not need to be golden brown. Store in an airtight container until you are ready to serve.
If you are making the canapes yourself vs allowing your guests to spread themselves, do so just before serving as the melba toast will soften quite quickly.
The pâté will last a week or so in the fridge. If you want to preserve it for up to a month, pour a little melted lard or clarified butter on top to seal. Each time you dip into the pâté, you will need to reseal the top to preserve it.
Can I make chicken liver pâté without alcohol? Yes, you can. While alcohol adds depth of flavor, you can substitute the wine and brandy with non-alcoholic options like grape juice or a vinegar reduction mixed with water.
Assuming it's chicken liver pate, have you tried adding butter, cream or other saturated fat? This can thicken and so firm pate quite well. Or you could use some kind of meal - oat flour or matzo meal, breadcrumbs etc that would absorb the liquid.
Homemade pâté recipes, for example, often suggest pouring a layer of melted butter on top of the finished product to extend its shelf life, even though pâté keeps well in the refrigerator. If the extra fat bothers you, you can take it off the part of the pâté you'll be consuming at the moment, but it's not necessary.
Pate served on toasted bread or baguette along with a large green salad makes a simple, but scrumptious lunch or small meal. Again, cornichons make a nice addition to the plate. For a special presentation, slice the cornichon lengthwise in four to six slices and fan them out, placing one on each piece of Pate.
Because this pâté is a mousse consistency, overcooking the livers would be disastrous. The pâté would have hard bits of seared livers. Undercooking will create pâté that “weeps.” The livers should be cooked slowly until the centers are still pink, with only a small amount of liquid coming out of them when pressed.
Method. Put the chicken livers onto a tray, add spices and season liberally. Add the brandy, then cook at 210-220 degrees centigrade for 5-6 minutes. Put them into a food processor with the melted butter blitz until smooth, spoon into ramekins, then top with clarified butter and bay, chill in the fridge.
A great dish to serve around Christmas time – You can replace the port with something like sherry in a pinch, perhaps even brandy, but it's not quite the same.
Pate Foie Gras is French for fat liver paste. It is a luxury item because few countries allow it to be made, due to the extreme cruelty involved. It is the cancerous liver of a duck or goose fattened by force in a process known as gavage. Birds spend their lives in semi-darkness.
A grilled, properly spiky sourdough bread would be the ideal here, but any decent, thick-cut real white or granary bread will do. Brown bread feels too worthy in this context. Likewise, limp, thin-sliced, industrially manufactured bread will not cut it in the regal presence of a paté.
Liver and liver products, such as liver pâté and liver sausage, are a good source of iron, as well as being a rich source of vitamin A. However, because they are such a rich source of vitamin A, we should be careful not to eat too much liver and liver product foods.
The most traditional is brandy (cognac) as I used here, but you could also use port, red wine or even whisky. It's worth simmering gently after you add the brandy to boil off the alcohol and take the edge off the flavor.
Pack the pâté into a glass jar or bowl, then smooth the top with a spatula. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about two hours or up to five days. Serve with bacon-onion jam and copious amounts of toast.
Toast and unless your paté is a “potted” version sealed under butter, that toast must be buttered. There is nothing that cannot be improved by the addition of butter. A grilled, properly spiky sourdough bread would be the ideal here, but any decent, thick-cut real white or granary bread will do.
An onion marmalade or caramelized onions are particularly good or you could serve it with raisins or sultanas steeped in Pedro Ximenez or sweet Marsala or Nigella's Rich Fruit Chutney from her book Christmas, which is made with dried fruits. Both types of pate are good with the sweet-and-sour flavours of chutneys.
The fats will sink to the bottom of the pan, leaving you with nicely clarified butter on top. Using a small spoon, carefully spoon the yellow clarified butter only over the top of the pate until just covered. Return the pate to the fridge to set the butter.
You can press a layer of cling wrap/film on top which will help, but to keep it better, it's worth adding either a layer of jelly, or better (I think), clarified butter. Making clarified butter is quick and it makes quite a nice looking top to the pate.
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