BBQ chicken livers in a spicy creamy sauce and served with lemon and crusty rolls
Don’t knock it till you try it! Livers have a rich, almost creamy texture that like all parts of the chook go very well with hot sauce… and butter. Add some cream and fresh lemon juice and you have yourself a tasty dish. Grab some crusty white rolls, a beer and you’re all set.
As with all things cooking chicken there is conjecture about what is a safe internal temperature of livers and what is potentially dangerous. There has been a trend in recent times, particularly from celebrity chefs, to cook livers only to medium-rare in a bid to keep their creamy texture and mild sweetness.
Food safety authorities recommend cooking livers through to a minimum of 70c/158f. However they will also recommend cooking breasts to a minimum of 165c/74c that will often result in a dry piece of chicken. As long as the chicken is fresh and sourced from a reliable supplier we cook chicken breasts to 150f/65c knowing they will continue to cook closer to 155f/68c when taken off the heat.
At the end of the day it’s a personal preference. They can be cooked to a medium-rare doneness however there is a risk. We like our livers left with a very pale shade of pink, something akin to medium-well.
ingredients
- 500g chicken livers, trimmed and cleaned
- 3 tbsp butter
- 1 brown onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/3 cup your favourite hot sauce
- 1/3 cup cream
- Salt, pepper and fresh lemon juice to taste
- Bread
directions
- Setup your barbecue for direct cooking and fire it up over a medium-high heat.
- Using a pan, fry the onions in the butter until golden. I repeat, golden. Not translucent, not soft, not for 5 minutes, all the way cooked through to golden. It’s at this point onions release their natural sugars and taste awesome. Add the garlic and cook for another 2 minutes.
- Add the livers and brown on all sides.
- Add the hot sauce and cook for about 5 minutes.
- Finally, add the cream and stir through. Take off the heat after 1 minute.
- Season with the salt, pepper and lemon.
- Grab some crusty white bread and enjoy your spicy chicken livers!
Check out our other BBQ recipes here.
