Eastern Home Kitchen

Chicken Recipes

Fried Chicken Livers with Hearts

Livers and hearts fried hard, then softened with onion and garlic under a lid. Forty minutes, one pan, and cheaper than almost anything else you could cook.

Fried chicken livers and hearts with soft onion, scattered with parsley

https://easternhomekitchen.com/recipes/fried-chicken-livers-with-hearts/

Prep
10 mins
Cook
30 mins
Total
40 mins
Yield
4 servings
Cuisine
Eastern European

Chicken livers and hearts cook differently and this recipe uses that. The hearts want time — they are muscle and they toughen before they relax. The livers want almost none. Frying them together for twenty minutes and then covering the pan for ten gets both to the right place.

Trim properly. The membrane on the livers and the hard fat on the hearts are the difference between this being good and being the reason people say they do not like offal.

Ingredients

Makes 4 servings

  • 700 g1 ½ lb chicken livers and hearts, roughly half and half
  • 1 onion
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 30 g1 oz sunflower oil
  • salt, black pepper and parsley, to taste

Instructions

  1. Set out the livers and hearts, onion, garlic, herbs and oil.

    Chicken livers and hearts with an onion, garlic and herbs

  2. Rinse the offal. Pull the thin membrane and any green-tinged parts off the livers, and trim the fat and vessels from the tops of the hearts. Cut the livers in half — not smaller. Put everything into a hot pan with the oil and fry for 20 minutes, stirring now and then.

    Trimmed chicken livers and hearts frying in a pan

  3. Meanwhile chop the garlic finely and cut the onion into half rings, then across again.

    Chopped garlic and onion cut into short half rings

  4. Add the onion and garlic to the pan, season, and fry for 7 to 8 minutes, stirring regularly. Then put a lid on, turn the heat down and let it cook gently for another 10 minutes.

    Onion and garlic added to the pan with the offal

  5. Scatter with parsley and serve — mashed potato is the standard partner, but any plain starch or a pile of vegetables works.

    The finished dish, glossy and scattered with parsley

Notes & tips

  • Salt at the end, not the start. Salted early, the livers weep and then steam instead of browning.
  • Dry the offal well before it goes in the pan. Wet liver will not colour.
  • The final covered ten minutes is what makes the hearts tender. Don't cut it short.

Substitutions

  • Chicken hearts — Use all livers and cut the initial fry to 8 minutes — they need far less time on their own.
  • Onion — Leek, softened first, for something sweeter and milder.
  • Finishing — A tablespoon of sour cream stirred in at the end turns the pan juices into a sauce.

Storage & freezing

In the fridge
2 days. Offal does not keep as long as muscle meat — cook it the day you buy it and eat it within two.
In the freezer
Not recommended once cooked; the texture goes grainy.
Reheating
Gently in a covered pan with a splash of water. High heat turns liver to rubber.

Frequently asked questions

How do I stop chicken livers tasting bitter?

Remove any green-tinged patches — that is bile, and it is genuinely bitter. Also pull off the connective membrane and any large vessels while trimming.

Can I cook livers and hearts together?

Yes, and this recipe does, but they need different times. Starting them together and finishing covered on low heat gives the hearts the extra tenderising they need without overcooking the livers into chalk.

Should chicken liver be pink in the middle?

A trace of pink is fine and keeps it tender, but for hearts cook them through. If you are unsure, the covered ten minutes at the end takes care of it.