Chicken livers is one of those dishes you either love or hate. There is no middle ground. Nobody ever says, “They’re okay.”
It’s either:
“I’d rather chase a flock of buzzards off a gut pile than eat chicken livers” or “Let’s have them again tonight!”
Put me in the latter group.
Funny, but as much as I enjoy chicken livers, we seldom have them. On a recent tour through Kroger’s in search a 4-pack of Charmin, I saw what appeared to be a fresh pint of chicken livers and I tossed them in my cart. I really love frying the chickenlLivers, but my wife, Nancy – not so much.
She says that when I fry the livers, the explosion of hot grease scatters Wesson Oil up into the attic. She exaggerates. Maybe into the living room, but definitely not into the attic.
Fried chicken livers can make a mess, that’s for sure. They do pop grease everywhere. So Nancy hid all the vegetable oil so I couldn’t fry them.
Then I’ll bake them, I decided.
I saw a recipe that called for a Ritz Cracker crust. That sounded really good, but I was out of Ritz Crackers and Panko crumbs as well.
I found a bag of Caesar Croutons. That would work. I used them, baked the livers and we gobbled them up.
Here’s how.
Buy fresh-as-possible livers. A pint will feed two, but there won’t be any leftovers. Rinse the livers thoroughly, then soak them in a bowl of milk in the fridge for a couple hours. The milk takes some of the strong liver taste away and it makes them more tender. While Ritz Crackers would have made a good topping, the croutons I used were excellent. Put a couple cups in a Zip Loc and smash them with a heavy coffee mug.
Rinse the livers again, put them in a bowl and pour 4 T of melted butter on top. Arrange the livers on a baking pan, sprinkle the crushed croutons on top, add a few shakes of garlic salt and cook them in a 350 oven for 40 minutes.
Good stuff!
Baked Chicken Livers
1 Pint Chicken Fresh Livers
2 C Caesar Croutons
2 C milk
1 t garlic salt