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Southern girl that I am, I get a hankering for fried chicken liver every once in awhile and today was my day. This is not a food I’ve tried to low-carb before now. Frankly, I didn’t think they would come out very good without the crispy traditional flour coating they are often made with. My grocery store has taken to carrying their chicken livers in a huge 1.25# cartons instead of the 1# carton they have stocked in the past. My husband doesn’t like chicken liver, so I alone (or my puppies are most eager to) polish off any leftovers. So it looks like I’m going to have 5-6 oz. leftover every time I bake my homemade dog treats with the livers. Now I’ll have a convenient way to quell my fried chicken liver craving that crops up once in awhile. Since this coating has worked well on everything I’ve tried it on to date, I thought I’d give it a go and these came out REAL good!! Since I baked doggie treats yesterday, I decided to oven-fry the remainders today for my lunch. They came out much crisper than I anticipated! I won’t hesitate to “low-carb” chicken livers again! These would be suitable for any phase of Atkins. They are also suitable for Paleo-Primal, if you occasionally eat pork rinds (otherwise, coat with almond flour). This coating is also good with a bit of grated Parmesan cheese added, but I did not do so today and it is not calculated in the stats below. Be sure to note the incredible nutritional stats for this food!! I’m going to try to fit chicken livers into my menus more often now, for sure!
INGREDIENTS:
5 oz. raw chicken livers
½ c. homemade mayo (my recipe is here: http://buttoni.wordpress.com/2009/07/27/homemade-mayonnaise/ )
4 oz. plain pork rinds, crushed fine
1/4 tsp. spice blend of your choice (I used my seafood spice blend: http://buttoni.wordpress.com/2009/08/20/my-seafood-spice-blend/)
DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 425º. Place chicken livers on paper toweling and pat them with more paper towels to get as much moisture off as you can. Cut the really large ones in half for more even cooking. Pour mayo onto a paper plate and crushed rinds onto a second paper plate. Dip livers into the mayo to coat boat sides, then drop into crushed rinds. I curl the paper plate to facilitate rolling the rinds up over the tops. Place coated livers onto a non-stick sided cookie sheet. Pop into 425º oven for 10 minutes. Turn gently with tongs and cook an additional 10 minutes. They should be done in 20 minutes and browned nicely on both sides. Enjoy quickly so they will still be crispy! Serve with your favorite sides.
NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 3 servings, each contains:
526 calories
43 g fat
.53 g carbs, .03 g fiber, .5 NET CARBS
32.5 g protein
488 mg sodium, 171 mg potassium
73% Vitamin A, 38% B6, 412% B12, 11% C, 11% D, 39% E, 47% copper, 86% iron, 11% magnesium, 13% manganese, 41% niacin, 69% phosphorous, 152% riboflavin, 176% selenium, 23% thiamin, 46% zinc.
I loved this recipe! I grew up eating liver, and since I’ve started to incorporate more organ meats in my diet, I thought I would try your recipe. I loved the crispy pork rind topping! And even though I hated heating up the oven for one little meal (I cut the recipe to one serving), I am so glad I did. I might even try it for coating other meats, like maybe a ground pork and turkey meatball or even fried tofu slices! I’ll definitely keep it in mind when baking things at such a high temperature. Do you think I could make this in a toaster oven? Thank you for a wonderful recipe Peggy!
Melissa, I confess I’ve never used a toaster oven. But I understand people bake many things in them they used to do in conventional ovens, so it’s worth a try one time. I’ve also used this coating for Chicken Fried Steak (recipe on the site) and pork chops. I love this coating. It’s fantabulous on my Oven-Fried Fish and oven fried veggies, too. I’ve used it on squash, onion rings, and okra so far with success. I’m so glad you enjoyed the chicken livers and hope you, too, will experiment with this versatile approach to crispy fry-coating. I think it’s one of my best LC recipe successes. I use it all the time!
Where do you get good pork rinds? (The only kind I’ve ever seen for sale are the gross kind at gas stations…)
I’m currently buying Rudolph’s brand at Walmart grocery. Light tasting and they don’t seem to have hard ones in the bag. I detest Baconettes (sp?) brand. They’re always “strong” tasting to me and they won’t crush up as fine either. Always have to pick out lots of “hard bits” in the Baconettes brand when I try to crush them. Frankly, I’ll do without rather than to buy Baconettes.
I really love chicken livers, so I will definitely give this a try. I don’t understand people who don’t like liver
Well, I confess I don’t like beef liver, but have always liked fried chicken livers. Go figure.
OHHH Miss Peggy this is almost 2 funny.. Sat I picked up some chicken livers and they are out in the fridge waiting for me to decide just how or what I would do with them… I have a ..hot air oven..I have had for ever and a day and just now really making it do things it should so,, this will be super good…thank you..
I have used the pork rind breading a lot over the years… sometimes I add in 1 TBS of flax meal or almond.. but you hit me right on the head with this. and if I was closer… Hey I would come and share these with you…thanks you again.. woo hoo.. livers tomorrow…….all nice and crispy…..maybe some cole slaw with it.. ???
Sounds like a winner to me, Sheila! Hope you enjoy these! I sure did. It has been 3 years, literally, since I had fried chicken livers!
So glad you enjoyed these,Buttoning.But,I am interested in your doggie treats.Sounds as if ourgraddog,Marshall would appreciate that type of treat..Any chances of sharing That recipe as well?
SURE, Claudette! It’s right here on my website: http://buttoni.wordpress.com/2011/08/09/doggie-treats/ I hope Marshall enjoys them as much as my girls. Both mine have allergies and react badly to most commercial treats.