Chopped Chicken Liver Pate (Appetizer)

Submitted by Alan Leonetti

"This is an authentic Jewish (not Kosher) recipe for the best Chopped Chicken Liver pate you have ever had. It is actually a recipe of my maternal grandmother, Anna Buhal'tsev (Bell) Mersky, who came from Smela Gubernyia, which is near Cherkassy and Kiev in the Ukraine. A few minor additions were made thru the years."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 15mins
• Ingredients: 12
• Yields: 1 batch

ingredients

• 1⁄2 cup peanut oil
• 1 onion, diced fine (in food processor)
• 2 lbs chicken livers (give or take)
• 3 ounces cream sherry
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 4 hard-boiled eggs
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 small onion (thinly sliced)
• 6 tablespoons schmaltz (chicken fat)
• 1 tablespoon sugar or 1 tablespoon Splenda sugar substitute
• salt
• pepper

directions

1. In a skillet, place 2 tablespoons butter and 1 small thinly sliced onion and sautè until golden brown.
2. Add the 6 tablespoons of schmaltz (chicken fat) and mix real well as you crumble the onion slices.
3. This is called schmaltz with grieven. I also have a separate recipe posted on RecipeZaar for Schmaltz. See that recipe.
4. You can use this right away; however, it is better to make this a couple of months ahead of time and place it in the freezer to cure.
5. When ready to make the patè, in a skillet sautè the onions in the peanut oil over a medium flame until golden brown and add the schmaltz with grieven.
6. Boil the 4 eggs until hard boiled.
7. Add the chicken livers to the pan with the onions, schmaltz with grieven& garlic and cook 2 or 3 minutes until done.
8. Add the cream sherry and cook an additional minute.
9. Remove from pan and allow to cool.
10. In a food processor, gently PULSE the livers and hard boiled eggs into a rough chop.
11. DO NOT OVERMIX!
12. Add salt, pepper and sugar and adjust as necessary.

Reviews

[Busters friend]

Fabulous! Marvelous texture & consistency (& of course the flavor is eye rollingly delish) - always gets devoured at our holidays tables by everyone! FTR - he clearly stated not Kosher so do not get the kurfuffle in the reviews. Leave out the butter, sugar & whatever else you do not feel is "authentic" enough for you. Or better yet, make your own nana's recipe altogether.

 

[nunuvyer]

This may be tasty but it is in no way an authentic Jewish recipe. Kosher laws would not permit the use of a dairy ingredient (butter) in a meat dish. Cream sherry and garlic powder were ingredients unknown in Smela Gubernyia at the beginning of the last century. Even sugar is a questionable additive. Authentic chopped liver consists of liver, onions, schmaltz (chicken fat), possibly eggs, salt and pepper and nothing else.

 

[zinniasnmarigolds]

Great recipe, We will bring in the New Year with this one! I too save chicken fat from leg quarters in the freezer, along with the rendered chicken fat from oven roasted chicken. It comes in handy for lots of flavor added cooking!

 

[Cathy Rose in MA]

One doesn't buy chicken fat in a big city in the North, either. I make my own schmaltz by saving fat and skin that I trim from chicken quarters that I prepare for other meals. I save it in small plastic containers in the freezer until I have two or three cups, then I cook it down and make my own schmaltz. It’s not that much work and well worth the effort. This is the secret to really delicious pate. This recipe is very close to my late mother-in-law’s which sadly, died with her.

 

[NLACK]

Pate yes, "Authentic" Jewish recipe this is NOT. Read Chef #317056's explanation for more. My recipe involves Kosher Chicken Livers, hard boiled eggs, large onion, olive oil, salt and pepper. Others may add papricka and vary the egg/onion/liver ratio, but that is essentially what are the authentic Jewish ingredients