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Chicken Liver Pâté
Serves 1 Prep 15 min Cook 12 min Total 27 min Type Snack Origin French

Chicken Liver Pâté

Smooth, butter-rich pâté: chicken livers fried fast in butter and brandy, blitzed silky with extra butter, set in a terrine. Serve cold with toasted brioche or sourdough and a sharp chutney. The classic dinner-party first course; keeps a week in the fridge.

Serves 1 Prep 15 minutes Cook 12 minutes Units Rate

Overview

Chicken livers fry briefly with shallot and garlic, deglaze with brandy, finish with thyme and a splash of cream. The hot mixture blends with cubed cold butter into a silky paste, presses into a terrine, and sets cold under a layer of clarified butter. Eats best after a day in the fridge.

Ingredients

Pâté

  • 50 g unsalted butter (for the pan)
  • 2 banana shallots (finely chopped)
  • 4 garlic cloves (crushed)
  • 500 g chicken livers (trimmed of any greenish bile or sinew)
  • 50 ml brandy (or cognac)
  • 50 ml port (or Madeira, optional)
  • 100 ml double cream
  • 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
  • 200 g unsalted butter (cubed, very cold)
  • salt
  • pepper
  • A grating of nutmeg

Clarified butter top

  • 75 g unsalted butter

To serve

  • Toasted brioche (or sourdough)
  • Onion chutney (or fig jam)
  • Cornichons

Method

Stage 1 - Cook the livers

  1. Melt the 50 g butter in a heavy frying pan over medium heat.
  2. Cook the shallots for 3-4 minutes until soft.
  3. Add the garlic; cook 30 seconds.
  4. Increase the heat to medium-high. Add the livers; sear for 2 minutes a side until browned outside but still pink inside (overcooked livers turn grainy in the pâté).

Stage 2 - Deglaze

  1. Pour in the brandy; let it bubble (flame off if you wish) for 30 seconds.
  2. Add the port if using; reduce by half.
  3. Stir in the cream and thyme; bring to a simmer; turn off the heat.

Stage 3 - Blend

  1. Tip everything into a food processor or blender.
  2. With the motor running, add the cold butter cubes one at a time, blending until silky smooth.
  3. Season generously with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Stage 4 - Pass through a sieve (optional)

  1. For the smoothest texture, push the pâté through a fine sieve into a clean bowl.

Stage 5 - Set

  1. Spoon into a small terrine or 6-8 ramekins.
  2. Smooth the top with a spatula.
  3. Cover with cling film pressed onto the surface (no skin forms); refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Stage 6 - Clarified butter top

  1. Melt the 75 g butter in a small pan; skim foam.
  2. Pour the clear yellow butter slowly over the chilled pâté, leaving milky solids behind.
  3. Refrigerate until the butter sets (about 30 minutes).

Stage 7 - Serve

  1. Bring out 15 minutes before serving (cold pâté tastes muted).
  2. Spread on warm toast; chutney, cornichons and a glass of cold something on the side.

Notes

  • Don't overcook the livers: Pink in the centre is the goal. Grey livers give grainy pâté.
  • Cold butter into hot mixture: The temperature contrast is what gives the silky emulsion. Room-temperature butter melts into oil; you lose the structure.
  • Sieve for smoothness: Optional but worth it for dinner parties; gives a true silk texture.

Storage

  • Keeps a week refrigerated under the butter top.
  • Once cut into, eat within 3-4 days.
  • Freezes 2 months wrapped tightly; defrost overnight in the fridge.

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Onion is softened in olive oil with chopped anchovies. Trimmed chicken livers join and brown briefly. Vin Santo (sweet Tuscan dessert wine, or dry Marsala / brandy as substitute) deglazes; capers are stirred in; the mixture simmers for 8 minutes covered until the livers are tender. Pulsed (not pureed) in a food processor with a knob of cold butter and fresh sage to a coarse spreadable paste. Warm, the paté is spread onto small toasts; eaten as antipasto with prosecco or a glass of Chianti.

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