Chicken livers have been one of my favorite foods ever since I was a little girl. Beef liver is good too, but when it comes to liver, I’m team chicken. While mom’s fried chicken livers will always be my favorite way to eat them, I do enjoy trying new chicken liver recipes. I especially love trying international versions, and that’s what I’m doing today with this Chicken Liver Curry. It uses Indian spices and, like mom’s version, is served with rice. Basmati rice in this case (one of my favorites!). Let’s get started!
Chicken liver fry is an easy and spicy side dish that goes well with the rice varieties. The onions and spices together make a flavorful liver curry recipe.
The Ingredients
One nice thing about chicken livers is their price. They must not be terribly popular because I found a pound of them for $2.43. The recipe calls for 500 grams, and that converts to 1.1 pounds. Close enough.
I had all the dry spices in my pantry, but I did have to buy a few other things. I needed milk, coriander leaves (fresh cilantro), onion, lemon, coconut powder, and ginger-garlic paste. The last 2 items worried me.
The milk and produce were easily found at my regular grocery store. They even had coconut powder in the Caribbean food section. It’s just powdered coconut milk. I never knew that existed, but I’m keeping it in my pantry now along with powdered milk and buttermilk.
They didn’t have the ginger-garlic paste, but I was prepared for that. I could have ordered it, but I didn’t want to wait. Instead, I combined some ginger paste, garlic paste, kosher salt, and cooking oil to make my own. The recipe I used was:
- 2 3/4 Teaspoons of ginger paste
- 2 1/2 Tablespoons of garlic paste
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3/8 Tablespoon vegetable oil
It made a little more than this recipe requires, but not too much.
Tip: The final step of this recipe mentioned sprinkling on some garam masala. However, it’s not listed in the ingredients. I had some on hand, but it’s easy to miss in case you need it.
The Process
This Chicken Liver Curry recipe started off like a lot of chicken liver recipes with a 30-minute milk soak to tenderize the meat. I prepped the rest of the recipe while the chicken livers were soaking and started cooking some basmati rice to serve with it.
After rising the soaked chicken livers, I mixed in some spices and fried them up in a non-stick saute pan with the oil. Then I removed them to a plate, added some additional spices, and cooked up the onions.
The recipe calls for adding water during this step, and I assume that’s to make a sauce. I estimate I used 1/2 to 3/4 cups of water (just enough to make a thick sauce). Then I returned the chicken livers to the pan to finish cooking in the sauce.
The rice finished up while the livers were cooking, and I just set it aside. When the chicken livers were done I spread the rice over a 15-inch platter and topped it with the chicken livers, a sprinkle of garam masala, and some chopped cilantro. Lemon juice is optional, so I served lemon wedges on the side.
Timing
Here’s how my time was spent on this Chicken Liver Curry recipe:
- 2 minutes to prep the milk soak
- 30 minutes to soak the chicken livers
- 5 minutes to rinse the chicken livers and heat the oil
- 20 minutes to cook
- 57 minutes total
The recipe lists 5 minutes to prep and 20 minutes to cook, for 25 minutes total. I went way over that, but I realized those times do not include the 30-minute milk soak. When I add that in I get a total time of 55 minutes, which is right in line with my experience.
