Liver Fritters
Homemade liver fritters are simple and quick to make. Chicken liver is always available in shops, so these fritters can become your go-to dinner, especially when you are short on time. Frankly, making small pancakes from ground chicken liver is no harder than making them from a regular thin batter or vegetable pulp.
The recipe for liver fritters is not much different from ordinary flour-based fritters. The difference is that the semi-liquid batter is made from chicken liver puréed until smooth, and the amount and mix of spices can vary a lot. Fried liver pancakes go wonderfully with fried onions, cracklings and various sauces.
Fritters are generally thought of as thick, soft flatbreads of flour fried in oil. They are mostly a dish of Slavic cuisines, although their close relatives, pancakes, are found all over the world. Chicken and beef liver are often fried into pancakes, as they make a good base for a semi-liquid “batter”. Sometimes we also make a liver cake, mostly when guests are coming. It is a complicated dish, but as a cold appetizer it is incomparable.
Chicken liver is an affordable and healthy product. There was a time when you couldn’t buy a kilogram of chicken liver at all: chickens were sold only whole, and very rarely in parts. The main benefit of chicken liver is its high content of nutrients and vitamins. You can fry it, boil it, stew it, make a wonderful chicken liver pâté, and so on. It also doesn’t need much cooking and always stays soft and tender.
When choosing chicken liver, avoid frozen. Fresh, chilled liver is always on sale, so buy just what you need for one meal. Check every piece before cooking, as bile ducts and areas stained by bile may remain, and they must be removed.
The recipe for liver fritters includes chicken liver, binders (eggs and flour) and spices. It’s better to fry the pancakes not in oil but in an almost dry pan greased with lard or vegetable fat. Chicken liver fritters are quite thin, so the frying time is very short, literally 2-3 mins per side. That is enough for them to cook through and brown.
Ingredients
4 servings
- Chicken liver 600 g
- Egg 2
- Onion 3-4
- Wheat flour as needed
- Vegetable oil 50 ml
- Pork lard (for greasing the pan) 1 piece
- Salt, black pepper, paprika, coriander, dried aromatic herbs to taste
Step-by-step recipe
Ideally, buy fresh chicken liver that has never been frozen. When thawed, it can leak, losing moisture, juices and nutrients. Be sure to inspect every piece for traces of bile and connective tissue membranes. Bile can give chicken liver fritters a distinctly bitter taste, and connective tissue stays tough and inedible, like plastic.
First, prepare the fried onions, the ideal accompaniment for liver fritters and pancakes. I like to have plenty of fried onions. Peel a few large onions and cut them into thick strips. Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan, setting aside 1 tbsp for the liver batter. Fry the onions over medium heat, stirring all the time, until soft and nicely golden. Transfer the fried onions to a plate.
Put the washed and trimmed pieces of chicken liver into a chopper and grind until puréed. Then pass the mixture through a coarse sieve or a mesh colander to strain out any tough bits of connective tissue. Add two eggs, the remaining vegetable oil, salt the mixture well and add pepper. Add 0.5 tsp each of sweet paprika, ground coriander and aromatic herbs crumbled between your fingers: savory, basil and oregano.
Using a hand mixer on low speed, mix thoroughly until completely smooth. Add 1 tbsp of flour (10 g) and stir well so the flour doesn’t form lumps. Add as little flour as possible to the liver mixture, so the fritters stay soft and tender. But too little is bad as well, as the mixture will spread in the pan. The mixture should be the consistency of runny honey, so that it pours off the spoon.
Heat the frying pan. Spear a piece of lard on a fork and grease the hot pan with it. You can also grease it with vegetable oil, but only a little. Spoon the prepared mixture onto the hot pan, 1 tbsp per fritter. Fry the liver fritters for 2-3 mins. In that time they will brown nicely.
Turn the fritters over with a fork or spatula. Do it carefully, as they are quite delicate and tear easily. Fry the chicken liver fritters for another 2-3 mins. That is enough time to cook them through. If you like, you can brown them on both sides by flipping them once or twice briefly. But don’t overcook them.
Put the fried onions on a plate, spreading them over the bottom or around the edge, however you like. Lay the hot liver fritters on top of the onions. If you like, add more fried onions on top. Serve right away while hot. It’s very tasty with tomato juice.
Liver pancakes turn out equally well with chicken or turkey liver. You can keep them tender, or add flour to make them more like fritters from regular batter. Sour cream or tomato sauce is often served with them, and many people love that. You can also layer the liver fritters with fried onions and cracklings, then warm them through in a ceramic pot.
Calories and macros
390 kcal
Serving ≈ 240 g
- Protein30 g31% of kcal
- Fat26 g61% of kcal
- Carbs8 g8% of kcal
100 g165 kcalProtein 12.5 gFat 10.8 gCarbs 3.3 g
Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.
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