Chicken Liver Pate

Chicken Pate in white bowl with butter knife across the top

5 from 9 votes

This Easy Chicken Liver Pate recipe for spreading, dipping and freezing is going to tick all of your boxes! Here is how to make it and with the recipe up your sleeve you will be able to whip some up any time you need it.

Prep Time10

Cook Time40

Resting time10

Total Time1

Course: Appetiser, dip, Spread

Cuisine: Australian, Australian, International

Keyword: chicken liver pate, chicken pate, pate

Servings:

Calories: 75kcal

Author: Adrianne

Equipment

Food processor
Medium sized fry pan
Tongs

Ingredients

500 grams chicken livers free range
½ tablespoon garlic minced
½ tablespoon dried onion
5 sage leaves torn in half
70 ml sweet sherry Note 1
100 grams butter cubed
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1 tablespoon sunflower seeds
¼ cup fresh parsley

Instructions

Drain chicken livers and use paper towel to pat dry. Note 2
Place a fry pan on the stove and turn it to a medium heat. Add ¾ of butter, garlic and sage. Stir to mix in a little.
Add chicken livers to the melted butter, season with salt, pepper and sprinkle over dried onion, continue to cook. Note 3
After 5-10 mins, add the remaining butter and sherry. Note 4
Use tongs to rotate the livers so that each side is cooked and do this a few times. Continue to cook until there is no red liquid (blood) in the pan as visible to the eye. Note 5
Remove pan from the stove and set aside to cool.
Use a small flat pan to toast sesame seeds and sunflower seeds. Rip stems from parsley and then use kitchen scissors to chop finely
Combine toasted seeds and parsley in a small bowl and use a spoon to stir Note 6
Spread pate on toast and use seed mix to garnish

Notes

Note 1 many people use brandy for pate recipes, but I like using sweet sherry in my pate recipe as it makes for a very smooth delicious taste .
Note 2 the temptation may be there to rinse your chicken livers, but try to resist. We need the flavour in the pate and rinsing them would dilute them.
Note 3 Did you know that chicken livers splatter when they cook! This is more than a little drop of oil from a wok. If they are splattering a lot, you need to turn the heat down and continue cooking.
Note 4 I expand on this point below, but keep an eye on the butter (remaining ¼ added with the sherry), when it is fully melted, that is about the time that the livers will be properly cooked.
Note 5 it is possible to overcook your livers. It is also however, possible to undercook them. In this recipe it is better to overcook rather than undercook them if you aren't sure. They need to be fully brown, otherwise your pate will be red and not brown/grey. Overcooking them changes the texture and we don't want that either. So as soon as the juices in the pan run brown/yellow with no red, they are done. If you push the tongs down on one, the juice from it should also be brown/yellow with no red. I kid you not undercooked them the 1st time I ever made pate and my pate was red/maroon from the remaining blood in the livers!! Needless to say we weren't able to eat it. Keep that in mind if in doubt though!
Note 6 when I toast these, I do them separately. The sesame seeds are so small and delicate so they toast quickly. The sunflower seeds take just a bit longer. To save time you can do them together. All up it only takes about 4 mins to toast. I do about 2 mins for the sesame seeds and 2 mins for the sunflower seeds. The parsley goes into the mix fresh, not toasted.
Australian and American tablespoons are different. In general 1 tablespoon US (14.8ml) is the equivalent to 0.74 tablespoons Australian (20ml). So when I say ½ tbs for Americans, that is essentially 10ml not 7.4ml. ie you need a little bit more if using an American tablespoon than an Australian one.

Nutrition