Cooked chicken livers

This particular recipe I use very often, as it is not very difficult to prepare this dish and it's really delicious, trust me. And it's very rich with vitamins and it's healthy and is recommended by nutritionists. So just don't look at it as if it was just a simple and unimportant dish in your life. So before you start reading about the ingredients and preparation process and stuff, I just wanted to let you know why you should eat it and why you should prepare it in the first place. This is a really good choice of efficiency and simplicity and stuff.

Now, the ingredients are not much, and it probably depends on mostly how many people you are preparing the dish for. Of course, a small amount is better, because it cooks well and, when you prepare a dish with huge amounts of ingredients, it just becomes a mess and the result is not what it should have been if you didn't prepare it with all those many things.

Ingredients:

• 1 kilogramme chicken livers (frozen or not)
• 50 grams coriander, fresh
• 2 onions (and 1 for the boiling livers if you like)
• salt to taste
• barberries to taste
• celery to taste
• bay leaves (optional)
• thyme (optional)
• ground pepper (optional)

Basically, what you need for this dish is chicken livers. And, of course some onions and herbs. So, now you see how simple it is to prepare it. I'm sure you will not change your mind after explaining its preparation process, too.

Buying chicken livers

First of all, you should buy these chicken livers. Well, you could buy cow's liver, too or something like that, but chicken livers have a different taste compared to those of cow's and they are pretty easy to cook. You can find frozen chicken livers in every grocery store and they are packed in different packages. Some of them weigh 500 grams and some of them are of 1 kilogramme. So, if you want to prepare the dish just for yourself or even for two people, this 500 grams can be enough, well, it depends on how hungry you are and how much you are going to eat and stuff like that. I usually buy 1 kilogramme package, because those 500 grams are not really enough, because there are usually people who eat this dish and like it, so I prepare it not just for myself and so that pretty much explains me buying that 1 kilogramme chicken livers. But don't get too scared, because when prepared they don't seam to be much and it's not something even one person can't handle and eat. Anyways, you can also buy those "live livers" _ those are the not-frozen ones. And you can just buy as much as you want. Well, at least that's how people buy them here, where I live. So, if you are visiting Georgia and want to buy some chicken livers, you can easily find them in any market or grocery store or even in just some small markets and they are these frozen ones and most of them will be 1 kilogramme. And they don't cost much, too. So, they will cost you something like maximum of 3 Laris. That is nearly $1. 50, so you see, it's really cheap. Now, you can buy not-frozen ones, too, and generally you can buy them in such places, where they have meat and stuff like that and they call them chop shops and stuff like that. There are cabins like those of ice-cream machines and some of them are called "Biu-biu" and the other one is a yellow cabin or something and they have all hese chicken stuff, such as eggs, chicken breasts, chicken fillets, chicken livers and stomachs, whole chickens and so on and so forth, and so neither of them are frozen and stuff and they are fresh and many people buy them. This method is very efficient and reasonable, too. And the prices are not very distinguished with the ones that are in grocery stores and if you buy frozen livers in about 3 Laris, the amount of livers bought in those places in 3 Laris would be almost the same. So, personally I prefer buying the not-frozen chicken livers to those frozen ones. Well, at least you don't have to unfroze them, as you know you need to unfroze (obviously! ) the frozen livers until you start preparing them for the dish. And, of course, that takes some time and when you have those "live livers", you can just skip this freezing-unfreezing part and start the cooking at once, so that you can spare some time and cook the dish more quickly than you would had you bought the frozen chicken livers.

Wow, I've written much about the livers and where and how to buy them, but I like everyhing to be in details, so I won't miss anything and I want to share my experiences with you guys.

Onions dilemma

Okay, so, next thing we need to buy is onions. Well, onions you can buy anywhere here in Georgia and that's not really a problem. You have a choice to make, though, _ whether you buy white onions or the red ones. Personally, I like the red ones, but it depeneds on whether you want the onions to be cut into many small pieces or just sliced so that they will be small circles. Well, the white ones are perfect for this choice _ they can be sliced all the way through without any problems and they are beautifully sliced into those circles. However, the red ones are more tasty and it is really good in dishes, if you ask me. So, if you want to just cut the onions and the shape doesn't really matter, I suggest buying the red onions, and if you must, you can slice them into circles, too, but they won't be as beautiful as the slices of the white ones. I want to warn you though _ the red ones are harder to resist not to cry, as their smell and whatever that is makes you cry instantly and your eyes get all red and swollen and stuff. That is pretty terrible, if you ask me.

Now, about the herbs. You will need to buy some coriander and maybe a little bit of celery would be good, too. Coriander is very popular in Georgia and it gives a great taste to dishes and I like to use them in my dishes very much. And I love he smell and taste of the celery and I usually have them (but not much) in my dishes, too. Well, it has a smell and a taste that not many people like, so you should be careful when using celery in your dishes!

Another thing that you will need is barberries. I love their taste, but if you don't want to, you can just ignore them and not put them into the dish, so, it's not necessary barberries to be in your dish. The thing is, that I just really love using them, they give it a special taste and they are pretty awesome, if you ask me.

Preparation process

So, about that preparation thing. Some people just use these chicken livers and put them into a pan or in oven and cook them. Well, you can do that, or you can choose my way of doing the cooking. Well, every living organism has something in it and those livers are not an exception. There are many diseases that can be transmitted to people from chickens or whatsoever, and it's known, that the bacteries and stuff mostly can be killed by high temperatures. So, if you have already guessed, then it's perfect, and if you have not, I will tell you, that I like to first boil my chicken liversand then do anything I want to do with them. Well, the boiling process itself doesn't have to be long. You can boil them for as long as you want, let that be some minutes or an hour or whatever. It's just that I do that to kill the bacteries and stuff. So, mainly, you should put those livers into a boiling water for at least some minutes to do that. If you don't, it's just be a waste of time and water and so on and so forth, so if you don't let them be in a boiling water for a couple of minutes, then you can just don't do it at all, I guess. So, what I do is, I pour some water in a saucepan and when it starts boiling, I put those chicken livers into it and let it boil. Sometimes I boil them for an hour, sometimes I boil them until they are cooked and good to taste. But, mainly, I think you can just boil them for a half an hour or an hour or so, they will be good by then. I even season it with some salt. And you can even put some bay leaves and onions cut into halves just to give the livers some good taste, before you take them out of the water.

So, now, when you take the livers out of the water, let them cool a little. I do that because then I usually cut them into smaller pieces, as the livers are kind of big, you know, and I don't really like them that big. So I let them cool a little and then cut them into halves or even in quarters. Well, generally, this all depends on you and how you want them to be. If you want, you can just leave those livers as they are, and if you want to, you can just cut them into pieces as many times as you want. They even chop them into very small pieces and just make the dish that way. After I cut them, I pour some oil into a pan and put it on a gas and when it gets warm I just put those chicken liver pieces into the pan and let it cook. Well, there is another thing here _ a little moment that I want to tell you about. If you want the onions not to be very fresh and you want them to be kind of "more cooked", you can just cook them for a couple of minutes in that pan and then add the pieces of livers after that. But, I think, it's better if you just cook the livers first. I personally like when the livers get this some kind of a redness on them when they are cooked, but it's up to you how long you want them to be in the pan. And, well, you know, they need to be mixed from time to time, so that they won't get burned or something like that. You really should not burn them, as they will have this burnt taste then and you won't like it. And, what's more, every little piece will have that taste even if just one of them gets burned, so, be careful there! And be attentive!

Now when all the livers are cooked and look fine, you can add some onions in the pan. That action is great if you have those circle-sliced onions and you want them to be kind of fresh, but a little bit soft, too. However, I, personally, don't like these big circles in my dish and I just buy those red onions and chop them into very small pieces and I cook them in another pan and then mix them with the livers. So, that's how I do it: when my livers are halfway cooked, I put the onions in another pan and cook them for about 3-5 minutes, until they are halfway brown. I even add some salt and some ground pepper and coriander an thyme to them, so that they will get a better taste. And then, I add them to the livers which are in another pan cooking slowly. Then I add some barberries, too. As I told you, it gives the dish a distinguished taste, which I like very much. After one minute or so, you can add some washed and chopped herbs, such as the coriander and a little bit of celery if you like. For this 1 kilogramme chicken livers I use about 50 grams of coriander, I think, and you can add some more if you love them in your dish. It gives the dish a good taste and makes it be a little less dry. As you know, the cooked livers are kind of dry, and so if you didn't know hat, now you can anticipate the dish to be a little dry. So, when you add those herbs, you can just turn the gas off in a minute or in a couple of minutes and that's it, the dish is ready! And if I have written so many things, don't think that preparing this dish is very difficult, because it is not! And if you prepare it, you will understand that. So just don't get all lazy and stuff and prepare it once and you will see how simple and good it is.

Eat it with sour-cream!

As I've mentioned above, the dish is kind of dry and if you don't want it to be that dry, you can have some sauces to eat along with it. Personally, I just recently found out, that some sour-cream tastes really good with the dish. I really liked that. So, if you like sour-cream, you can just try it out with the livers. Or you can just add the dish any sauce of your choice, I'm sure many of them will taste good with it.

Photo gallery