Friday, October 26, 2012

Paleo Fear Factor: Chicken Liver

Here is the first of many posts where I’ll explore some of the more traditional foods that are touted by the paleo gurus as very healthy but seem scary to those of us who were raised and have been eating a standard American diet.  Welcome to paleo fear factor at The Paleo Review!

Growing up, my mom never made me try really any of the foods/vegetables that you see kids cringe at on sitcoms.  While she would enjoy beef liver at the cafeteria my family would frequent often on Sundays, she never made me eat it and the idea of liver has never sat well with me.  After reading about the nutritional value in eating liver, I decided I needed to give it a try.  As I love Melissa Joulwan’s book Well Fed: Paleo Recipes for People Who Love to Eat and her blog, I decided, after reading this, to give her Crispy Spiced Chicken Liver recipe a try. 

I assembled my ingredients: 




I measured the dry ingredients in a plastic storage bag and shook them up. 




I omitted the extra bowl for less cleanup.
I cut up the livers and added them to the dry ingredients.  I gently shook the bag to cover the liver in the seasoned coconut flour.  

Yummy Liver!
Looks much better coated.












I added some coconut oil to the pan and fried the livers.  While cooking, the coconut flour absorbed the oil like crazy.  I had to add more oil than the recipe called for to get the livers to cook.  While cooking, some of the livers seemed to explode.  I tried to get video of this but failed.  Sorry.  


I draining the livers on paper towels.  



I did not have any parsley, cilantro, or mint for garnish, but did have lemon juice.  


It looks good.  


Ingredient Accessibility:  I bought my chicken liver at Whole Foods as I wanted to get as good of quality of liver as I could as I've read that effects taste greatly.  The organic chicken liver I bought wasn't very expensive, $5.  Coconut flour can be found at most natural grocery stores.  I've not looked for it at my big box grocery, but will the next time I go.  

Preparation Time:  To complete two batches of livers including ingredient mixing, battering and frying, it took me 30 minutes.  

Clean up:  This recipe created a minimal mess.  I opted to not use a separate bowl to mix my dry ingredients as the recipe calls for and just mixed them up in the plastic storage bag before adding the liver.  I need to add a splatter guard to my kitchen gadgetry arsenal, as the oil went everywhere and I had to scrub down my back splash behind my cook top.  My skillet and knife were my only hand wash items.  


The Paleo Review:  Thumbs down, but maybe Thumbs up if you know you like chicken liver.  I don’t think chicken liver is my thing.  I could taste the seasoning and thought that it had a nice flavor but I just didn't like the texture of the liver.  So, if you like chicken liver, this might be a recipe for you.  I'm pretty disappointed that I didn't like it, but life is too short to eat food you don't like. If you've not tried chicken liver, this recipe is worth cooking at least once to see if you do.   

Next on Paleo Fear Factor?

Beef Liver!