Ode to Liver

I recently enjoyed a meal of chicken livers. For many of you that might not sound too tasty, but for me chicken liver represents comfort food of the highest order. Liver is fatty and high in cholesterol among other things, but its a childhood favorite and few things are as tender, tasty and yes fatty as liver.

Another issue is the fact the livers tend to accumulate all sorts of nasty toxins (yours included). With most chickens you might have second thoughts about ingesting them with the antibiotics and all of the other novel things they feed to them. So, let me suggest going with the organic/free range variety available at Whole Paycheck Foods and other places (if you can find something in a true free range bird so much the better).

The traditional preparation in my Ashkenazi family is chopped chicken liver, a nice mash of liver, onion, seasonings and perhaps a bit of wine for good measure. But on this occasion I was out to recreate a truly faboulus sandwich I had eaten a several weeks ago in New Orleans. It was a fried chicken liver poboy with a topping of coleslaw and a light mayo dressing. Since that particular sandwich could have fed a family of four I decided that something smaller was in order.

Thus, I created the chicken liver slider. Directions below, enjoy:

Chicken Liver Sliders
(feeds 2-3)

1 lb organic chicken livers
6-8 small dinner rolls
1 lb coleslaw (you can make your own, but this is a quick lunch)

Place livers on plate, pat dry with paper towel, season with salt, pepper, and a dash of creole seasoning if desired.
Heat a cast iron pan to med-high heat with a small bit of oil (peanut is best)
[don't own a cast iron pan?? Go to Target (WalMart for Democrats) and pick one up, less than 20 bucks and it will last you a lifetime]
Place livers seasoning side down in pan, set timer for 3 minutes.
While the livers are cooking (and do not move them) toss the rolls in the oven at 300 to warm up.
Turn livers and cook again for 3 minutes.
Remove livers from pan to a cutting board and allow to rest for 3 minutes.
Remove rolls and slice open and place on plates.
Slice livers into bite sized pieces and distribute on rolls evenly.
Top each sandwich with coleslaw and serve.
Toss out your iron supplement- you don't need it now.