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Brochette of Chicken Livers
2 chicken livers 6 bacon slices 1 egg slightly beaten 1/2 cup bread crumbs 3 tablespoons shortening 3 slices onion 2 tablespoons chopped parsley 6 slices toast Clean livers and wash. Cut in small pieces. Cut bacon in slices three inches long. Roll liver in egg, then bread crumbs, and run liver and bacon on skewers alternated. Heat shortening and onion in skillet, then brown skewered livers and bacon. When ready to serve spread shortening from pan on toast, place skewers of liver and bacon on top, and garnish with parsley. For a change, a poached egg may be served on the toast, then the livers and the bacon placed on top. Serves 3.
A skewer-and-skillet dish from the era when "grills" meant anything browned quickly in a pan and served on toast. It comes together in about fifteen minutes once the livers are trimmed.
- Brochette means skewerNothing here is baked or planked; the livers and bacon go on small metal or bamboo skewers and are browned in a skillet. Bamboo skewers should be soaked if you finish them under a broiler instead.
- Cook the livers throughChicken livers carry the same pathogens as the rest of the bird and need to reach 165F, with no pink or bloody center. Because they are cut small and coated, four to six minutes of turning in the pan is usually enough; past that they turn dry and chalky.
- Quantity of liverTwo livers is thin for six skewers on six slices of toast serving three. Figure roughly half a pound, about eight to ten livers, for that yield, and trim the connective tissue and any green-stained spots as you clean them.
- The bacon needs a head startBacon cut in three-inch lengths will not render fully in the time the coated liver takes. Partly cook it first, until limp but not crisp, then thread it alternately with the liver so both finish together.
- ShorteningIn this period that means lard or a hydrogenated vegetable shortening. Butter mixed with a neutral oil, or the fat rendered from the bacon, gives the same result with more flavor.
- The onion is for the fat, not the plateThree slices of onion heated in the shortening perfume the fat that later gets spread on the toast. Keep the heat moderate so the slices color slowly rather than scorching and turning the fat bitter.
- BreadingDry the livers well before the egg wash or the crumbs will slide off in the pan. Fine dry crumbs adhere better than fresh soft ones and brown more evenly.
- ServingServes three as written, with two slices of toast each. The poached-egg variation makes it a supper or breakfast dish rather than a first course.
Chicken livers en brochette belong to a long line of American hotel and club dishes built on the same formula: something rich, something salty, and a slice of toast to catch the fat. Menus from the late nineteenth century onward list oysters, kidneys, sweetbreads and livers all treated this way, since skewering let a cook portion and turn small pieces quickly on a hot range. The French word brochette lent the dish an air of consequence on printed menus even when the technique was plainly a skillet job; the parsley and the optional poached egg carry dining-room presentation into the home kitchen.