Chicken Livers Peri Peri with Bacon

We’ve always been a fan of chicken livers but they need a bit of spicing up and this peri-peri flavour is great and makes perfect mid-week dinner. Liver is one of the healthiest foods around, and the nutrition packed into chicken liver offers numerous health benefits, in fact it’s so high in certain nutrients that it’s best viewed as a supplemental food. So we thought we’d give you a scrumptious way to enjoy this wonder ingredient in a simple low cost meal, packed with flavour, over a bed of penne rigate pasta.

Ingredients

500g chicken livers
250g streaky bacon, small dice
1 large red onion, sliced
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp coconut oil
2 tsp Robertsons Peri Peri spice
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
juice of half a lemon
1/2 cup Pitcharelloes Beef, Ginger and Vegetable Bone Broth (if you don’t have this then a good beef stock will do)
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tin canned chopped tomatoes
1/4 cup or 60ml cream or double cream yogurt
Salt and pepper to taste
Penne Rigate pasta or spaghetti

Start off by making the sauce. Fry the onions in the butter on a medium heat just until they start to soften, not brown. Add the tomato paste, garlic and peri-peri spice and fry for a further minute. Pour in the bone broth and the tin tomatoes and the squeeze of lemon, mix properly and leave to simmer on a low heat for about 10 minutes and then set aside.

Toss the livers in a bowl with the coconut oil and half a tsp of coarse salt. Set aside. Then get a pot of water on the stove to boil ready to cook the pasta.

In a large pan, fry the diced bacon in a little oil and the balsamic vinegar until it just starts to become crispy and gives off plenty of beautiful bacon fat. Then add the chicken livers and reduce the heat to medium. Leave the livers on one side for about 2 minutes. Flip over gently to fry on the other side for a further 2 minutes or until a good caramelization has occurred on the outside of the livers. Reduce the heat slightly and add the sauce back into the same pan as the livers and simmer for a further 10 minutes. Add in the cream then turn the heat off, mix the cream through and allow to rest in the pan while you cook the pasta.

Serve the peri peri chicken livers over penne pasta or spaghetti, topped with a squeeze of lemon and parmesan cheese.