by Noah Magen

Listen to the story!

Me: Thanksgiving is a holiday full of traditions and every family has their own. A tradition of my family is my mom always makes chicken liver at Thanksgiving. According to her it’s good but I think otherwise. This year I went on a mission to get it my way and get this liver to taste good. Fortunately one of my best friends is the Executive Chef at The Fat Chicken in Kazbekistan and is an expert at making chicken liver.

Me: Hey Bernard how are you!

Bernard: Great, I heard you needed a little help with making a great chicken liver.

Me: Yeah I do!

Bernard: First off make sure you make it weeks in advance so it can cook as needed. Next we need the ingredients. Two pounds of chicken liver, 3 medium sized onions, 1 cup of chicken gelatin, six soft boiled eggs, yeast, and the various spices. When you have all the ingredients, sauté the chicken liver, onions, and chicken gelatin until the mixture turns dark brown. Next take the sautéed mixture and put it in a blender and add 6 soft-boiled eggs. Blend the mixture for about 1 minute or until it turns into a kind of liver smoothie. Once the liver smoothie is all smoothified take it and pour it into a glass jar. Make sure this jar has a lid. Once in the jar add 1/3 cup of yeast, salt, pepper, and cinnamon. Let the liver sit in the closed jar for 1 to 2 weeks.

Me: ONE TO TWO WEEKS that’s gross!

Bernard: No it is not gross you must have this time to let it ferment.

Me: FERMENT! I don’t know about this recipe chef, it sounds disgusting.

Bernard: YOU insulti my country, how dare you insulti my countries beloved dish.

Me: I’m sorry chef what do we do next?

Bernard: Phh…well next comes the most important step. Once the liver is all fermented you must take it and pour into a grilling pan. You grill both sides until they are crunchy, but do not overcook it because you must leave the inside soft and smoothified. Next comes the most important part you put the liver into a beautiful porcelain dish.

Me: But what if you don’t have a porcelain dish?

Bernard: THEN YOU MUST NOT MAKIE THE LIVER!

Me: Ok sorry…so you place it into the porcelain dish.

Bernard: Yes you put it into the porcelain dish and then smother it in hollandaise sauce except in Kazbekistan we use Kazbekindaise sauce. Then you serve it to you beloved guests.

Me: Wow chef that sounds...umm…really good?

Bernard: OF course it does!

Me: Well thanks chef for teaching us how to make a proper chicken liver dish.

ME: So this year I’m going to cook the traditional Kasbekistani chicken liver and show my mom how to make something disgusting into something even more disgusting?