Chicken liver and eggs

I am looking for a restaurant that serves chicken liver and eggs

I haven't seen that since Sam and Hy's was open out on Dempster. Maybe in the 80s.

You might try Nookies. I seem to have a very dim memory of having it there, probably at the more northern Halsted location a very long time ago.

I thought I had that somewhere here in the last year or so on the northside: the Bagel, perhaps? Maybe What's Cooking? Whistlers? I'm pretty sure it was one of those three: I will have to review which diners I've been to in the past year or so. It may have been on special that day...

A search of menus at The Bagel and What's Cooking didn't bring it up, but they both carry chicken livers and eggs, and might be willing to put them together for you. We usually have good luck getting spinach and cream cheese omelettes for the 'spouse on request.

sauteed chicken livers? Tempo Cafe on Chestnut and State serves them. It's called "the continental".

However, don't try to ask for them during their Saturday/Sunday brunch rush. You'll get some nasty looks!

what is this? please describe, I am intrigued, though it sounds mighty rich.
kinda like the scrambled eggs and brains my Grampa usedto eat for breakfast

I'll be surprised if What's Cooking? in the Lincoln Village Mall (McCormick & Lincoln) doesn't serve it. It might not be listed on the menu, but they'd probably make it for you if it's not listed.

I'd add Myron & Phil's to the list. They have fantastic chicken livers on the menu. I' sure they'll make it with eggs for you as an accommodation.

I have ordered this dish at The Bagel many many times. I enjoy the preparation as they use large pieces of liver and lots of them. It is listed in the online menu under omelettes.

The Bagel

CHICAGO-3107 N BROADWAY
MON-THURS-8AM-10PM
FRI & SAT-8AM-11PM
SUN-8AM- 9PM
773-477-0300

SKOKIE- OLD ORCHARD CENTER
(NEXT TO LORD & TAYLOR)
MON-SAT-8AM-10PM
SUN-8AM-9PM
847-677-0100

The eastern European places all have chicken livers.
I can't comment on the preparation with eggs but normally they are cooked with oil, water, and lots of onions so that they have a bit of a reduction type sauce / gravy standard. I eat them all the time with home made fries or polenta.

third coast foodie wrote:The eastern European places all have chicken livers.
I can't comment on the preparation with eggs but normally they are cooked with oil, water, and lots of onions so that they have a bit of a reduction type sauce / gravy standard. I eat them all the time with home made fries or polenta.

TCF,

An example of this type of preparation may be found at Restaurant Bulgaria in the form of Chicken Liver "Olympia", which contains cheese, mushrooms and scallions.

Drained yogurt salad (front), Chicken Liver "Olympia" (rear).


What are some of the place you like to go? Chicken livers with polenta sounds tasty.

Enjoy,
Gary

Restaurant Bulgaria
4724 W Lawrence
Chicago, IL
773-282-0300
www.restaurantbulgariachicago.com

A & T Grill at Clark and Greenleaf in Rogers Park make a wicked Chicken Liver Omlette.

I was at What's Cooking? for a bowl of chicken soup with a couple of kreplah's early this evening and asked our waitress about the Eggs & Chicken Liver dish. She asked me to open my menu and look on the breakfast page (served all day) and there, highlighted in a box at the top of the page was the restaurant's "House Specialty": Sauteed Chicken Livers with Scrambled Eggs, prepared with Green Pepper and Onion and served with hash brown's. Price: $7.95.

What's Cooking? Restaurant
6181 N. Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60659
(773) 583-3050
Hours: Monday thru Saturday - 6 a.m. to Midnight
Sunday: 7 a.m. to Midnight
Website: http://www.theoriginalwhatscooking.com

That's the one! IIRC it was excellent!

When my cholesterol gets down to 150, I'm going to treat myself to some homemade chicken livers with onions. I love beef liver too if it's prepared correctly. Maybe not eating animal organs has helped me reach 71 years of age.

That being said, my first wife's grandfather lived into his early 90s. You should have had the chance to eat his wife's chopped calf brains. She'd parboil them, chop them up and saute them with chopped onions in chicken schmaltz. Loaded with cholesterol, but I loved them!

Ma was from Romania. Anyone know of a good Romanian restaurant in the area?

There hasn't been a decent one in Chicago since Joe Stein closed his place on Sheridan Road (Chicago) years ago. Interesting story - Joe used to tell us to come back often because both his sons had no interest in the business. He said when he died, his wife would be able to keep the restaurant going for six months and then it would close. Unfortunately, Joe was right.

Regards,
GP Bob

Grandpa Bob wrote:Ma was from Romania. Anyone know of a good Romanian restaurant in the area?

A couple of threads:

"Authentic" Romanian restaurant(s)?
Bucovina, a Romanian restaurant reviewed

Grandpa Bob wrote:When my cholesterol gets down to 150, I'm going to treat myself to some homemade chicken livers with onions.

Another fine summation of LTH forum!

I checked out the links above and the only dish I recognized was mamaliga. I guess I didn't mention that my first wife's grandparents were Jewish and Joe Stein's restaurant was the surviving one of two Romanian/Jewish restaurants in Chicago. (The other being Alder's.) Both were on Roosevelt Rd. during the early part of the last century.

Joe Stein's probably closed in the late 1960s and with his restaurant gone, there were no Romanian/Jewish restaurants left.

One dish that I recalled at Joe Stein's was karnatzila - ground beef spiked with whole cloves of garlic and shaped like sausages. Heavenly! Joe also pickled his own green tomatoes. Heavy on the garlic, of course.

I recall going to a party with my first wife and she found someone whose grandmother also cooked Romanian/Jewish food. They spend the next two hours talking about nothing else.

I first wife's mother watched her mother (Ma Schwartz) cook and wrote down the recipes. (Ma learned to cook from her sister-in-law and never used a cookbook.) So all of the quantities were approximate. I've asked my first wife what happened to those recipes and they're gone. A shame (shande).

We're talking 40 years ago folks. Those of you who have been to Romania recently didn't have any Jewish/Romania cooking because there are no Jews left in Romania! And, sadly, there are none left in Chicago.

Regards,
GP Bob

My wife is from Romania and we often travel there.
I will have to have a party next time her parents are visiting so we can let everyone experience some of the best food imaginable. My wife and I have been to all of the Romanian restaurants and while I am not the judge my wife is I will definitely state that none of the restaurants are able to faithfully recreate the real thing. This goes triple for the sad affair called the Taste of Romania which is put on by someone not from Romania who owns a certain restaurant with food that is not Romanian despite the claims on the menu.

And yes I know home cooking is rare in every category but I think some of the Bosnian, Moldavian, Serbian, Polish places do a better job than the Romanian ones.

That said we go most often to Bucovina and occasionally to Operetta.

As for the chicken livers I spoke - when we make them you simple cook the livers with a bunch of diced onions, some oil, about a cup of water, and vegetta for seasoning. Let the liquid reduce to gravey consistency and serve with mashed potatoes, home made fries, or mamaliga (I was taught to say marmaligutsa but that is apparently the child pronunciation of the word and people laugh at me).

The green markets often have a vendor where you can get organic chicken livers for 2.50lb or go to a busy polish deli with a good turnover and quality livers. we use Montrose deli for livers at .99lb.

As for the polenta we have traveled far and wide to find a good product and the bulk organic polenta at whole foods is close but the bags of polenta at Caputos at 2650 N Harlem are the best bet.


Bucovina
6107 W Addison St, Chicago 60634
Phone: 773-685-7323

Operetta
5653 W Fullerton Ave
(773) 622-2613

anyone had the chicken liver appetizer at Gibsons? It used to be on the menu, it's not any longer, however they still have it, if you ask for it.

It comes out like a scoop of brown ice cream on lettuce, and it's served with flatbread crackers, hard-boiled egg & red onion chopped, and small little pickles. I forgot to ask how they make it.

It's awesome, great with martinis, and it can't be that hard to reverse engineer. Anyone had it and can guess how to recreate it? Thanks.

If we're just talking general chicken livers here, and not liver and eggs, I have to heartily recommend the chicken liver dinner at Charcoal Ovenin Skokie. Excellent and you can take the leftovers home to scramble in your eggs.

RiverWester, how does what you describe differ from straight-up Jewish-diner chopped liver?

RiverWester wrote:anyone had the chicken liver appetizer at Gibsons? It used to be on the menu, it's not any longer, however they still have it, if you ask for it.

It comes out like a scoop of brown ice cream on lettuce, and it's served with flatbread crackers, hard-boiled egg & red onion chopped, and small little pickles. I forgot to ask how they make it.

It's awesome, great with martinis, and it can't be that hard to reverse engineer. Anyone had it and can guess how to recreate it? Thanks.

I have had it. You can buy a pound of chopped liver at Ashkenaz on state and cedar and viola it is recreated, probably better.

For an even better experience pick up a pound of chopped beef liver at the Romanian Sausage Company on Touhy and Clark. Get a hard salami while you are there too.

Romanian Kosher Sausage Companyu
7200 N Clark St
Chicago, IL 60626
(773) 761-4141

As long as we're discussing chicken livers without eggs, I'll mention that The Gage has a decent appetizer of fried chicken livers that I really enjoyed the one time I was there.

The Gage
24 S. Michigan Ave.
312-372-4243

iblock9, you mention getting chopped beef liver... Is it just that, just chopped beef liver or is it seasoned, etc., like "chopped liver," the dish. I ask because I have frozen beef liver and frozen chicken livers in my fridge that I got last week from Family Farms Co-op and I haven't yet decided what to do with them. Suggestions quite welcome, me being a liver novice.

Kristen

stevez wrote:I'd add Myron & Phil's to the list. They have fantastic chicken livers on the menu. I' sure they'll make it with eggs for you as an accommodation.

I bet they will because we know that Myron & Phil's will also serve you a hot dog as an accommodation.

stevez wrote:I'd add Myron & Phil's to the list. They have fantastic chicken livers on the menu. I' sure they'll make it with eggs for you as an accommodation.

aschie30 wrote:I bet they will because we know that Myron & Phil's will also serve you a hot dog as an accommodation.

I just love esoteric Fred from Check Please references.

"we found fire a couple million years ago, and I think we should use it."

kl5 wrote:iblock9, you mention getting chopped beef liver... Is it just that, just chopped beef liver or is it seasoned, etc., like "chopped liver," the dish. I ask because I have frozen beef liver and frozen chicken livers in my fridge that I got last week from Family Farms Co-op and I haven't yet decided what to do with them. Suggestions quite welcome, me being a liver novice.

It is defintely seasoned. I would recommend a trip to the Romanian for a taste of true chopped "beef" liver heaven. It is better then any chopped chicken liver that I have tasted. We previously had a discussion about this on the shopping & cooking board which I will try to link below.

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=

The liver discussion starts about half way down page #1 with my post

BTW, Myron & Phils does have a nice chopped liver and it is free with the array of pickles and put on your table as soon as you walk in. Carson's ribs always has a huge mound of pretty decent chopped liver in the bar at each location and that is also free

I'm believe I've seen it on the menu at Sweet Maple Cafe.

Mhays wrote:If we're just talking general chicken livers here, and not liver and eggs, I have to heartily recommend the chicken liver dinner at Charcoal Ovenin Skokie. Excellent and you can take the leftovers home to scramble in your eggs.

RiverWester, how does what you describe differ from straight-up Jewish-diner chopped liver?

I'm not sure it does differ. But do they put the egg and onion in with the liver before it's pureed, mixed? At Gibsons they served the liver with chopped hard boiled egg and chopped red onion on the side.

RiverWester wrote:But do they put the egg and onion in with the liver before it's pureed, mixed?

Dunno, but this video recipe shows onion and egg as ingredients as well as garnish. Favorite quote from the video "...using oil makes the dish less fattening, but it won't taste so rich..."

My own favorite chicken liver recipe is as follows: wash and dry chicken livers. Dust with flour. Saute in a hot pan with olive oil until the outside is crisp and the inside is firm, adding a spoonful of sesame seeds and a drizzle of sesame oil at the end of the cooking. Season to taste and serve.