Fried Chicken Liver

A love-it-or-hate-it dish, fried chicken livers offer the visceral punch of the liver itself amplified by the luxury of their fat-fried coat. They are available in many fried-chicken restaurants, as well as just about any cafe that is serious about deep-frying things. Some people like a few for an appetizer, but they also can be a mighty meal. Back in the 1990s, we described the fried chicken liver plate served by the now-defunct Threadgill’s of Austin, Texas, as a “mountain bigger than half a basketball… perhaps two or three dozen of them, so gnarled and knobby you can almost see them puffing up and exploding when they hit the hot fat just a few minutes before.” The most unusual presentation we’ve seen is the half-and-half plate at Ramon’s in Clarksdale, Mississippi: a great heap of crusty-fried chicken livers side by side with a mound of meat-sauced spaghetti.