Starters
Sautéed Duck Livers with Chilli on Potato and Coriander Salad
Quickly seared livers glazed with chilli, garlic and balsamic, piled warm on a lime-dressed salad of new potatoes, coriander and rocket.
- Serves 6
- Prep 15 min
- Cook 20 min
- Modern
Method
Boil the potatoes in salted water for 12–15 minutes until tender. Drain, halve them while warm and toss with the lime juice, olive oil and a pinch of salt. Leave to soak up the dressing.
Pat the livers dry on kitchen paper; wet livers will not brown. Season with salt and pepper.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan until very hot, then add the butter. When it foams, add the livers in a single layer and leave them for 1½ minutes without moving, until well browned. Turn and cook for 1 minute more; they should still be pink in the middle.
Add the chilli and garlic and toss for 30 seconds, then pour in the balsamic vinegar and let it bubble for a few seconds, turning the livers to glaze them. Take off the heat.
Toss the warm potatoes with the red onion, coriander and rocket and divide between six plates. Spoon the livers and their pan juices over the top and serve straight away.
Tip: tap a step to tick it off as you cook.
Chef’s notes
- Duck livers are sold by butchers and specialist poultry suppliers; chicken livers, which UK supermarkets sell, are just as good and are what we have priced.
- Livers should be cooked until browned outside but still pink inside; overcooked livers turn grainy.
How this recipe was developed
The old Cookeryonline page closely followed a recipe from Peter Gordon’s The Sugar Club Cookbook (1997), so we wrote a new version. We rebuilt it around the warm chicken liver salad technique used by BBC Good Food.
- Hot pan, dry livers. Silvana Franco’s warm chicken liver salad for BBC Good Food (4.5/5 from 4 ratings) sears the livers quickly in a very hot pan and deglazes with vinegar for the dressing.
- Potato and coriander. Warm new potatoes dressed while hot with lime, plus coriander, keep the idea of the original dish name; the proportions and wording are ours.
Sources we compared (ratings as shown on each site on 31 October 2026):
- BBC Good Food (Silvana Franco): Warm chicken liver salad (4.5/5 from 4 ratings)
- Peter Gordon: The Sugar Club Cookbook (1997): the old page closely followed a recipe in this book
This is an original Cookeryonline recipe written in our own words. Ingredient choices and techniques are credited above; no source text has been copied.