Move Over Butter Board, Make Way for the Smoked Chicken Liver Pâté Board
Have you heard of the butter board trend that was taking TikTok by storm? In short, it’s a charcuterie board where the base is made of flavoured whipped butter and then a number of possible ingredients are piled on top, like jams, fruit, sauces, herbs, you name it. Then, you take bread or crackers and scoop up the butter and toppings. It sounds weird, but looks kind of cool and is an interesting spin on the standard charcuterie board. Not to mention, who doesn’t love butter? As usual though, I had to try to one up the butter board and so created this smoked chicken liver pâté board, just in time for the holidays.
To make the smoked chicken liver pâté board, I seared my chicken liver on the plancha and then threw it into a cast iron pan with garlic, grilled shallots, fresh rosemary, sage, lemon and white wine and then smoked it in the Alchemy smoker. Then, everything in the pan, except the lemon, goes into a blender with butter and grainy Dijon. Make sure to squeeze in the juice from the smoked lemons and discard the rinds. All that gets blended up until smooth and you have the richest, tastiest chicken liver pâté. Once that cools down, spread the smoked chicken liver pâté onto a wood board, top with charcuterie, cheese, nuts, jam, pickled vegetables and serve with sliced toasted baguette. If you want to find out how to make my Smoked Chicken Liver Pâté Board keep reading or jump to the full recipe.
Set smoker to 325F. Toss your chicken liver in flour and add to the plancha to sear. Cut shallots in half and add to the plancha to sear.
Melt butter and pour over top the liver, flip and allow the other side to sear.
In a large cast iron pan on the plancha add melted butter. Add in the fresh rosemary and sage. Drizzle the liver with white wine and allow to cook another 1-2 minutes. Cut the top off a head of garlic and cut a lemon in half and add both to the pan. Transfer the liver and shallots into the pan and add another ¼ cup of white wine. Place in the smoker for about 30 minutes.
Remove the liver from the smoker. Add ½ cup of butter to a blender and transfer the liver, shallots and cloves of garlic, plus the liquid from the pan into the blender. Squeeze the juice from the smoked lemon into the blender, too. Season with salt and pepper, and add in the herbed cream cheese. Blend until all ingredients are combined.
Add in 1 tbsp grainy Dijon mustard and test if you need more salt. Blend again until incorporated.
Slice your baguette into rounds and grill on the plancha with butter to make crostinis.
Allow the liver to cool. Once the pate has cooled down, spread across your wood board.
Allow the liver to cool and spread across your wood board. Top with your meats, cheese, pickled vegetables, olives, grainy Dijon, fig jam, chopped cashews. Crisp up a couple sprigs of Italian parsley on the plancha with canola oil, garnish your board with the crispy leaves.
Serve with your crostinis and use them to scoop up that delicious smoked chicken liver pate. Make sure to grab some of those tasty toppings too.
And now for the full recipe...
Smoked Chicken Liver Pâté Board
Makes 6-8 boards
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes
Ingredients:
2 lbs chicken liver
½ cup flour
½ lb butter
5 leaves fresh sage
1 sprig fresh rosemary
75g herbed cream cheese
1 head garlic
½ cup white wine
3 shallots
1 lemon
1 tbsp salt
½ tsp pepper
3 tbsp grainy Dijon mustard, divided
Prosciutto
Mortadella
Genoa salami
French ham
150g Edam Cheese
¼ cup roasted unsalted cashews
2-3 tbsp fig jam
2-3 tbsp Pickled peppers + mushrooms
5-6 Pepperoncini peppers
2-3 tbsp green olives
1 baguette
2-3 sprigs Italian parsley
How to Make a Smoked Chicken Liver Pâté Board
Set smoker to 325F.
Toss your chicken liver in all-purpose flour and add to the plancha to sear. Cut the shallots in half and add to the plancha to also sear. Melt half the butter and pour over the top of the liver, flip and allow the other side to sear.
In a large cast iron pan on the plancha add melted butter. Add in the fresh rosemary and sage. Drizzle the liver with white wine and allow to cook another 1-2 minutes and the wine to reduce.
Cut the top off a head of garlic and cut a lemon in half and add both to the cast iron pan. Transfer the liver and shallots into the pan and add another ¼ cup of white wine. Place in the smoker for about 30 minutes.
Remove the liver from the smoker. Add half a cup of butter to a blender and transfer the liver, shallots and cloves of garlic, plus the liquid from the pan into the blender. Squeeze the juice from the smoked lemon into the blender, too. Season with salt and pepper, and add in the herbed cream cheese. Blend until all ingredients are combined. Add in 1 tbsp grainy Dijon mustard and test if you need more salt. Blend again until incorporated.
Slice your baguette into rounds and grill on the plancha with butter to make crostinis.
Allow the liver to cool and spread across your wood board. Top with your meats, cheese, pickled vegetables, olives, grainy Dijon, fig jam, chopped cashews. Crisp up a couple sprigs of Italian parsley on the plancha with canola oil, garnish your board with the crispy leaves. Serve with your crostinis.
Package the extra pâté, while warm, and take a 6x6 inch square of plastic wrap, pour a generous amount of pâté, horizontally in the center and then fold one flap over the pâté and roll and then grab corners of the wrap and spin to create a tight tube and refrigerate.
