Piri piri chicken livers (yes, inspired by Nando's)
I rather like Nando’s.
The first one I ate at was on a work customer visit in Newcastle about ten years ago. Lunchtime rolled round and the chap I was meeting simply cocked his head to a colleague, said “Cheeky’s?”, and off we went.
That’s some fucking brand equity, right there.
I was expecting the tired indifference that dogs UK chain restaurants, I got quite a good piece of spicy chicken. On later visits I’d find things that crested “quite good” into “I actually really like this”. Ok, mainly one thing. This thing. The chicken livers. I am - ahem - offally fond of them.
So here’s a tribute to the unsung hero of the Nando’s menu. The little dish of spicy chicken livers that it blows my mind you can order for few quid on a British high street, a comfortable half century after offal was otherwise relegated to a bougie curio.
But is it an authentic tribute?
Honestly? Flavour yes, sauce no. Nando’s follow a marinade-grill-baste approach with their livers, building a little browning, and serving quite dry. This has a sauce of tomatoes and onions, because I like it. I’ve put the dry variant in the notes.
Ingredients:
Chicken livers, 400g
Onions, 1 medium
Lemon, 1
Tomatoes, 2 small
Parsley, small bunch (about 20g)
Lemon, 1
Bird's eye chillis, 2-??? (to taste, see notes)
Garlic, 2 big cloves
Flour, 2tbsp
Dried oregano, 1tsp
Onion powder, 1tsp
Ground cumin, 1/2tsp
Paprika, 1/2tsp
Smoked paprika, 1/2tsp
White pepper, 1/4tsp
Serves 2 generously, 4 as part of a spread of bits.
Notes:
Chilli - you can swap out the chillis for chilli power in the marinade if you want more heat control, or crank up or down the pepper quantity. If you can get authentic South African piri-piri ones, do. Birds eye seems to work. I use about 4.
Liver - If you don't like liver, well, you probably didn’t click through and read this far. If you did, Hi! Chopped chicken thigh meat cooked a couple minutes longer would work, and I could imagine a vegan version with smoked tofu, but I say that about everything.
Authentic - If you want to go more true-to-Nando’s with this, you basically make the sauce separately rather than building it in the pan, and use it only as a baste and marinade. Note “basically” - there are tweaks. They are: Blitz half a tomato and half an onion with double the quantity of the spices, the lemon zest, garlic, chilli, and parsley, the juice of a lemon, 2tbsp of oil, and probably about 100ml of water. Marinade the livers in half of this for a while before cooking, and make the dish by either frying or grilling them hot, and brushing more sauce over part way through, and a tiny bit at the end.
Instructions:
Slice the onion and finely chop the tomatoes. Put them (separately) to one side.
Trim the livers and slice them into strips. De-seed the chillis if you want to tone down the heat. Chop them finely. Crush the garlic. Finely chop the parsley. Zest about a third of the lemon. That sound fiddly, and more is fine but can dominate.
Mix all of those (i.e. everything except the onions and tomato) with the spices and flour, and leave to marinade if you have time. Honestly, it's more of a coating and sauce base, so don't sweat it. But then again we are going to sweat the onions, so you've got a few minutes.
Put plenty of oil in a good sized frying pan (so the livers have plenty of space and don't simmer at the start), get it to medium heat, and fry the onions, stirring periodically, for 6-7 mins - softening and just colouring, basically. Remove them, or push them to the edge of the pan.
Raise the heat slightly, and add the liver mix. Stir occasionally, but don't worry too much - we want a little browning. After about 5 mins, add the tomatoes and work the onion back in. Give it a good mix and cook for a few mins more, stirring, until the tomatoes are cooking down and reducing. Add a splash of water and a good squeeze of juice from the lemon, and simmer to a thick sauce.
Serve with bread and a salad, maybe some corn cobs and chips.
If you want to put a bit more effort in to the sides, slice and blanch some green beans, runner beans, and baby corn, drain well, sear in a dry pan, and toss with some oil and a squeeze of the remaining lemon juice.
This is not especially true to the soul of Nando’s, I’ll grant, but you could always top up the vibe by inviting some local teens to have an awkward second date on the other side of the room, or eating slightly too fast before watching a movie.
Also: how cute is that pan?
(This bit isn’t the recipe, you can stop reading)
Anyway, I love it. Seasoned black iron from Netherton Foundry, if you’re wondering, and this is entirely enthusiasm, not sponsorship. It took me a bit to get on top of the seasoning, but now it’s better than any nonstick I have ever owned and I use it for almost everything. Strong recommend.
I feel weirder, in terms of recommendations, writing this little love letter to Nando’s.
I am not often charitable towards chain restaurants in the UK. Most of them feel like a terminally MBA-brained racket, an exercise in forcing mid-market menus through finer and finer spreadsheets until all that's left are chips and disappointment. But for some reason, perhaps because the standard elsewhere is so low, I will go to the fucking barricades for Nando's and Greggs.
They make things that taste good, and sell them at a reasonable price. You know, like the economies of scale in a chain let you do when you're not too busy paying down the interest on a leveraged private equity buyout.
I guess they got the spreadsheet right on this one. It's a solid core concept, and "piri piri chicken with sides, you pick the hot sauce", or “it’s a fucking sausage roll” doesn't really leave the management consultants with many corners to cut. I'm not saying every branch is a sensory delight. But if you absolutely must build a chain, I guess start from a premise you basically can't fuck up. I feel like Sugo in Glasgow is probably ground zero for another one of these (pasta). I’ll be curious to see how that goes.