Chicken Livers substitute

Best substitute

Duck or turkey livers

Use the same amount by weight as the chicken livers you are replacing

Best for pate

Close match

Poultry livers from the same family, cooked exactly the same way and for the same time.

Other chicken livers substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Calf's or veal liver
Taste and texture differ
About ¾ the weight
The mildest of the red-meat livers, sold in slices or whole at good butchers.
What changes
Best for
pate, terrine, sauteing with onions, enriching ragu, sauces
Firmer and denser than chicken liver, so a pate made with it is less silky and needs more butter or cream plus a longer blend to get smooth. The flavour is more assertively irony and less sweet. Trim off the tough outer membrane, which chicken livers do not have.
3Lamb or pork liver
Different taste
About ⅔ the weight
Cheap, widely available and traditional in country terrines, faggots and rustic pates.
What changes
Best for
terrines, faggots, rustic pate, stuffings, meatloaf
Considerably stronger, more bitter and more gamey than chicken liver, so use less and expect a robust country flavour rather than a delicate parfait. Soaking the pieces in milk for an hour in the fridge tames it noticeably, and an extra splash of brandy plus a small pinch of sugar rounds off the bitterness.
4Mushroom pate (mushrooms browned hard with butter, shallot, brandy and soy)
Different taste
12 oz mushrooms replaces 8 oz chicken livers
Brown cremini or chestnut mushrooms hard until the edges crisp, deglaze with brandy, then blend with butter, shallot and soy sauce.
What changes
Best for
pate on toast, canapes, spreads, vegetarian starters, sandwich filling
The honest answer for anyone avoiding liver, and it blends to a genuinely smooth savoury spreadable paste that does the same job on toast. It tastes of mushroom and butter rather than of liver, so it is less mineral, less sweet and lighter on the palate. A teaspoon of soy, a few drops of Worcestershire and a small handful of walnuts add depth and body.
5Anchovy paste plus butter, for enriching a sauce
Taste and texture differ
1 tsp anchovy paste and 1 tbsp butter replaces 2 oz chicken livers
For recipes where a small quantity of liver was there to deepen a sauce rather than to be the dish.
What changes
Best for
Bolognese, game gravy, mushroom ragu, braises, pan sauces
Delivers the same savoury undertow that a spoonful of liver gives a sauce. It is salty and faintly fishy rather than minerally, so add it early enough to cook down and disappear, and do not salt the dish until you have tasted it. A teaspoon of miso does a similar job if you have no anchovy.
6Ready-made chicken liver pate or parfait
Close match
Use the same amount by weight of the finished product
If the recipe is simply pate and you can buy a decent one, buy it.
What changes
Best for
cheese boards, toast, sandwiches, canapes, stuffing chicken breast
Shop pate is smoother and usually milder and sweeter than homemade, which some people prefer, and it saves you the trimming. What you give up is control of the seasoning, the brandy and the salt level. Sometimes the right answer is to skip the recipe rather than the dish.

What is Chicken Livers?

Chicken Livers is Chicken livers, sometimes written chicken liver or sold with other poultry livers, are the small soft dark reddish-brown livers of chickens, prized for a rich minerally flavour with a faint sweetness and a texture that purees to silk.

Cooking tips

Trim the livers before cooking. Snip off any greenish patches, which are bile-stained and genuinely bitter, plus the pale connective threads and fatty bits. Five minutes here is the difference between a sweet pate and a bitter one.
Cook them hot and fast and stop while the centres are still faintly pink. Chicken livers go from creamy to chalky in about a minute of overcooking, and no amount of butter blends that grittiness back out afterwards.
Soak strong livers in milk. An hour in milk in the fridge draws out some of the mineral bitterness, which is worth doing with lamb, pork or beef liver and completely unnecessary with chicken or duck.
Chicken liver pate needs a lot of fat. Roughly equal weights of liver and butter is the classic ratio for something that sets sliceable and tastes silky, so if you swap in a firmer liver or mushrooms, expect to add more fat rather than less.
Liver is extremely high in vitamin A, and public health guidance in many countries advises against eating liver or liver pate during pregnancy. If you are cooking for someone pregnant, the mushroom version is the sensible choice; check current advice from your own health authority.

Frequently asked questions

What can I use instead of chicken livers in pate?

Duck or turkey livers, 1:1, are the closest by far and need no changes to the recipe. Calf's liver works at about three-quarters of the weight, though the result is denser and more strongly mineral, so add extra butter or cream and blend it longer.

Can I make pate without liver?

Yes. Mushrooms browned hard with butter, shallot, brandy and a little soy sauce blend to the same smooth spreadable texture and do the same job on toast. It tastes of mushroom rather than liver, so it is lighter and less mineral, but it is a genuinely good dish in its own right rather than a compromise.

Can I just leave the chicken livers out?

In a pate or terrine, no, because they are the whole thing. In a Bolognese, a stuffing or a gravy where they were a small enrichment, yes: replace them with a teaspoon of anchovy paste, a spoonful of miso, or a handful of hard-browned mushrooms to keep the savoury depth they were providing.

Is beef liver a good substitute for chicken liver?

It works but it is the biggest jump of any option here: much stronger, more bitter and coarser in texture. Use about two-thirds the weight, soak it in milk for an hour first, and add extra butter plus a small pinch of sugar to round the bitterness off.

How much liver do I need for pate?

About 8 oz of trimmed livers with 8 oz of butter makes a generous small terrine, enough for six to eight people as a starter. That roughly one-to-one liver-to-butter ratio is what gives pate its silky texture, so do not be tempted to cut the butter back.

Related substitutes

More meat & protein substitutes

Chicken Livers substitute

Other chicken livers substitutes

2Calf's or veal liver

3Lamb or pork liver

4Mushroom pate (mushrooms browned hard with butter, shallot, brandy and soy)

5Anchovy paste plus butter, for enriching a sauce

6Ready-made chicken liver pate or parfait