Gentle Chicken Liver Pâté (Once a Week)
Allergen lists cover the priority allergens in the recipe as written. Always check your own ingredient labels, and introduce each new allergen on its own first.
Ingredients
- 200 g (7 oz) fresh chicken livers, trimmed of any green or sinewy parts
- 1 small shallot (~40 g), finely chopped
- 1 small eating apple (~100 g), peeled and diced
- 20 g (1 1/2 tbsp) unsalted butter (Dairy)
- 2 tbsp whole pasteurised milk, or no-salt-added stock, to loosen (milk = Dairy)
- 1/4 tsp dried thyme
- A squeeze of lemon juice (about 1/2 tsp)
Method
- 1. Rinse the livers, pat them dry and cut away any pale sinew or greenish patches.
- 2. Melt the unsalted butter in a frying pan over medium heat and soften the shallot and apple for 5 minutes.
- 3. Add the livers and thyme. Cook for 8-10 minutes, turning often, until the livers are firm and cooked right through with NO pink centre — cut the thickest one open to check. Undercooked liver is not safe for infants.
- 4. Tip everything into a blender with the lemon juice and blend until completely smooth, adding the pasteurised milk or no-salt-added stock a teaspoon at a time until it is a soft, spreadable pâté.
- 5. Push the pâté through a fine sieve if you want a silkier texture, then cool quickly and chill within 1 hour.
- 6. Serve straight from the fridge, spread in a THIN layer — never a thick glob — on a soft carrier. A thick sticky spread can ball up at the back of the mouth. Prepare the carrier properly: steam a finger-length sweet potato or potato wedge for 15-20 minutes until it squashes easily between thumb and forefinger, or use a strip of soft low-salt toast — never a raw vegetable stick. Do not leave pâté standing at room temperature for more than 30 minutes.
- 7. Store in the fridge in a covered container and use within 2 days, or freeze in single-serving portions for up to 1 month. Do not refreeze.
- 8. Serve this pâté a MAXIMUM of once a week. If you serve it on bread or toast, choose a no-added-salt or low-salt loaf and remember that adds the Wheat allergen to the meal — Wheat is not in this recipe's own allergens list, which covers Dairy only.
How to serve by age
6–8 months
Spread a thin layer of pâté along a finger-length strip of low-salt toast or a steamed sweet potato wedge — about 8 cm long and two adult fingers wide, and soft enough to squash between thumb and forefinger — so baby can grip it in the whole fist for the palmar (whole-hand) grasp with the end sticking out to bite. Keep the layer thin: thick sticky spreads can ball up at the back of the mouth.
9–12 months
Offer 1 cm pea-sized cubes of soft low-salt toast or cooked potato, each thinly smeared with pâté, spaced out on the tray so baby lifts them one at a time with the pincer grasp (thumb + forefinger). Also let them dip a self-feeding spoon straight into the pâté.
Paediatric note
Liver is the most iron- and B12-dense food a baby can eat, but serve it a MAXIMUM of once a week: it is extremely high in preformed vitamin A (retinol), which accumulates in the body and is toxic in excess, and for the same reason liver should never be combined with a vitamin A supplement on the same day. Always cook liver right through — no pink — and use only pasteurised dairy to loosen it. The small amount of cow's milk here is cooked into the food, which is fine from 6 months; cow's milk should just not be given as a main drink before 12 months. Never offer pâté that has been sitting unrefrigerated.
Source guidance: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/weaning-and-feeding/
Save this recipe in the app
Add it to your child's recipe box, log it when you serve it and keep the allergen tracker up to date.