Beef Liver with Bacon, Onions, and Garlic
As I’ve mentioned before, I grew up eating liver and onions. Every now and then when asked what we were having for dinner my mom would say "liver and onions" and we’d all sigh. It was not our favorite dinner.
But honestly, I didn’t hate it. Perhaps I needed it, since I’ve been borderline anemic during both of my pregnancies. But even if it’s not a good steak, it is super nutrient dense and I am willing to give it a try just for the health benefits.
Yesterday I shared my five tips for cooking liver worth eating. Today I share with you the first liver recipe that my husband really liked. Liver is soaked in lemon juice and fried quickly with flavorful bacon, onions, and lots of garlic.
This is how we will be getting in our beef liver from now on.
Beef Liver with Bacon, Onions, and Garlic
Recipe Notes: This dish comes together in less than 20 minutes, despite the seemingly long list of steps. One pan, a few ingredients, and little cooking time equal a fast, nutrient dense meal. Feel free to add more bacon, I keep it on the lower side due to cost.
Ingredients
- 1 pound pastured beef liver, cut into 1/4 inch thick strips
- 1 lemon, juiced or 1-2 tablespoons vinegar
- 2 medium onions, halved and sliced thinly
- 4-6 oz pastured bacon, cut into bite sized pieces
- 8 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/3 cup lard, tallow, or coconut oil
Directions
- Place the liver strips into a bowl and barely cover with water. Add the lemon juice or vinegar and stir. Soak in the refrigerator for several hours. Just before cooking drain, pat dry and set aside.
- Fry bacon pieces in a large skillet over medium heat until fat is rendered and it begins to crisp up. Remove bacon from pan, leaving drippings, and set aside.
- Saute sliced onions in bacon grease until softened. Remove and set aside.
- At this point add enough fat to the pan to create about 1/3 cup total (including bacon grease).
- Add liver strips to the pan and allow to cook, undisturbed, over medium heat for about two minutes. Stir in minced garlic and pre-cooked onions and bacon.
- Cook for an additional two minutes or until nearly done. Be very careful not to overcook.
- Serve alongside a green salad and a vegetable or potatoes.
Your photos and writing can make even liver sound good. Your cooking is always an inspiration š
Sarah – Thanks so much you are took kind.
Hi Shannon,
Thank you so, so much for this. I’ve had some pastured beef liver in my freezer for some time, not knowing how to cook it. How long do you think it can keep in the freezer (still raw)?
Thanks again!
Shannon
Shannon M – I think liver and meats last in the freezer for at least 6 months, but don’t quote me on that one ;).
I love liver, onions, and bacon. The secret is to have the liver in relatively small pieces and then add them last and just saute them a bit but leave them quite rare – preserving nutrients. Overcooking ruins liver, making it tougher and stronger tasting, I think.
Thanks for bringing liver back! Now that there are so many hormone-free meat choices I think it will become popular again.
My mom also cooked liver and onions! I never liked liver until I lived with a Saudi Arabian family for a summer helping them learn Engilsh. They marinated liver in lime juice and then fried it. Big thick slabs of liver, not the little thin cardboard-like ones my mom cooked. I really liked it this way, and after learning to enjoy it, learned to appreciate liver and onions as well.
The lemon and bacon sound like great additions.
Shannon do you have any tips on finding good lard? I have looked at my local groceries, and the lard there seems to be full of additives…
I would like to know about good lard too. I researched this locally and found that the lard sold in stores now is hydrogenated. Why??? I can’t believe that. Lard will keep on the shelf almost forever without doing anything to it. And, you can’t find beef tallow in any store. So frustrating!!
Lard is hydrogenated to give it a longer shelf life. You can get pork fat from your local butcher or farmer (I get pastured fat) and render it yourself. It takes a bit of time to chop up all the fat and remove any meat bits but it’s worth the effort. There are lots of informative blogs and videos on how to render fat.
mmm we had chicken livers in the freezer from some farm raised chickens we bought off friends so I used them instead of beef liver. I found I just had to add some kosher salt and then it was yummy and filling. My six year old gobbled it up. the 4 year old did not, but she did manage to eat some. thanks!
I bought some liver just to try this recipe. I made liver last winter (with no clue what I was doing) and it was not turn out very tasty. It was tough and mealy. I’m looking forward to this recipe. It sounds so tasty, and I know we need to be eating more organ meats than we do currently.
I just tried your recipe as my introduction to liver, as I had been reading about it’s health benefits. I never ate it when growing up and I just assumed that liver tasted bad. Well, if everyone who ate liver used your recipe, no one would think that. That tasted amazing! I’m already looking forward to leftovers tomorrow (one nice thing about having a vegetarian husband- more meat for me!)
i have only eaten liver and onions one time and thats when i was 18. i actually liked it because he prepared it the way you did. im so glad to have found this recipe! thank you so much. i am going to try this because i live in the anemia world and its no fun. thats how i am feeling right at this moment. take care and thanks again!!
Hi tried this recipe tonight, and I’m sorry to say neither my husband or I could manage more than a few bites. Fortunately our 15month old didn’t notice and ate a decent portion! I eat veal liver with her quite a bit and enjoy that flavor, but this really tasted terrible. But, maybe there’s a lot of variation from liver to liver? I bought a 100% grass-fed/pastured cow liver from the farmer’s market, so pretty sure it was good quality. I cooked in a cast iron skillet…does anyone know if there’s any way that could create an off flavor by chance? I can’t figure out why it tasted so bad– it just tasted like we were eating Barn smell, if you know what I mean. š But the onions were tasty!
Made this recipe last night with sharptail grouse, a dark game meat with some similarity to liver. It was out of this world.
We tried this recipe a few years ago and had to search high and low to find it on the web today! We made it for lunch with bison liver. It’s a super food for our genotype and we liked the way it turned out. We used butter along with the bacon grease and served it on Basmati rice which also had butter on it. =)
I splashed a bit of Napa Valley Naturals organic balsamic vinegar on some of my portion and it was superb. I’d seen recipes that added sherry, so we may try that some time.
Thanks for the wonderful recipe!
Thank you for this. I finally know how to cook liver that I want to eat. Add bacon, why didn’t I think of that?