Beef Liver and Onions

Beef liver is a budget friendly and nutrient packed kind of protein. Liver when cooked right is surprisingly tender and incredibly juicy. No more shoe leather and curly beef liver, and with all these buttery caramelized onions this recipe is sure to please.

❓ Why you'll want to make It

• A tasty classic dinner that takes only few minutes to cook.
• Budget friendly, liver is much cheaper than meat.
• Liver is a nutrient dense superfood.

My father in law seriously enjoyed this recipe as it was not chewy and easy for him to eat. He said " the texture and flavor of this liver is just right where liver should be". I will share with you a couple of tips at the end of the post so make sure to check them out.

📝 Ingredients

Note: This is an overview of the ingredients. You'll find the full measurements and instructions in the recipe card (printable) at the bottom of the page.

🥄 Instructions

Note: This is an overview of the instructions. The detailed instructions are in the recipe card below.

• Place the liver in a bowl, mix with vinegar then pour milk over. Let it soak anywhere from 30 minutes to a whole day. Take the beef liver out and pat dry with paper towels.
• Place back in the bowl and add all the spices and mix well to coat.
• In a cast iron skillet, heat oil then saute garlic for 30 seconds or until fragrant. Add the liver slices and sear on medium-high heat for about 1 ½ minute per side. Work in batches until you are done with the liver. Set aside.
• Add the remaining oil and butter and brown the onion slices on medium heat. Add the liver back then pour water/beef broth and continue cooking for 5 to 10 minutes or until just before your liking.

👍 Amira's Tips

There are a lot of advice out there to make cook tender beef liver. My favorite are:

• Use white vinegar and milk mixture to soak the beef liver. I am used to the texture, taste and smell of the liver so I soak mine for only 30 minutes and sometimes less. If you are new, it is highly recommended to soak it for up to 24 hours or at least 2 hours. I have found that soaking liver for that long takes away a lot of the flavor for my liking.
• If you are new to eating liver I would highly recommend starting with Calf liver as it is more tender with mild flavor. Chicken livers work as well.
• Specially if you are serving this to old people or little ones and do not want them to spit it in your face, you need to cut off as much as possible from the connective tissues and membrane. My beef liver had some holes with connective tissues in them so I had to cut this totally off so it will not bother them while eating.
• Regarding cooking time: It is recommended to cook liver quickly and to get it off the heat right before it is done to your liking because it continues to cook after that.

👩‍🍳 Variations

• I like using cumin with liver but you can use any spices you like, think paprika, onion powder, dried thyme, Creole seasoning and more.
• You can use all olive oil instead of butter.
• If you do not like garlic you can use garlic powder instead and skip saute the garlic step.
• Use a pinch of Cayenne pepper instead of the jalapeno pepper for some heat or skip it altogether.

🍽️ Serve With

• Cheesy Mashed Potatoes.
• Air Fryer Frozen Broccoli.
• Mediterranean Roasted Veggies.
• Green Beans Casserole.

📣 Related Recipes

• These liver sandwiches are a popular street food in Egypt. Spicy and hearty with simple spices yet bold flavor.
• This juicy Shish Kabob recipe is easy to prepare and tastes better than high-end restaurants. Beef steak marinated in a mixture of herbs and warm spices before being grilled on skewers. I've included oven instructions too.

👩‍🏫 My Personal Experience

I cannot believe I am saying this but I really liked liver when I was a little kid!! Why this is a surprise? because if you have known me for a while now, you should know that I did not like to eat a lot of stuff back then. My mom suffered a lot to feed me anything but not with beef liver. Pasta, french fried and beef liver were my favorite dinner.

Liver is so popular in the Middle East specially around Eid Al Adha . I've shared a recipe for liver sandwiches before and it is one of my husband's favorite. My mom have 3 or more liver recipes and I actually loved them all.

Organ meat is not eaten enough in the United States and they should be. If you are not familiar with eating liver make sure to check my guide here for how to start, buy and prepare liver.

My in laws liked this recipe so much and to my surprise, my little one enjoyed it and asked for more which really made me happy. Maybe he is following his mom's foot steps.

🥣 Equipment

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• Lodge cast iron skillet .

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First published Feb 21, 2020 . Last updated Aug 13, 2023 with important tips, clear step by step instructions and readability.